chch.live the buried city

The buried city

Before the tip became sanitary, Christchurch tipped into its own ground, 63 recorded dumps, pits and filled sections in the council’s own layer, about 432 hectares of made land. Most are parks and school yards now. The oldest on the books opened in 1880.

Recorded dumps
63
Filled ground
432 ha
Earliest opening
1880
Parks & school grounds
14
by name, on the record

Where the city tipped

AddingtonAidanfieldAkaroaAranuiAvondaleAvonheadAvonsideBeckenhamBelfastBexleyBishopdaleBottle LakeBromleyBrooklandsBroomfieldBryndwrBurnsideBurwoodCasebrookCashmereCass BayChristchurch AirportChristchurch Central CityCliftonCorsair BayCoutts IslandCracroftDallingtonDiamond HarbourDuvauchelleEdgewareFendaltonFerrymeadGovernors BayHalswellHarewoodHeathcote ValleyHei HeiHillmortonHillsboroughHoon HayHornbyHornby SouthHuntsburyIlamIslingtonKaingaKennedys BushLe Bons BayLinwoodLittle RiverLytteltonMairehauMarshlandMcLeans IslandMerivaleMiddletonMoncks BayMount PleasantNew BrightonNorth New BrightonNorthcoteNorthwoodOkains BayOpawaOuruhiaPAPANUIParklandsPhillipstownPigeon BayPort LevyPrebbletonRedcliffsRedwoodRiccartonRichmondRichmond HillRollestonRussleySaint AlbansSaint MartinsScarboroughShirleySockburnSomerfieldSouth New BrightonSouthshoreSpencervilleSpreydonStrowanSumnerSydenhamTai Tapute-onepoto-taylors-mistakeTempletonUpper RiccartonWaimairi BeachWainoniWainuiWalthamWestmorlandWigramWoolstonYaldhurstWaltham Park, 1880–1921Bromley Cemetery, 1891–1903Burwood Park, 1899–1923Sandhills Reserve, 1903–1923Woolston Park, 1909–1912Spreydon Domain, 1909–1930Centannial Park, 1915–1947Hansen Park, 1936–1955rubbish dump, organic rubbish, glass, bricks, ?–1939Old Paparua dump, Kyle Park library and pool panned, 1944–1981Centaurus Rd, ?–1945Miners Road Pits, ?–1950McCormacks Bay South end, ?–1950Horseshoe Lake, 1955–1959Bexley Landfill, 1956–1984Allandale, 1960–1993Carrs Road, 1961–1978Sawyers Arms Rd, 1962–1986Sandy Point, ?–1965Shipleys Pit? Owned by Harewood piggeries & operation was ta, 1968–1983Halswell Junction Rd and Springs Rd, 1970–1980East Truscotts Rd, ?–1979West Truscotts Rd, 1979–1988Bridle Path Rd, ?–1984Barrys Bay, ?–1995Birdlings Flat, ?–1995Gollans Bay Landfill, ?–1995organic rubbish, channel sludgeMiners Road PitsMid Wigram RdOwaka PitOwaka PitPound Rd 2Pound Rd 2Pound Rd 3Springs RdBurwood MSW Landfill

Every recorded landfill footprint the council keeps, over the suburb outlines: hover for the site’s own name and years. The pattern is the city tipping at its edges: the estuary margin, the old borough fringes, the pits that are parks now.

The roll, oldest first

Waltham Park 1880–1921 · Trade waste, domestic, commerial, industrial waste. 3.1 ha Bromley Cemetery 1891–1903 · Debatable if used as a dump. · Domestic rubbish. 2.7 ha Burwood Park 1899–1923 · Tins, boilers, pipes. · General rubbish, dead animals, destructor waste. 12.8 ha Sandhills Reserve 1903–1923 · Fish, nightsoil · Household, Commercial, clinker 12.4 ha Woolston Park 1909–1912 · Clinker & scrap metal. 3.0 ha Spreydon Domain 1909–1930 · Household, commercial, demo & industrial 7.1 ha Simeon Park 1915–1919 · Household rubbish, destructor residue, tins. 0.7 ha Centannial Park 1915–1947 · Household, commercial, iron, demo, tins, clinker · Still dumping informally 50's & 60's. 13.1 ha Plynlimon Park 1928–1954 · Domestic rubbish. · Council dump, war dump. 1.1 ha McCormacks Bay NW end 1936–1949 · Trade refuse tins metal dommestic rubbish 1.1 ha Hansen Park 1936–1955 · Domestic rubbish, leather, metal, rubber · compact silt and shingle fill average 1m thick, overlies landfill 12.0 ha rubbish dump, organic rubbish, glass, bricks ?–1939 · Owles Tce. 5.5 ha Estuary Road 1941–1943 · Refuse tipped behing seawall, 10m wide strip 0.7 ha Westminster & Mahars Rds 1942–1945 · War dump · Council tip and reserve 0.6 ha War dump ?–1943 · Avonside Dr. 0.4 ha Old Paparua dump, Kyle Park library and pool panned 1944–1981 · Kyle Park. 7.1 ha Centaurus Rd ?–1945 · Domestic rubbish and fill. 0.3 ha Redcliffs Park 1948–1953 · Domestic Rubbish · Now the new Redcliffs School. 0.5 ha Miners Road Pits ?–1950 · small amounts of domestic rubbish mostly hardfill 20.9 ha McCormacks Bay South end ?–1950 · Sumner waste dumped on quarry waste 4.2 ha Horseshoe Lake 1955–1959 · council tip and park · general rubbish dump, 9 acres 3.4 ha Sockburn Pool Park ?–1955 · Wood chip general & indiustrial waste. Tars Oils 1.3 ha Bexley Landfill 1956–1984 · MSW Landfill 93.0 ha Kirk Road 1960–1975 · domestic & roading rubbish · Paparua council dump 0.8 ha Allandale 1960–1993 · Being prepared by CWW (2007) 1.5 ha Carrs Road 1961–1978 · Offal carcasses · Industrial, domestic, pesticides, paint, sewerage 9.6 ha Sawyers Arms Rd 1962–1986 · Houseghold, garden & commercial 14.2 ha Sandy Point ?–1965 · Gelatine waste, bones, some sulphur dioxide waste 10.5 ha Colombo St ?–1965 · Old rubbish tip. · & Hunter Tce. 0.7 ha Shipleys Pit? Owned by Harewood piggeries & operation was ta 1968–1983 · Household rubbish, sawdust, uncontrolled tip 8.9 ha Halswell Junction Rd and Springs Rd 1970–1980 · Soil, trees & general refuse · Unknown rubbish, rubble, hardfill 27.6 ha Ferrymead ?–1975 · Hardfill & demolition material. 0.8 ha East Truscotts Rd ?–1979 · Domestic, commercial rubbish, hard fill · Mound not a pit. 3.0 ha West Truscotts Rd 1979–1988 · Commercial rubbish, fish refuse. · Household rubbish, garden refuse, hardfill. 4.4 ha Bridle Path Rd ?–1984 · The landfill was excavated and backfilled. · Small pit filled with vegetation and fill. 3.2 ha Barrys Bay ?–1995 · CRC001041 1.0 ha Birdlings Flat ?–1995 · CRC001044 3.0 ha Gollans Bay Landfill ?–1995 · CRC951237 1.6 ha Le Bons Bay ?–1995 0.4 ha Okains Bay ?–1995 · Grassed and rock seawall built 0.1 ha Onuku Landfill ?–1995 · CRC951241 0.8 ha Wainui Landfill ?–1995 · BPDC. 0.2 ha

Undated, but on the record

organic rubbish, channel sludge Englefield Road. 2.7 ha Council involvement - Waimairi rubbish dump general domestic Kainga Road 0.7 ha Council involvement - Waimairi rubbish dump general domestic Kianga Road. 0.5 ha Miners Road Pits small amounts of domestic rubbish mostly hardfill 5.3 ha St Heliers St Demolition waste 0.5 ha Main South Rd & Blenheim Rd General rubbish. · Filled early 1960's 1.3 ha Lodestar Ave & Hayton Rd 0.2 ha Hayton Rd 0.1 ha Lodestar Ave 1.5 ha Vickerys Rd (MOW) Wigram waste, domestic and industrial waste. 0.6 ha Mid Wigram Rd Rubble and hardfill · Musgroves Pit. 6.5 ha Owaka Pit Trees. Still operation 1993 · Hardfill, general rubbish, industrial waste 6.8 ha Owaka Pit Trees. Still operation 1993 · Hardfill, general rubbish, industrial waste 5.2 ha Recorded dump 417 1.1 ha Pound Rd 2 Hardfill. · Fulton Hogan. 27.4 ha Pound Rd 2 Hardfill. · Westaway contractors (1993) 3.7 ha Pound Rd 3 Domestic roading and vegetation. · CCC. 4.4 ha Springs Rd CCC roading rubbish. · Warren Park. 3.1 ha Burwood MSW Landfill MSW 1984-2005. 60.6 ha Recorded dump 458 0.3 ha Recorded dump 483 0.9 ha

Questions, answered briefly

How many old landfills does Christchurch have on record?

63 recorded dumps, pits and tipped ground in the council’s own layer, about 432 hectares of filled land in all. The oldest on the books opened in 1880; most closed by the mid-twentieth century as sanitary landfilling replaced the local tip.

Is it safe to be on an old landfill?

The layer records where the ground was filled, it is not a finding about what any address holds today. Old dumps can hold landfill gas and contaminated material, which is why the council keeps the record and flags it on LIMs; many are parks, reserves and school grounds that have been in use for decades.

Where are Christchurch’s old dumps?

Mostly where the 19th-century city met its outskirts, the parks and reserves the record still names: Waltham Park, Horseshoe Lake, Redcliffs Park, Bexley, the estuary margins where refuse was tipped behind the seawall. The roll draws all 63 of them in order of opening.

Does the council know what is in them?

Partially, the layer carries each site’s own note ("household rubbish", "demolition waste", "war dump") plus the report it came from, mostly the council’s T&T landfill study and its historic-landfill layer. The notes are the record as filed, not a soil survey.

The record behind this

Christchurch City Council’s open land layers, the Landfill layer of OpenData/LandCharacteristic, drawing on the council’s T&T landfill report and its historic-landfill layer. A recorded dump is where the ground was filled, kept on the books because filled ground matters, not a finding about what any address holds today. Ask the ground itself at /before; the ground that moved is at /liquefaction; the ground the files call made is at /fill; the rest of the record is at /history.

This page as markdown: /landfills.md · the record as data: /landfills.json · /landfills.geojson · on the live map: /map?layer=landfills.