2025 AND BEYOND - our vision for the future
As Auckland grows and intensifies, the Sanctuary Mahi Whenua gardens and food forest will be preserved as a public shared space and will continue to be recognised as a biodiversity hub fostering permaculture principles. It will remain a place for all to visit and enjoy, with the adjoining Oakley Creek/Te Auaunga Walkway through the Sanctuary Mahi Whenua made more accessible and further enhanced.
The image above is an extract from Unitec's 2015 updated submission to the Auckland Unitary Plan. It includes the Sanctuary Mahi Whenua as part of its intention for the area to become one of the most liveable villages in the world.
Click on the image to view the entire M1 masterplan.
CURRENT state
The Sanctuary Mahi Whenua continues to provide as a resource for the community, the communal gardens provide food to members and their families with some proceeds raised by the gardens being shared with local charities. Educational workshops and visits continue to take place at the Sanctuary. The space is visited and enjoyed by locals: during the COVID-19 pandemic many people discovered the Sanctuary Mahi Whenua as a place to enjoy. To read more about how the community is benefiting from Mahi Whenua check out the community page.
We have developed a traditional Māori garden.
The advocacy journey we took as a Society to maintain the Sanctuary Mahi Whenua as an entity has not been easy. In June 2017 the Society was informed that the Sanctuary Mahi Whenua area was most likely to be the first block of land on the Unitec campus sold for development. On 12 December 2017 we were told to vacate the land by 1 May 2018. The 25 March 2018 announcement of the decision by the Government to purchase the land for its Land for Housing development programme removed the requirement to vacate the site. The sale and purchase agreement between Unitec and the Government resulted in the retaining of the Sanctuary Mahi Whenua as an entity with a safe future. However, at the beginning of 2024 this sale and purchase agreement was being breached by housing being planned to be built on the land. Therefore in May 2024 we placed a caveat on the land title. The Crown sought to remove the caveat at a High Court hearing on 12 December 2024, which we opposed. The judgment received on 30 May 2025 stated the we had a justifiable reason for placing the caveat. The Crown have appealed this judgment, and a Court of Appeal hearing will take place in Auckland on 3 November 2025.