What's the plan QLDC?

Lodge owner John Glover wants to know the long-term plan for the vulnerable Kinloch Road, near Glenorchy.

A 50-metre section of the road was washed away by the Dart River on Saturday, 9 November, following heavy rain, leaving dozens of people stranded, including guests at the Kinloch Wilderness Retreat. It also claimed a rental SUV, which had been abandoned by tourists after, somewhat ironically, becoming grounded on the other side of the road after the driver manoeuvred away from the river.

The only access was by boat until contractors, working for Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC), cut a temporary road through a paddock on Woodbine Station.

Well-known local Glover runs the lodge with wife Toni, and is one of the volunteers behind community group Shaping Our Future. Scores of people and businesses rely on the road for access, he says, as it connects to the Greenstone / Caples and Routeburn trail heads. That includes everyone from trail guiding companies, such as Ultimate Hikes, to film crews, fly fishing guides, station owners, farmers, hunters, power companies, and emergency services and SAR.

"Everyone talks about resilience and support for local small communities," Glover says. "We've had discussions with council since 2016, recognising that the road is always going to vulnerable, and what are the plan Bs.

"As recently as 2000, there was $300k in a budget to put a new jetty, south of Kinloch, because at the moment there's no safe and ready means of getting people on and off boats on this side of the lake. So, even if there are a couple of fishing boats over in Glenorchy, they can't actually land on the beach because of the type of boat they are. They need a wharf to come alongside.

"If there was a plan B, it would take a lot of pressure off, because they'd be access when the road is washed out."

Various sections of the road have been impassble in recent years, when the water level rises on the braided Dart River.

Glover criticised the council's response to the latest wash out. He says QLDC was aware of the risk weeks before the road washed out, about 2km away from the lodge. Local contractors and stones were available to shore up the road, but the council failed to act and didn't close the road until it was too late.

QLDC and its roading network contractor Downer were working on installing additional rock armouring for this section of the road following erosion caused by heavy rainfall in late October, a QLDC spokesperson says.

"The work required careful planning and securing access to suitable rock. Unfortunately, given those factors and the number of other issues the team were responding to following an unusually wet spring, we weren’t able to carry out the work prior to this latest weather event."

And QLDC isn't offering any plan B. "Kinloch Road is a known vulnerability in the district’s roading network," the spokesperson says. "However, there are no current proposals for an alternative or backup over and above maintenance and improvement work like the rock armouring mentioned above."

Glover says he's concerned what that might mean if there's a huge weather event, while many people are on the trails or camping at that side of Lake Wakatipu, especially as there is little to no phone reception in places. Even last week, the lodge acted as a makeshift emergency centre, taking dozens of phone calls and helping people make it out.

QLDC admits it was challenging to keep track of all the people stranded last week, as they arrived and departed by their own different methods, and thanked the Glovers for their help.

"In more extreme cases, declaring a state of emergency (as was the case during the Bob Peak slip) would enable organisations involved in the response via the established emergency management structure to requisition any additional resources required over and above what it already has access to. In the context of Kinloch Road, this could include contracting local boating and bus operators to support anyone who requires transport away from an affected area."

Glover thanks the owners of Woodbine Station for allowing the temporary road across their land, which has enabled a much quicker access solution.