A Green Flag Award for Te Auaunga – an exemplar of blue-green infrastructure

Walmsley and Underwood Reserves, the green spaces that surround the restored Te Auaunga Oakley Creek have been recognised with a 2023 Green Flag Award.

A Green Flag is an international mark of quality for parks and green spaces, and the award scheme assesses parks on criteria such as quality of services, safety, maintenance, community involvement and sustainability.

The 2019 stream restoration, which grew out of the broader Waterview Connection project, was a response to reduce the flood risk and enable intensification and higher-density affordable housing in the Mt Roskill area. Boffa Miskell was the Design Lead in a team with AECOM NZ for planning, consent, and design. We were also the project landscape architect, ecologists, and streamwork designer.

An Auckland Council Healthy Waters project, the Te Auaunga restoration naturalised Auckland’s longest urban stream, returning it back to its natural state and providing ecological habitat for plants and animals, and recreational spaces for the community to enjoy.

Te Auaunga is a much-awarded early exemplar of an ‘integrated blue-green’ approach to development – an environmental design strategy that is expected to be increasingly important and seen more frequently across Auckland in response to climate change.

 Since completion in 2019, Te Auaunga has won numerous awards for sustainability and environmental impact.