Source: Radio New Zealand
By Jeremy Parkinson, First Up Producer
The Auckland Anniversary floods of January 2023 devastated much of the North Shore’s Wairau Valley. Particularly badly hit were the suburbs of Milford, Sunnynook, Forrest Hill, and Totara Vale. In Milford alone, 150 houses were classified as Category 3, land now considered to be too dangerous to live on.
Three years later, the community is working together to redesign the increasingly empty streets, and to turn the Wairau creek catchment into something that locals will treasure rather than fear.
Before the 1960s, flooding was common along Milford’s Nile Road. Two major floods, in 1928 and 1953, prompted the former Takapuna City Council to seek ways to tame the creek that drains the Wairau Valley.
A flooded property in January 2023. Supplied / Sean D’Souza
Longtime resident Sean D’Souza, who lives near Nile Road, said he understood much of the area “was always muddy, always filled with water”, before modern development.
In the mid-1960s, a network of concrete stormwater culverts was built to channel water parallel to Wairau Road. The system begins near the Northern Motorway north of Tristram Avenue and winds down through the valley toward Milford, where Wairau Creek meets its outlet near the shops two kilometres away. The construction appeared to solve flooding problems and opened the area to commercial and residential expansion.
On Auckland Anniversary Day 2023, the city endured a record deluge of around 245 millimetres in 24 hours. The Wairau culvert system from Target Road through to Milford was overwhelmed. Floodwaters surged through homes, businesses, and properties. Two men lost their lives, and more than 250 homes across the Wairau Valley and nearby suburbs were red or yellow stickered as unsafe.
Supplied / Sean D’Souza
By late 2025, over 150 properties in Milford had been purchased by Auckland Council. Roughly 45 Category 3 houses had already been removed or demolished, leaving wide stretches of cleared land where neighbourhoods once stood.
The Milford Residents Association, led by co-chair Debbie Dunsford, consulted locals about the future of the cleared areas.
“We’ve probably spoken to or engaged with about 500 people over some months last year, and quite a few themes have come out, and the big one is the idea of a blue-green network with paths and cycleway and little bits of park and community activities running alongside or close to the stream,” Dunsford said.
Locals envisioned an interconnected corridor that improved safety while enhancing the area’s liveability.
The scene three years ago. Supplied / Sean D’Souza
In a statement to First Up, Auckland Council’s group recovery manager, Mace Ward, said the approach was about recovery and redesign, not merely repair.
“What we’re doing in Milford is about making the area safer from future flooding and creating a place the community can enjoy and feel proud of,” he said.
Some of the Category 3 land was expected to become part of a blue-green network to allow water to flow more naturally during heavy rain, framed by public green spaces.
The Ngā Wairau Flood Resilience Project, the council’s long-term plan, would be delivered in phases. The first stage involves reshaping nearby parkland, which is currently the home to the Takapuna Golf Course, to store floodwaters diverted from the Wairau culvert system, reducing pressure on the main channel.
Work is due to begin in 2027, with funding in place both for phase one of the project and for the property removals in the Wairau catchment.
Supplied / Sean D’Souza
Uncertainty over future
For residents still living near the creek, uncertainty remained. Large tracts of bare land were now scattered through Milford and the valley. Some wondered if rebuilding could occur on higher ground once flood mitigation was complete, while others urged caution.
“Well, I hope there’s no building there, because if flooding happens again, something has to go higher. But if replacements are built at higher elevations, that makes sense,” said D’Souza.
He believed significant engineering work was needed to widen and strengthen the waterway. “If they don’t open it up or find more room for water to get through, it’s going to come onto properties. Water is unstoppable.”
Supplied / Sean D’Souza
Still, he favoured patience over haste. “It’s not going to flood every day, it’s not going to flood every year, I don’t see the need to rush through the decision making. But there needs to be clarity.”
The council still seemed to be figuring out what to do, he added.
Neighbouring resident Graeme Treeby agreed the future vision was promising, though funding remained uncertain. “I’m kind of more excited about perhaps the bolder plan of widening the creek, of having walkways and cycleways along there as far as it will go,” he said.
Despite some frustration about slow progress, optimism persisted that something positive could emerge from the devastation. Dunsford, representing the Milford Residents Association, believed the transformation could ultimately enhance local life.
“There will be an opportunity to have open space that the public can use on a daily basis and the sort of recreation of that stream, a naturalised stream we are hoping for and something that does become a local treasure.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
