With a history dating back to 1883 as a grain elevator, it is now a place of twisted visions of a steam-driven future-past. Rebecca Ryan discovers more about the Meek's Grain Elevator building in Oamaru, now home to Steampunk HQ.
It is a building with history in abundance, and it continues to exude a sense of mystery.
The Steampunk HQ building has a commanding presence in Oamaru, but it once stood even taller - towering above all else in the North Otago town.
When it was built, the Meek's Grain Elevator building was five storeys (20m) high, with a mansard roof, and its main function was for the storage and export of bulk grain.
It was the first elevator building in the southern hemisphere.
The idea of a grain elevator building was conceived by William Aitken to deal with surplus wheat in North Otago and sparked the interest of brothers James and Thomas Meek.
They engaged Thomas Forrester and John Lemon to draw up plans for the erection of a five-storey Oamaru stone building.
Their plans were approved, the design based on the American principle of self-emptying bins, and work started in 1881.
The elevator building was the largest commercial building undertaken by the design partnership of Forrester and Lemon.
It was a period of sustained growth in North Otago and was a significant example of the development of Oamaru.
In 1882, New Zealand's first shipment of frozen meat was prepared at Totara Estate, south of Oamaru, and sent to the other side of the world on SS Dunedin, marking the beginning of New Zealand's multibillion-dollar frozen meat industry.
But with the development of the frozen meat trade came the decline in wheat production.
Farmers diversified from grain to grasslands and the need for large grain stores in the town diminished.
It had the specific purpose of handling and storing grain, but instead of storage in bags, the grain was emptied from sacks and stored in bins.
The store was divided into 68 large bins of two sizes and there were two elevators, each capable of lifting 25 tonnes per hour.
About 9000 tonnes of grain could be stored in the building at one time.
The building had an unusual shape - the front was a trapezium and the back portion was rectangular.
Doors on the ground floor were wide to allow access for railway trucks, horse-drawn wagons and, later, motorised lorries.
By the time the elevator building was completed in May 1883, at a cost of about 10,000, its role and purpose were almost redundant.
Steampunk HQ co-ordinator Jan Kennedy loved its fascinating history.
''Agriculture was on a decline and grain was being replaced by meat ... then the ports all shifted ... and pretty much as soon as they built it, it wasn't in use,'' she said.
''The other fascinating thing is, because Oamaru became so poor, these buildings were never pulled down because development didn't occur like it has in other places where these sort of old buildings were replaced with something more modern.
''Here, the doors were just closed.''
At 5.30am on January 20, 1920, heavy volumes of black smoke were seen pouring from the five-storey building.
Firefighters battled the large blaze for more than 10 hours, watched by a crowd of onlookers who had gathered soon after the alarm bells rang.
The roof collapsed, followed by the collapse of the top floor and the back wall, which fell on to the railway repair shop behind it.
The front trapezium did not suffer to the extent of the rest of the building and the front three floors were saved.
But the overall loss was substantial.
The building was remodelled after the fire and it continued to be used as a grain store until the mid-1950s.
It was then sold to G. T. Gillies Ltd and subsequently used as a storage facility for the company.
Oamaru businessman Brian de Geest bought the building in 2007, having for many years expressed an interest in it.
It came up for sale five years after his first attempt to acquire it, and, fascinated by the history and the building's quirks, he bought it.
''I bought it because I loved it,'' he said.
The idea of Steampunk HQ was born after the country's first Steampunk Exhibition was held at the Forrester Gallery in Oamaru in 2009.
The Steampunk HQ opened in the Meek's Grain Elevator building in November 2011 and has given it a new life.
Steampunk HQ is an art collaboration which portrays an industrial version of Steampunk, ''with a giant sense of humour and larger than life visions of an off the wall Steampunk universe''.
A full-scale train engine that spits fire and billows smoke greets visitors at the front of the building, and a blimp hovering over the entrance to the yard demands attention.
The gallery inside is filled with an assortment of retro-futuristic sci-fi art, movies, sculpture, light and sound experiences.
The yard is evolving all the time - scattered with ''steampunked'' contraptions and figures.
Oamaru itself has also become known as the steampunk capital of New Zealand and tourists are coming from around the world to check out the weird world inside the former grain store.
And now they are also stepping into the future at Steampunk headquarters, with a new lighting experience called the ''Infinity Portal''.
The concept excites Ms Kennedy.
''I love this ... now it's alternative history, it's been taken over by the Steampunk aliens,'' she said.
''Steampunk is the future, but there's so much history in these machines - it just fits in really well, you know.
''You can use your imagination to decide what the future might be like without electricity.''
The building is a rare and important survivor of Victorian investment, innovation and enterprise and remains a prominent reminder of Oamaru's industrial heritage.
