A Tauranga City Council failure to act on repeated warnings about the risk of a landslide at Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park had “tragic consequences”, with six people killed in the January disaster, an independent review has found.
According to a report by Stuff, the review, led by former High Court judge Paul Davison KC, was released on Wednesday. It found the council had been aware for more than 20 years that a landslide from Mauao could threaten the holiday park, but the risk was not properly identified, escalated or managed.
A major landslide struck the campground shortly before 9.30am on January 22, engulfing the amenities building and killing six people: Lisa Anne Maclennan, 50, Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20, Jacqualine Suzanne Wheeler, 71, Susan Doreen Knowles, 71, Sharon Maccanico, 15, and Max Furse-Kee, 15, Stuff has reported.
The review found two geotechnical consultants had recommended that the council introduce a Trigger Action Response Plan (TARP) for the campground. The recommendations were made in December 2023 and again in June 2025, but neither had been implemented before the landslide.
A TARP could have established warning thresholds based on factors such as rainfall, observed slips, and muddy water from the hillside, along with predetermined actions, such as evacuation.
“This was a systemic failure with tragic consequences,” Davison said, as quoted by Stuff.
He concluded that if a TARP had been in place, the campground would probably have been evacuated before the fatal landslide and the deaths would “in all likelihood” have been prevented, Stuff has reported.
The region had been under a rare red heavy rain warning, with a further 180mm to 240mm of rainfall forecast on top of rain already received.
Before the landslide, significant slips had occurred elsewhere on Mauao, while smaller slips had appeared above the campground and muddy, debris-filled water was flowing down the slope near the amenities building.
The review said these developments provided opportunities for the council to act.
According to Stuff, one warning came almost five hours before the disaster. At 4.43 am, camper Travis Maclennan contacted the council after a previous slip struck the campervan where he and his wife Lisa were staying.
Despite the call and further signs of instability around Mauao, no evacuation warning or instruction was issued.
Davison found the council's systems allowed reports of potential danger to be classified as general welfare or service requests, rather than being escalated to someone with the appropriate expertise and authority, as reported by Stuff.
By the morning of the disaster, campground staff had no TARP, defined warning thresholds or specific training to identify signs of slope failure.
“The most consequential safety decision of that morning was left, by default, to the manager at the campground who had been given neither the tools nor the knowledge to make it,” Davison said, Stuff has quoted.
He said criticism “justly and appropriately” lay with the organisation that had failed to properly equip and prepare campground staff.
The review found concerns about the landslide risk dated back to at least 1999, when geotechnical expert Dr Laurie Richards warned that locating vulnerable holiday accommodation beneath the slopes was imprudent and posed a high risk to people sleeping there.
In 2006, consultancy Avalon estimated that a major debris flow could affect around 30 people and potentially kill 21.
Davison said successive experts had continued to identify the landslide hazard, including the historic scarp on the slope that eventually failed.
However, the risk was not adequately incorporated into the council's risk-management system. Instead, it appeared in broad categories such as “Falling rock/landslides”, as quoted by Stuff.
“The risk of a major landslide entering the campground was known to a succession of TCC staff for over 25 years,” he said, as quoted by Stuff.
The review also considered the removal of three pine trees and a macrocarpa from the hillside above the campground in 2019.
Davison found no evidence that the removal of the trees caused or contributed to the January landslide.
“Vegetation removal is unlikely to have materially affected slope stability compared with the extreme rainfall that preceded the event,” he said, Stuff has quoted.
However, he said established trees on a slope above an occupied campground should not have been removed without a geotechnical assessment of the potential impact on slope stability.
The review recommends major changes to how Tauranga City Council manages natural-hazard risks.
According to Stuff, among the recommendations are assigning a named person responsibility for every risk involving potential loss of life, creating a central register of geotechnical and natural-hazard reports, and formally tracking safety recommendations until they are implemented, rejected or deferred.
“Silent non-action should be impossible,” Davison said.
The report also recommends requiring TARPs at council-controlled populated sites where natural-hazard risks to life are rated medium or higher. Frontline staff should also be trained to recognise warning signs such as muddy water, cracking, bulging and changes in seepage, v has reported.
Davison said the tragedy was not caused by a risk that could not have been identified.
“What was missing was not knowledge, but an organisation able to hold, assess, and act on it,” he said. “No single person within the TCC organisation ‘owned’ it,” Stuff has quoted.
The review found the failure was not attributable to one individual, but to a system that allowed a known risk to remain “unowned, un-escalated and unmanaged,” as quoted by Stuff.
It did not find that any individual had deliberately acted improperly and made no findings regarding civil, criminal or disciplinary liability.
Following the report’s release, Lisa Maclennan’s husband, Travis, said the findings highlighted his wife’s “selfless actions” during the disaster.
“She made the safety of others at the campground her priority, and went to heroic lengths to help those around her,” as quoted by Stuff.
Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said he had offered the families of all six victims a “sincere apology” on behalf of the council, Stuff has reported.
He described the findings as “clear and deeply confronting”.
“While this report does not attribute blame to any individual person, it concludes that over many years, Tauranga City Council missed opportunities that may have helped prevent this tragedy.
“We have demanded change from the organisation with a clear expectation that the recommendations made by Mr Davison will be implemented,” as quoted by Stuff.
A police investigation into the landslide, being conducted on behalf of the Coroner, remains ongoing.