Dr. Adah Platts-Mills Reserve

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This scenic reserve with its cascading watercourse and timeless atmosphere is a gem amongst all the public reserves in the Auckland area. It is cared for by our city, in partnership, with the Friends of Platts-Mills, a care group of local residents.

Ongoing restorative activities include:

Weed management
Pest control
Removal of rubbish and man-made structures
Replanting riparian areas to restore health to the stream (with the help of pupils from Maraetai Beach School)
Monitoring of plant, fish, and bird life
Public education around this work, the history of the area, and on matters relating to the plant, bird, and fish species for which this reserve provides a sanctuary.

Who was Dr. Adah Platts-Mills?
How can you help?
Plant list
Fish list

Who was Dr. Adah Platts-Mills?

Dr. Platts-Mills (1904 – 2000) graduated from Otago Medical School in 1931. She came to Maaretai in 1953 where she had a medical practice in her home surgery at 51 Rewa Rd, for the next 47 years. She was appointed Auckland Officer of Health in 1948 and worked to upgrade sewerage disposal practices. She was an early advocate of alternative medicine as well as passionate environmentalist. An avid horsewoman, she rented several plots of land which she called the Pony Parks, bought old horses and taught local children to ride and take care of them. She founded the Beachlands/Maraetai Pony Club in 1958. Manukau City bought the 12.5 hectare bush valley from her for a scenic reserve in 1988.

How can you help?

Keep your dog on the leash and don’t allow it in the stream where it can disturb delicate stream edge fern re-growth and the fragile native fish environment.
Ride your bikes on paved areas rather than in the reserve. Riding over the natural paths damages roots and creates grooves which turn into water courses during rain. This further inhibits the growth of seedlings needed to maintain path stability. It is our aim to keep the reserve in as natural a state as possible by avoiding having to build stairs and timber walkway structures.

Discourage children from building activities and other forms of play which interfere with the natural re-growth of the understory and the stability of the soils.
Find alternative ways to dispose of weedy materials from your adjacent property.
Undertake pest control on your adjacent property.

If you live close to the reserve, reconsider your need for a feline pet. When your dear old cat dies, don’t replace him with a younger more capable hunting cat.
Join the Friends of Platts-Mills and help with various care tasks.
(Contact Anna on 536 4994 or Grant on 536 5001)

Kaka (Nestor meridionalis)

Kaka visit the reserve to forage for food. They feed on fruits, berries, seeds, flowers, buds, nectar and invertebrates. It is hoped that they will nest here. Visit www.kakawatchnz.org to learn more about kaka or report sightings to their database.

Kaka are regular visitors to the area

Photo of a Kaka.
(Photo - Suzy Phillips)

Plant list

Compiled 21 February 2007 by Mike Wilcox for the Auckland Botanical Society:
The forest has a canopy height of. c. 22 m, dominated by taraire, together with kohekohe, tawa, karaka, mamangi, white maire, and puriri. Kanuka with and understorey of mapou is a feature of the upper slopes, and several fine kauri can be found here. Collospermum hastatum is the principal epiphyte and it abounds in the upper branches of taraire and puriri. The fern flora includes one specimen of Dicksonia fibrosa – an unusual occurrence of this tree fern in Auckland, where it is otherwise confined to cooler, damper sites at higher altitude, e.g., in the Waitakere Ranges.

Ferns & fern allies

Dicksonia fibrosa (wheki-ponga) is a rare occurrence in low altitude coastal bush

Dicksonia Fibrosa.
(Photo – John Rugis)