'Aorere, Our River Our future' is a booklet published to celebrate the success of the project. It is available to download from the link below. Please note the file is 3.3MB - best suited to broadband access.

09-07-09: Aorere community take pride in improved water quality...

The 'Aorere Catchment Group' hosted a celebration of water quality enhancement with a wide audience on Friday 26th June. The 'dairy farmer-driven' project has been pivotal in raising awareness of water quality issues. 

NZ Landcare Trust Project Coordinator Gretchen Robertson said “We wanted to celebrate the reestablishment of pride in this community. We want to ensure tourism, recreation, biodiversity and farming can all thrive. It is wonderful to see all sectors of the community getting involved, making a difference and having fun together doing it”.

Friday’s event attracted over 70 attendees with dairy farming, marine farming, Collingwood Area School, Golden Bay Streamcare Group, Fonterra, DairyNZ, Fish and Game, Tasman District Council, and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry representation. 

Minister for the Environment Dr Nick Smith and Green MP Kevin Hague attended the celebration and heard community presentations on the project’s approach. Both MPs agreed the project offers a successful model with national applicability. They support the collaborative governance approach taken to sustaining farming and a high quality environment. Dr Nick Smith said “I will ensure this project is promoted far and wide as it is a model of what we need to happen in communities throughout the country”. 

Project member Sue Brown said “Our story is about dairy farmers taking ownership of our environmental performance and seeing it as an integral part of the future business success, not just a compliance issue”.

The success of the project was reflected in the Deputy Director General of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s announcement of a further $259,000 grant over 3 years. The next step is to continue practical on-farm advice offering farm plans to reduce E. coli. 

The group will also share their ‘farmers as leaders’ approach with other Upper South Island dairy communities including the Rai Valley, where bathing closures due to poor water quality occurred over summer. 

Minister for the Environment, Dr. Nick Smith congratulates the Aorere community.

Attendees join in the celebrations.

Project member Michelle Riley believed the approach was transferable to other catchments and said “Farming communities are full of talent but often spoken down to. Dairy farmers need to earn back lost respect, build collaborative networks and move past emotion through engaging in high quality discussion supported by science”.

The project was established in 2006 with funding support from the Sustainable Farming Fund and NZ Landcare Trust project coordination. At the time friction between marine and dairy farmers was high. Collingwood marine farm harvest rates had been as low as 28% due to E. coli contamination of coastal waters. Today a harvest rate of 79% has been attained. Marine farming spokesperson, Bill Wallace said “the Aorere dairy community have certainly earned our respect”.