My Account
A lifetime in Warkworth has seen Peter Thompson develop a strong affinity with his environment and the community, having a family, developing a successful business and helping to revive a river along the way. Quietly-spoken but a determined team player, he is someone who finds satisfaction in shared goals and outcomes and has a passion for historic vessels that has seen him lead the charge to restore them to the Mahurangi. While not averse to the inevitable growth and change in the district, he told Adele Thackray that people in Warkworth need to keep focused on what they want from the town and be prepared to get involved with each other and Council to make it happen …..
I came to Warkworth when I was six after my Dad (Claude) said he didn’t see a future for us kids in Auckland and decided to move up and be a land agent. He was from a farming background in Opotiki and wanted to get back to the country. I have a feeling he was also influenced by the well-known poet ARD (Rex) Fairburn who also loved the north and the Mahurangi region, in particular. Warkworth is the jewel in Rodney’s crown; where else in New Zealand is there a town with a navigatable river for reasonable-sized vessels, where heritage vessels operate, with a backdrop of native bush and surrounded by beaches?
My mother, Betty, was a dental nurse from Gisborne and I was the eldest of four children, with two brothers, Simon and James, and my sister Elizabeth. Obviously Warkworth was a lot smaller then and as kids we knew everybody in the town and exactly where they lived. We often played around the riverbank catching sprats, whitebait and eels, boating and camping in Lagoon Bay. In Kapanui Street, right up to the curve of the road, there used to be piles of broken concrete where shops used to tip and burn their rubbish. The garage and engineering shop used to throw old engines and parts straight over the river bank and the old Kapanui Street butcher added his scraps down there, which made it a good place to g
From about 1958 I spent time with Dad working on the riverbank with the Warkworth Beautifying Society and well-known locals such as Athol and Ian Morrison, and Henry and Helen Phibbs, who went onto donate the bush that is the river’s permanent backdrop. I remember collecting kowhai tree seedlings that Dad would grow in the vege garden before they were planted along the river. We would also gather flax to help tidy up different areas. The riverbank has been a work in progress ever since. When I was a kid the odd scow would still come up including the Owhiti, carting butter away from the dairy factory, which was where the Riverview Plaza is now. It was in the days when trucks could only cart goods up to 60 miles from the nearest railway station. The Albertland dairy factory had had a row with the railways on price so a scow was organised to cart fertiliser up here and butter back.
Work on the riverbank was steady, although sometimes the then Warkworth Town Council saw it just as an extra cost. However, Rodney District Council was very supportive. If the people of Warkworth were prepared to raise money towards it, Council was always happy to help financially because it was getting facilities at around one-third of the cost of the normal price. In 1970, Rotary and Lions built a wharf near Kapanui Street and around 1979, a cleanfill at the end of Baxter Street was turned into a landscaped reserve by the community, now known at Lucy Moore Park. However, after the fatal Cave Creek viewing platform collapse in 1995, Council stealthily removed the wharf in the early hours one morning because it had deteriorated.
There was a big outcry and the business association had a heated meeting with then-Rodney chief executive Brian Sharplin and compliance manager Geoff Ward. While we had everyone around the table it was agreed that we should work together to do the best for the Warkworth community and we formed the Riverbank Enhancement Group. Local builders combined in a major fundraiser, building a three-bedroom house in a day. It was sold by tender and the $42,000 raised, plus Council funds, were used to start the walkway from the bridge. Other fundraising ranged from the longest dinner to the selling and naming of planks and piles. Anyone could be part of the process and the result was a project that belonged to Warkworth. That sense of ownership is really important.
I kept wanting to get back on the river and I talked to Alan Brimblecombe, who already had a steamboat there. I got a hull that was built in Dargaville in 1926, acquired a now 111-year-old steam engine, built a boiler and then built the boat, naming it Kapanui after one of the old steamers that used to operate on the river, but I still wanted something larger to carry more passengers. I knew the Jane Gifford had worked on the Mahurangi in the 1920s and 30s and that she was on the hardstand at Okahu Bay for a rebuild. After watching her demise for about five years, it was time to pounce and in 2005 I teamed up with Hugh Gladwell to form the Jane Gifford Restoration Trust. We rallied some local troops and transported ‘The Jane’ to Warkworth. Funding the restoration was tough, but $250,000 from Pub Charities turned the whole project around and numerous other funding institutions, service groups and individuals made major contributions, often anonymously. It’s been another great community achievement and although the Jane Gifford is on the river and operating, she’s not quite complete and funds are still needed to make her a fully authentic working scow. Going ahead, the river is also going to require ongoing work and maintenance, and the only sound way forward is a community/Council partnership, using Council funds so locals can operate equipment and carry out necessary dredging.
Warkworth’s been a good place to live and raise a family. From Mahurangi College, I did a carpenter’s apprenticeship with Ellis Wyatt, the biggest builder in the area at the time. Around 1974, I teamed up with my brother James and we diversified into concrete piping, concrete contracting, crane hire and transport. Concrete tilt slabs were a speciality and between the concrete and cranes, we’ve had a hand in a lot of buildings around here. I met my wife Jan when she was a public health nurse. We have two sons – Kent, who owns specialist high performance car company Speed Source in Warkworth and Ewen, a professional cricketer, Black Cap and now cricket coach.
Planning for Warkworth’s future is very important, including careful positioning of bulk retail centres so that the township keeps its village feel. As businesspeople and residents, we need to work with local councillors and speak up for what we want. If local contractors and businesses don’t get work because it all goes to large out-of-town operators, they won’t have a percentage to give back to the community and it will end up costing Auckland City and Warkworth people in the long-term.
