Daily Photo – The Aramoana Boardwalk and Saltmarsh

I was aiming for the Aramoana Boardwalk, the start of which I found at the local domain. In a matter of minutes, it took me through the Aramoana Ecological Area, with its native dunes and saltmarsh vegetation, to a viewing platform that sat over the wetlands. If ever there’s a place with too much history for its size, it’s Aramoana. A tiny village that has been the site of a massive industrial war, a national tragedy, and a silent ecological victory.

I stood on the platform and tried to imagine what the place would have looked like if the Aramoana aluminium smelter project from the 1970s had gone ahead. It would have been an unthinkable tragedy to build such a monstrosity of industry in such a lovely place. My eyes drifted from the ghost of the failed aluminium smelter to the memories that silently linger from the Aramoana massacre in the early 1990s, when an unemployed resident shot and killed 13 people before he too was shot dead by police. Standing on the platform, I looked in the other direction, to where the birdlife was flourishing in the quiet beauty of the surrounding tidal flats, one of the most important habitats for wading birds in Otago, yet entirely unaware of the horrific tragedies that had once occurred. I could help but compare the contrast between the effects of human activity and the natural environment, as the clouds passed overhead it seemed a lot to take in.  

From the boardwalk, I ventured past the memorial that stands for the 1990 tragedy and, in the ringing silence, read the names that live on in people’s memories. I drove out to where the mole, or breakwater, sits, stretching out into the sea, continuously battered by the hypnotic rhythm of the waves. On any given day, a walk along the mole or the beach can result in spotting wildlife that ranges from the usual population of birdlife to penguins, seals and sea lions. 

I didn’t have time to walk out along the mole or along the beach. So, I stood in the light breeze for a few minutes, returned to my car, and left Aramoana behind, a place that has earned its right to be left in peace.