The Cave Creek Tragedy

There is something that lies in the collective psyche of everyone I work with, of everyone who works for the Department of Conservation (DOC). It shapes the way DOC operates, the way people view their work, the way safety consciousness permeates the agency. I speak of the memory of Cave Creek, a national tragedy that took place in 1995 at Paparoa National Park, just up the road from where I now work. Fourteen people – 13 Outdoor Recreation students and a DOC employee – died with the collapse of a viewing platform hanging out over a cliff overlooking Cave Creek.

Several of the people I work with worked for DOC then and nearly everyone knows someone affected directly by the disaster. In a country where any murder or kidnapping makes national headlines, the scope of this tragedy was huge - leaving the name Cave Creek in everyone's memory.

Even before I arrived here to begin my new job, I’d heard about Cave Creek several times. One of the managers from Portland Parks & Recreation – originally from Australia – had been part of an international group of park managers reviewing what had happened to help learn the lessons of Cave Creek. I heard more about it over dinner with my boss my first night in country, and again over beers with my new co-workers the Friday before I started work. It’s not a raw memory shared with tears, but it’s definitely high in the collective conscious.

Acting on the lessons learned DOC developed a comprehensive system of managing all the ‘visitor assets’ throughout the country, ranging from more rigorous inventorying and inspection for safety, to standardising features. Every bridge, sign, kiosk, platform, toilet, hut, raised walkway – every single human-built structure has been inventoried, tagged and evaluated to determine its condition and its lifespan. Each is regularly inspected by staff, as well as checked by a DOC engineer.

Beyond the engineered structures, standards were developed for assets such as tracks (trails), campsites and huts, based on studies of the people using them and the services they might expect. For example there are three categories of campground: basic, standard or serviced, each with its own set of standards that must be met. The variety of types of tracks is wider, ranging from short stop walks to unmaintained backcountry routes with markers every 50 metres. All of these have been inventoried, assigned a certain category, and are slowly being brought up to the new standards. Most have been minimally maintained all along, but many have suffered from some neglect, as attention was paid to inventorying and maintaining the built structures.

Now, new money has been set aside to upgrade some of the areas that have been neglected for some time. It is to help with planning and implementing projects such as these that I was hired.

Here are a few websites that discuss the details of Cave Creek:

The DOC website.

The Christchurch Library’s website.