Hospital boiler room set for a new lease on life

After 30 years empty, there are big plans for the towering old Oamaru Hospital boiler house, Jules Chin reports.

The new owner of the abandoned Oamaru Hospital boiler house says the rebuild and development of the four-storey building will be a "big project".

The old Oamaru Hospital, known as the "hospital on the hill", was built in 1872 and boiler rooms were added in 1915 as part of the hospital’s expansion.

The boiler house was crucial to the hospital’s operations, providing heat and hot water for laundry, sanitation and other vital tasks.

An enormous boiler system and additional rooms had been left neglected on the old hospital site since the late 1990s before the new hospital opened on Steward St in 2000.

The proprietor of the building, who preferred to remain anonymous, said they were still surprised they were the new owner of the historic building.

"It’s been sitting derelict for probably 30-odd years. I can’t believe I can own it.

"I’ve got lots of plans of course. It’s a big project," they said.

Access to the top level of the boiler house is on Joy St, not far from the old hospital site which closed in 1998, while the lower level entrance to the main boiler room is on Yare St.

The owner had purchased the building in September this year from Goodland Group, a premier lifestyle property developer in Singapore, and were still in negotiation on the final land area. 

The hospital buildings were demolished in 2016, while the boiler house was left as it was, complete with archaic machinery.

While the new owner had a creative vision for the boiler house, which sits atop the hill with views out to the ocean and township, they said they wanted to "save the old building and keep the historic aspect to it".

"The boilers are still all in there, the chimney from the old furnace is there. It’s just very, very cool.

"I’ve tracked down somebody in Temuka who used to work here, so downstairs I would like to have a little movie of him and information about the building, so there are things like that that I want to do here," they said.

Controversy arose around the neglected boiler house in 2016, as two widows of former boilermen who worked at the hospital for over 20 years claimed their husbands became ill and died due to asbestos-related health issues.

While one widow’s ACC claim was later denied, then WDC mayor Gary Kircher confirmed, in 2016, there was asbestos in the Oamaru Hospital buildings, and hazardous materials would be removed safely and contained at the Oamaru landfill.

The boiler room was in the public eye again in July 2023 when four youths lit a fire in the abandoned building that produced smoke visible across the North Otago township.

The new owner preferred to focus on the positive aspects of the building after previously being involved in "several other developments" in Oamaru.

They said their partner had said "no more projects", but they "couldn’t resist the pull of the building".

"This is lovely, this is perfect. The view and everything, it’s great.

"I want to do a bit with it. It’s an ongoing project, " they said.