A former Dunedin children’s home operated by an organisation with a chequered past is being sold at the low price of $10,000. However, the catch is you must take it away. The property — Cameron Cottage in Elliffe Pl, Shiel Hill — was once run by Presbyterian Support Services Association (PSSA) who in 2023 were exposed over alleged historic sex abuses at its children’s homes. The last two of the of the PSSA’s children’s homes closed in 1991. OTAGO IMAGES/OTAGO DAILY TIMESChildren playing outside Cameron Cottage in November 1950 when it was run as a children's home. Photo: ODT files The house has has most recently been used as a specialised facility for younger people experiencing high-needs neurological conditions or degenerative illnesses like early-onset dementia. Owner Karen Dalzell said she was selling the property at $10,000 mainly just to cover the associated fees that selling a house incurs, and to rip up the piles once the place was gone. “We don’t want to have to rip it down, it’s a good looking building and has history in the area,” she said. The property has nine bedrooms, three double bedrooms and six singles, three bathrooms and a very large kitchen. ©Allied MediaThe large fireplace inside Cameron Cottage. Photo: Peter McIntosh Mrs Delzell had confirmed the house would split up nice and evenly into three sections for removal. Mrs Delzell and her husband Mark Delzell, who live close by, bought the property three years ago with no solid plans on what to do with the place. Now, the plan for the land was to sub-divide and build two three bedroom properties on the plot. Mrs Delzell said the facility would be great for someone who needed a property like that. ©Allied MediaCameron Cottage's front entrance. Photo: Peter McIntosh “It would be perfect for a farm, for shearing quarters or something … or for a dog kennel. The small bedrooms would be perfect to convert.” If no buyer could be found the property would be demolished with as much parts salvaged, repurposed and recycled as possible. Cameron Cottage was once one of three cottages, the others were named Somerville and Nisbett, that ran under the greater Glendining Presbyterian Children’s Homes masthead. The cottages were built in 1930 and each took 18 children, which added to the accommodation provided by the larger two-storeyed Glendining Home, which had opened in 1913. OTAGO IMAGES/OTAGO DAILY TIMESChildren gather in the sunroom at Cameron Cottage of Glendining Presbyterian Children’s Homes in 1963. Photo: Evening Star During the 1930s, there was a shift from using large homes for the children to housing them in smaller “cottages”. Eventually in the 1960s, all the children were moved to the cottages. By the 1970s, reducing demand for residential care meant that by 1975 only 19 children were in PSSA Otago’s care. In 1922, PSSA Otago’s superintendent, Edward Axelsen, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for indecently assaulting four boys under his care, resulting in the association pulling back from expansion of its children’s services. In 2022, a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care revealed a string of sexual abuses conducted under PSSA Otago’s care. Presbyterian Support, PSSA’s successor organisation, was criticised for destroying records of children in its care. laine.priestley@odt.co.nz
