About us

Our History

The Friends of Waiwhetū Stream community group evolved from the Waiwhetū Stream Action Group (WSAG). Set up about 12 years ago,  WSAG began as a community group concerned about the ecological health of Waiwhetū Stream. By 2009, chaired by Les Roberts of IRL, the focus had become the removal of contaminated sediment from Bell Rd south, and the group had become dominated by representatives from Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), Hutt City Council (HCC), Capacity, elected Councillors and others.

In May 2011, Alistair Allan of the Flood Protection Group, GWRC, called a meeting to elect a Chair for a new community group to be called Friends of  Waiwhetū Stream. A small number of local residents were present at this meeting, and after a summary of the activities of WSAG, Merilyn Merrett was elected to the Chair position and Michael Ellis agreed to be Deputy Chair. Those residents invited to this meeting had shown an interest in becoming involved in a community group as a result of a series of public meetings held by GWRC in 2010 about the Floodplain Management Plan for Waiwhetū Stream.
Subsequent to this meeting, and at a series of local meetings about the re-forming of a community group, interested people volunteered to be on the committee. At the first committee meeting early in June 2011, it was agreed that the community group be renamed Friends of Waiwhetū Stream.

A successful public meeting was held later in June that showed support for the establishment of Friends of Waiwhetū Stream as a community group concerned about the ecological health and amenity value of Waiwhetū Stream. Well-supported planting days in July and August showed that the community was prepared to support Friends of Waiwhetū Stream activities.

In November 2011, the inaugural Annual General Meeting was held to formalise Friends of Waiwhetū Stream, a Terms of Reference was adopted and a committee was elected.