Is Public Access Lost To Rivers As They Move?

• Published date: 08 November 2023
• Publication title: West Coast Farming Times, The

If you look closely at maps showing public access areas overlain onto aerial images, you will see many instances where public access follows the water course as it was many decades ago. The bed of the river or creek has moved due to gradual erosion with the normal flow of water or through storm events and the huge power of flood water. The public access remains within those parcels of land but access to the river may be lost

Two types of water margin access move with the water boundary to ensure access endures into the future. These are marginal strips established on or after 10 April 1990, and esplanade strips. If the river moves its position, whether eroded, often on the outside of a bend, or accreted or added to, often on the inside of a bend, access remains.

If the Crown disposes of land where there is a waterway at least 3m wide, a strip of land 20m wide will be retained along the margin of the waterbody. The rules were changed in 1990, when it was recognised that rivers move! Perhaps the government officials of the day should have spent a bit more time on the West Coast! They finally realised that 'marginal strips' were being lost to erosion and instead should follow the edge of the bank of the creek or river.

This makes it easier for the public to identify but potentially trickier for the owner of the adjacent land.

All marginal strips are managed by the Department of Conservation for conservation and for access. The type of marginal strip, whether fixed or moveable, can be found on our maps by clicking on the area. For example, the Nine Mile Creek/Kotorepi inland of the state highway north of Greymouth has a moveable marginal strip on either side of the creek up to the historic Strongman...