History lesson: This 1860s photo of Queenstown Bay shows the natural low level of Lake Wakatipu

It’s nearly nine years since the 1999 flood. Now Otago Regional Council tell us their six years of investigation prove that a kilometre-long gravel extraction programme will provide a left-hand side channel on the Shotover River.

The work will ensure future flood levels are no worse than in 1999. Yeah, right.

ORC has been hanging upside down like bats for nearly nine years. They further demean any quality of professional standards by proclaiming belatedly that they’ve identified that the Shotover has a big impact on how quickly flooding recedes. Yeah right.

Why’s it taken ORC nine years to learn that? Are they slow learners or, like Paul, have they had a conversion on the road to Damascus?

They’ve certainly – like Paul before becoming a disciple – been blinded. Why don’t they come clean and state the unequivocal facts?

I’ll give you my simple layman’s perspective.

I don’t know if it’s happenstance, coincidence, manna from heaven or a marriage of convenience but what’s broken a decade-long arm wrestle or worked the oracle is: 

• Queenstown Lakes District Council’s need to secure a vast amount of gravel to build Queenstown Airport’s runway safety extension 
• And a similar gravel resource requirement for with the proposed sewerage treatment plant.

My guess is that QLDC and ORC have joined forces in a co-operative approach in order to blunt naysayers on the extreme fringe of the environment lobby.

A lobby which, during difficult economic times with high energy costs, has considerably less clout – and thank goodness for that.

Personally, I’m in favour of the Shotover Delta work. It’s probably unavoidable and will cost plenty. I just don’t like being conned by ORC.

My recollections of meetings after the 1999 flood – attended by the three mayors through whose districts the mighty Clutha flows, together with ORC – are very clear.

The talks were a classic example of an absolutely obdurate ORC indulging in bureaucratic stonewalling. A series of fruitless and frustrating meetings – in sum total, a tedious waste of time.

Obviously, the Clutha and Central Otago District Councils were fearful of any flood mitigation efforts in the Wakatipu which might exacerbate flood risks downstream.

In consequence, ORC dumbed down the whole issue, virtually parking it in the too-hard basket.

We now witness a re-run of the ORC’s year 2000 dialogue: “No flood in the future will be any worse than 1999.” Crystal-ball gazers.

In 1927, the Kawarau Falls bridge was opened. Floodgates on the bridge were designed to hold back the water flowing from the lake. The attempt to retrieve gold from the river was an abject failure – in total only 78 ounces were won.

Queenstown, however, gained a free bridge.

A horizontal sill to hold the gates tight down was necessary. Prior to construction, rock abutments and small rock islands were blown away. Schist rock and concrete were used to fill two large river channels.

Thus Lake Wakatipu became a controlled body of water. Early photos show a lower lake prior to the construction of the bridge dam.

The replacement of the Kawarau Falls bridge provides an opportunity to lower the sills between the piers, thus providing a larger reservoir to blunt the extremes of heavy rainfall in Lake Wakatipu’s headwaters.

A scenario beyond the comprehension of ORC.

But engineers are very cautious people. They wake in the middle of the night and worry that if they don’t put more steel in the foundations, they won’t go to heaven.

For my part, I now advocate the abolition of all district, city and regional councils – to make way for unitary councils throughout New Zealand.

One-stop-shops for local government are required to prevent such vexatious frustration as Queenstown and most other places in the country are suffering right now.