Below we collate true stories from local people in Taranaki affected by the oil and gas industries and are concerned about the impacts of climate change:

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Taranaki teacher Sarah Roberts and her husband owned a farm on the eastern side of the maunga, surrounded by gas wells. Having experienced the environmental and social impacts first hand, Sarah now dedicates a large part of her time fighting for rules that would better protect local communities, through Taranaki Energy Watch. 

 The 2021 documentary A Fracking Tour of Taranaki, directed by Ethan Alderson-Hughes, follows Sarah as she travels the region by car, exploring and showcasing the extent of the fracking industry’s effects on the local community. The documentary also features long-term Tikorangi residents Fiona Clark and Abbie Jury.

   

Tuhi-Ao Emily Bailey lived and worked with the Parihaka community and succeeded in keeping the community safe from oil/gas drilling

Emily Bailey’s interview, 6 June 2016 on Public Radio International

Tuhi-Ao believes that climate change is a Treaty of Waitangi issue. In an interview in 2018, she described the government’s response as “shameful”. She also believes that living a simpler lifestyle is something humanity will need to get to grips with if it wants to seriously fight back against climate change.

Her fight continues. In 2023, as Parihaka Papakāinga Trust chair, she crafted a letter to Minister of Energy and Resources Megan Woods, asking her to extend the current exclusion zone to include the territory between the mountain and the sea that was mapped in 1879.

“We appreciate that an exclusion area was drawn around the papakāinga in 2013, however we would remind the crown that Parihaka is not just the existing legal boundary of our small remaining papakāinga reserve… With this in mind, we kindly request that you exclude the entire Parihaka Block from the 2020 and all future Petroleum Block Offers,” she said.

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Taranaki photographer Fiona Clark is a longterm resident of North Taranaki.

When asked what it’s like living there, she said “My photos tell the story of living in Tikorangi gas lands.” She called her photo taken on 29 Dec 2014 (top right of collage) of Mangahewa-E wellsite, “Todd Energy’s genie out of the flare pit.”  Fiona Clark, 3 Jan 2015

Indeed, Fiona Clark is considered one of Aotearoa’s most notable photographers. The 2021 documentary Fiona Clark – Unafraid recounts how the photographer overcame censorship, homophobia, sexism and debilitating physical injuries to become one of our most respected social documentarians.

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Taranaki elders fed up with oil rig invasion (Te Karere 26 Dec 2013)

Taranaki elders say they do not want to see any more oil rigs being erected in waters off their coastlines. This comes on the back of exploration in the Taranaki basin by American oil and gas company Anadarko. Watch Te Karere TVZN segment here. 

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Veteran oilman questions fracking (Kapiti News, 19 Feb 2014)

97 year old William Moore, from Waikanae, started working for the Europa oil company in 1934 and retired in the early 70s as an operations manager and a director. He is against fracking because of the chemicals involved. “No one knows what they contain … The industry has never disclosed it and no government has been prepared to tackle the oil industry…” William Moore

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Fracking – Economic Boom or Environment Bust – tells Taranaki landowners Roberts and Morrison’s story (LIVE Magazine, Winter 2012)

“Landowners are being approached with a piece of paper and a big spiel, putting their mark on it and not realizing that for 20 years, they no longer have a say. … I feel completely isolated in this. … Like the district council telling me they’re no longer going to reply to me regarding anything to do with the notification of oil company consents. They all voted on it. They were fed up with me I think.” Sarah Roberts

LIVE magazine also ran a second story titled “Is Taranaki the new Texas” in April 2013, featuring the experience of other affected landowners in Tikorangi and Inglewood. Click here to download the article (2.84 Mb pdf).

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Living in Petrochemical Heartland – one of a series of blog by a Taranaki landowner (Tikorangi The Jury Garden, 15 Sept 2012)

“You see, he’d been told that if he didn’t sign, they’d hop over the fence to his neighbour’s property and he didn’t trust his neighbour. He thought he’d have more control if it was on his own place. And pitching neighbour against neighbour was common practice, compounded by confidentiality agreements. …” Abbie Jury

Tikorangi Lost – how a little community has been sacrificed to the petrochemical dollar (2 Feb 2013)

“It appears that our local councils, without consultation, without an overall plan, dealing with applications on a case by case, non notified basis, have already consented or are in the process of consenting up to FIFTY FIVE, maybe even FIFTY NINE wells in our little Tikorangi. That is an area shaped a little like a cross and measuring about 6km at its longest point and 3km at its widest point…”  Abbie Jury

Saving Tikorangi – what could Councils do?  (2 Feb 2013)

“As the intensity of development escalates, the chances of a major incident greatly increase. This could be an on-site incident such as a well blow out or major malfunction, or a traffic accident involving heavy vehicles, often carrying dangerous goods. Many locals would like advice as to emergency actions in the event of such an incident. Put simply, which way should we drive to get out?”  Abbie Jury

 Tikorangi News 7  March 2013, 2 Aug 2013,  8 Sept 2013,  10 Sept 2013,

13 Jan 2014

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Parihaka send letters of opposition to petroleum industry

Two letters have now been sent from a united voice of Parihaka to government, council, petroleum companies, media and the UN stating opposition to drilling in the region around Parihaka. Read the statements here: 2011 and 2013.

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Fighting Fracking – Resisting oil’s hard sell – tells East Coast Wilcox family’s story (NZ Farmers Weekly, 10 Sept 2012)

“Our mother left us the responsibility as kaitiaki of this land. We have been here 15 generations and our responsibility is to care for this land, and to pass it on for another 15. And we don’t want our land to be violated in this way. So we ask you respectfully to leave our land in peace.” 

Haana Wilcox wrote to Tag Oil.

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Letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment from a Taranaki landowner

“I too belong to and care deeply about New Zealand’s clean green image and hope this will be our point of difference in the world.  I want to feel proud to live in a society where environmental protection sits alongside, rather than way below economic development. … The industry is expanding in my neighbourhood.  Seven days a week we have constant trucks passing our home taking oil/condensate from McKee, they are building a gas fired power station there and from our home we are exposed frequently to flares [that lit up the whole sky as in photo] (sometimes very black smoke billows) from 4 gas extraction sites close by, and others from a distance, and they promise us more sites will come. …” Margaret Smith

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Otaraua hapu opposition in Taranaki

The 2009 occupation of Tikorangi Pa by Otaraua hapu opposed Greymouth Petroleum’s attempts to drill straight through the historic pa in order to lay their gas pipeline from the drillsite behind the pa. Here is an audio slideshow made by Cameron Burnell for the Taranaki Daily News.