Barrett Buoy being lifted out of the water for maintenance

Greater Wellington Harbour's main role is to ensure navigational safety.

We provide safe and efficient maritime management for commercial and recreational users of our region's waters.

We operate a 24 hour harbour communication station, operate and maintain navigation aids in the region, manage mooring areas and respond to marine oil spills.

The waters of our region extend from the Otaki River in the west to the Matikona River north of Castlepoint in the east.

The increasing requirements for modern equipment and electronic monitoring aids will shortly see our Communications Officers moving into a new building designed to meet current Port and Harbour Safety standards.  With parts of the existing building over 100 years old, the Signal Station at Beacon Hill has served us well but will be retired and the new facility built on the adjacent land.

The new station will incorporate an observation room, emergency power generator, a double garage and storage for electronic and other equipment.  Due to its exposed location the station will be built to withstand the worst weather that Cook Strait can throw at it, from its solid concrete block foundations to the double glazed windows of the observation room.

Construction is expected to start during June and the staff should be settled in before October 2009.

Plans of the new building can be downloaded from the documents on the right of the screen.

For more information on the station and its history click on Beacon Hill Signal Station on the left of this page.

At its meeting on Monday 9 March 2009 Council amended the Wellington Regional Navigation and Safety Bylaws 2003. The amendments have included changes that: better reflect current practice, are in line with changes to Bylaws in other regions and Maritime Rules, have come from the Port and Harbour risk assessment and remove some areas of confusion from the previous Bylaws.

The Bylaws went to public consultation last year and a hearing was held in December 2008 where the Bylaws were further refined.

These amendments take effect from Wednesday 1 July 2009.

A4 copies of the Bylaws can be downloaded from the right of this page or paper copies are available from the Regional Council Centre, 142-146 Wakefield Street, Wellington and from Greater Wellington’s office at 34 Chapel Street, Masterton.

Maritime New Zealand and the National Pleasure Boat Safety Forum have just released an overview of the Boating Safety Strategy. This outlines past development and current thinking on recreational boating safety, with analysis of past accidents and a plan to move forward to improve boating safety.

It also discusses some of the issues that are frequently suggested, such as boat registration and skipper licencing.

It is a brief overview and well worth reading, as this is an indicator of possible future maritime rule and bylaw changes. The file is attached on the right of this page.

The monitoring of Emergency Indicating Radio Beacons has changed, for information on these changes go to our EPIRB page (link on the left of this page). 

121.5MHz and 243 MHz beacons are no longer monitored.

Check out a You Tube video of the Harbours team scuttling (sinking) two rusting trawlers - Szap8 and James Cook - in deep water in the Cook Strait.

The trawlers had been abandoned by the previous owners and posed a hazard to navigational safety. The Harbours team removed all material from the trawlers that would be a threat to the marine environment, then waited for a calm day for the scuttling, which took place in December 2007.

Click on the picture above to view the video.