Silverstream Floodbank: Reid Avenue to Riccarton Road
Mosgiel · Otago
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. Dunedin City Council’s own wording: “If a public place is not listed in this policy, then dogs are allowed there on leash. Dogs on leash and under control is the default classification in Dunedin. (Dunedin City Council Dog Control Policy 2024, section 6. The only part of the Silverstream stop bank the policy lists as off leash is in Schedule C: Silverstream – the stop bank track on the true left of the Silverstream between Gordon and Wingatui Roads. From the Reid Avenue car park the first 300 m to the Gordon Road bridge is inside that stretch and the dog may be off the leash under control there; from the bridge down to Riccarton Road West the stop bank is not listed, so the council’s default applies and the dog is on the leash. The section is published on the stricter rule that covers most of it.)”. Evidence: the council’s own mapped rule zone. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Silverstream Floodbank: Reid Avenue to Riccarton Road
Silverstream Floodbank: Reid Avenue to Riccarton Road is a moderate-length walk of 4.3 km, near Mosgiel in Otago.
The downstream half of the Silver Stream flood bank at Mosgiel. From the car park at the end of Reid Avenue, beside the Te Puna o Whakaehu pool, turn left onto the stop bank and follow it past the pool, under the Gordon Road bridge and on along the top of the bank to Riccarton Road West, where the walkway ends at the bridge. Shona and Missy walk it there and back in about an hour, roughly 4.3 km on our line, flat gravel the whole way. Plenty of people walk their dogs along here and some of the homeowners backing onto the bank have put out water bowls for passing dogs. There are a few rubbish bins along the way, a Lilliput library and a seed swap library. The dog rule changes at the Gordon Road bridge, and it is worth knowing where. Schedule C of the Dunedin City Council Dog Control Policy 2024 lists the stop bank track on the true left of the Silverstream between Gordon and Wingatui Roads as off leash ground, and the first 300 m of this walk, from the Reid Avenue car park to the bridge, is the bottom end of that stretch. Downstream of the bridge the stop bank is not named anywhere in the policy, and the council’s stated default for any public place it has not listed is dogs on leash and under control. So the lead can be off for the short stretch to the bridge and goes on under it for the 1.8 km to Riccarton Road; this page carries the on lead verdict because that is the rule for most of the walk. If you want the off lead ground, the section upstream from Reid Avenue to Wingatui Road is the one to take, and it is on its own page. A note about the start. Mosgiel Memorial Garden, beside the pool and the Reid Avenue car park, is a prohibited area for dogs under Schedule A of the same policy except on its track, where dogs are allowed on the leash, so walk straight from the car park to the stop bank rather than through the garden. Shona reports toxic algae warning signs along the stream, and the Otago Regional Council’s advice is that dogs are particularly susceptible to poisoning from the algae mats: keep the dog out of the water and off the exposed edges whenever a sign is up or mats are visible, especially in warm, low flow months. Shona and Missy sent this one in with the Wingatui Road to Reid Avenue section.
It sits at the easy end and gains roughly 9 m, and takes about 52 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Shona & Missy suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
