Eastbourne

Eastbourne is a suburb of Lower Hutt, near Wellington. Its population of around 10,000 people is scattered along pockets of flat land next to steep hills in small bays. There is a single access road adjacent to the coastline.

For centuries Māori occupied Kāinga in the sheltered bays, and more substantial Pā on the headlands. Pā sites include Ngāmatau (Point Howard) and Oruamatoro (Days Bay), as well as Matuaiwi and Korohiwa, to the north and south of what is now Eastbourne. These pā were essential because the nearby Remutaka Range was the boundary between the Ngāti Kahungunu tribe in the Wairarapa and the tribes of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour). Frequent raids on the area meant Māori were always vigilant.

When Europeans arrived, they instituted a track around the coast from the Hutt Valley to the Wairarapa. Access got easier after the land rose around 2 metres in the 1855 earthquake. After this, the eastern bays became Wellington’s ‘seaside playground’. Eastbourne was depicted in Katherine Mansfield’s short story ‘At the Bay’, which recalled her childhood summer holidays at Muritai.

There are historic photographs showing the old seawall in Eastbourne itself, which is now set back around 50 metres from the coastline. This is because a lot of sediment that was produced during the 1855 earthquake has subsequently washed down the coast and caused the beach to march out towards the sea. This was helped by engineering groins that captured this sediment.

So that part of Eastbourne is relatively isolated from the impacts of sea level rise. However, three kilometres down the road to the north the land is subsiding, and the road is in trouble. This shows how dynamic the coastline is and how variable the response needs to be.

Eastbourne’s single winding road access is directly behind the foreshore. The coastal road is mostly less than 1m above the high tide mark and the residential land beyond is mostly at least 1.5m above the current sea level. High tide laps up against the wall and then there's the road and houses right against the other side of the road. And so that's completely exposed to the impact of sea level rise. 

Twenty years ago the coastal road was affected by one or two events causing temporary closure each year. Now there are five or six and the closures last longer (up to a day) and cost more to repair.

Under the road is part of the water supply pipe system for the suburb, and the treated wastewater pipe for disposal to the sea beyond the end of the road. Parts of the road are behind hard protection structures, but others are on bedrock or behind beaches, small reclamations, or dunes. On the landward side of the road, there are a number of steep headlands prone to slips.

The majority of residential land is near the furthest extent of the road, where there is mostly flat land. There is a small commercial area and scattered cafes and small businesses. Eastbourne and Bays are commuter suburbs, and the population is either retired or commutes daily. Most commuting is by road to Wellington and the Hutt Valley and one of the settlement’s three wharfs (at Days Bay) is used by a commuter ferry to Wellington.

Beyond the low-lying residential areas, land rises steeply, protected by bush behind the suburb which is part of a regional park. There is considerable private land between the already-developed areas and the regional park, but it is steep, bush-clad, and prone to slips, as well as having high recognized landscape value. Some of this land continues to be subdivided and build on.