Rubbish, cars and campsites left at 'shanty town' freedom camping spot in Takaka

Thursday, 25 May 2017

A makeshift campsite near a river in Golden Bay has been abandoned by those who lived there, leaving behind piles of rubbish.

Cars and campsites have been abandoned at a popular freedom camping spot in Golden Bay as illegal campers clear out for the winter, leaving piles of rubbish behind.

Dozens of campsites and self-made structures have been abandoned in the rubbish-strewn bush along the riverbank at Reilly St, located behind the Takaka Memorial Library.

Residents are concerned the area is being turned into a 'shanty town' and one has called for a community meeting to take action.

Leander Rose, 18, sits at his campsite where he lives on the edge of the riverbank.

Laura Manson said she saw the issue as a larger social problem.

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Piles of rubbish in the forest along the riverbank.

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'It's similar to the reasons for shanty towns throughout the world, they are mostly economic reasons,' she said.

Piles of rubbish and recycling abandoned at a campsite in the bush along the riverbank.

'Council should call a community meeting and we should have police, mental health and community workers present, because I think we have a social problem on our hands, which is bigger than the individuals living there.'

Manson said we shouldn't underestimate the effects of substance abuse, mental health, and people's past traumas.

'There are other reasons people drop out of society than just being freeloaders — I'd like the solution to bring our community together, rather than divisive and hurtful like it has been.'

The area has been occupied by up to 400 illegal campers a night during the summer sleeping in their cars and tents along the riverbank, in the carpark, and along the side of the road.

An old campsite where someone is apparently living.

Another group, known as the River Tribe, have also been living permanently along the riverbank in self-made structures, tents and tree huts.

They claim to be grass-roots revolutionaries living in harmony with nature.

Self-made structures and piles of rubbish abandoned. When Stuff visited on Tuesday, this campsite had just had a new camper move into it the day before.

When Stuff visited on Tuesday, there were dozens of rubbish piles littered throughout the bush and three abandoned cars, including one with all its windows smashed in.

Two of the cars had been blocked in by the gate and a rock wall the Tasman District Council erected in April as a solution to the problem of people staying at Reilly St.

At least 12 campsites in the bush appeared to have been abandoned.

However, 18-year-old River Tribe occupant from Germany, Leander Rose, said there were actually 11 people living there, and only about 4 campsites had been abandoned.

Rose said he moved into the River Tribe about six weeks ago, right after a big flood cleared many of the former occupants out.

'There was basically no warning and then the big flood came and everybody was scrambling,' he said.

'A lot of people's stuff was flooded away and after that a lot of people had to go to carpark and stay there because they didn't have anywhere to live. After that, another flood took a bunch of stuff and that really 'sieved' people out.'

Rose said people had just walked out after the flood, leaving all their belongings.

There were still new campers arriving and moving into abandoned campsites and building new structures out of the old materials.

'Everybody who comes here can build their own shelter out of what's left,' he said. 'We are definitely producing way less trash than people in town.'

Rose said Takaka was known as 'Stuck-aka' to the River Tribe because 'everybody gets stuck here'.

'The spirit of the forest and the people who come here is very special. We all understand that living in the forest means not living inside the system.'

Residents and business owners frustrated with the mess at Reilly St installed compost toilets, portaloos, signage and recycling bins over summer.

Golden Bay resident Sebastian Roberts organised a community working bee for this Sunday to tidy up the area.

'Just want to tidy up the land peacefully and not taking any bias. Plain and simple,' he said.

However, Rose said 'they should really take care they don't clean up people's homes'.

The campers were 'poor travellers' who couldn't afford to buy the expensive council rubbish bags. However, if the council supplied them with bags they would clean up the mess, he said.

Tasman District Council spokesperson Chris Choat said it was making arrangements for the cars to be removed and provide Roberts with a key to the gate.

'If there is rubbish to be removed we will not be charging Sebastian's group for the disposal at the RRC.'

He said the landowner, dairy farmer David Rose, could call the police and trespass the illegal campers if he was concerned.

However, Rose said there was still a difference of legal opinion about who owned the land.

'Our lawyers say that we don't have title to it. They have just started talking directly to council about it.'

If it was found to be Rose's land, he said the responsibility to move them off would fall on him.

'If there is still any legal argument about land ownership, the police don't want to be involved anyway.'