Tony Eyre explains why he believes the industrial harbourside area is one of Dunedin's treasures.
The Dunedin City Council's recent district plan change to allow for the possibility of a much truncated harbourside zone for the development of cafes, apartments and public open spaces in the area south of the Steamer Basin was announced without too much evident fanfare.
The original proposal was mooted more than a decade ago and, after opposition from business groups and an appeal to the Environment Court, the council agreed to drop stage two of the plan which incorporated a section of the historic harbourside industrial area between Fryatt and Mason Sts.
Much of the block of industrial land enclosed between Fryatt, Wickliffe, Ward and Thomas Burns Sts was progressively reclaimed from the sea from the 1860s.
Dunedin's rail corridor has dissected this enclave from the inner city and today the industries within make a huge economic contribution to the city's wellbeing.
With the exception of those who spend their working hours in the precinct, I think the average Dunedinite is largely unaware of the significance of the area.
Perhaps one of our more common interfaces with this network of streets has been the fraught activity on a quiet Sunday afternoon of teaching our teenagers to drive.
What safer place was there for a young learner driver to graduate from gear graunching and bunny-hopping to the joys of restricted licence?
For me, the harbourside industrial area is one of my favourite parts of the city.
On the weekend, while shoppers are lured to George St by the larger-than-life images of the face of Revlon or our Jockey underwear pin-up boy, I am often drawn to walk the maze of streets that tell a fascinating story of how industry and the work of human hands have shared in the economic development of this city.
Let me take you on a short tour, for it is easy to get disoriented and forget the Dunedin harbour is nearby; strangely, a continuous perimeter of wharf sheds along Fryatt St with restricted public access allows the pedestrian only narrow glimpses of the water.
Long gone is the busy loading and offloading of cargo and the interplay between the Customhouse and shipping agents, or the rules of engagement between staunch watersiders, stevedores and harbour board bosses.
Turning from Fryatt St into Fish St (half expecting to see Chips St), you head into the heart of the historic area.
Willis, Tewsley and Cresswell Sts are dominated by the separate divisions of Farra Engineering, the kindly godfather to the multitude of engineering firms occupying the mix of one- and two-storey brick buildings along the streetscape.
One whole block in, Cresswell St is taken up by the former boot and clothing factories of Sargood, Son & Ewen, dating back to the 1880s.
Further down the street are the handsome brick Otago Daily Times and Evening Star stores with their own unique architectural designs.
There is so much more to stimulate the senses as you walk round the circumference or criss-cross the fretwork of streets that make up this historic precinct.
Sawtooth factory roofs, tracing their design origins back to the industrial revolution, are a feature of the skyline; faded signs on brick exteriors like "B.J. Ball NZ LtdPaper Merchants & Mill Agents" remind us of the transitory nature of some trading establishments, as growth and expansion move them on; or company names like W.J.
Haynes Ltd that bear witness to proud family businesses that have said their last goodbyes.
A palpable tension is observed in the area as numerous "for lease" signs indicate the fragility of trading conditions that have caused businesses to contract or close down.
And some familiar landmarks have been allowed to disappear.
We can still buy and devour great dollops of the childhood treat Maltexo, but regrettably, its original factory on the corner of Ward and Halsey Sts - the Wilson Malt Extract Company - has been demolished to make way for a development yet to eventuate.
But balancing these threats is the strong engineering presence of the locally owned Farra group and its overseas-owned counterparts such as Bradken and Esco.
Also the number of smaller engineering firms in the zone is quite staggering.
Other industry sectors such as transport, infrastructure, provedoring, and importing add to the mix. And Emerson's Brewery has hopped into the area in recent years.
The still and deserted feel to these backstreets on the weekend is replaced by the industrial busyness and boisterousness of the working week.
When the much-anticipated smoko siren sounds, fluoro-vested workers drift out on to the footpaths with mug of tea in hand. Maybe the occasional apprentice - the "boy" - is still dispatched to the Tucker Box in Mason St to collect lunch orders for the workers, part of his rite of passage from boyhood to manhood.
What lies behind these old brick walls, the factories, warehouses, foundries, fettling shops and former woolstores?
Just like their facades, I'm sure there is much to reflect upon in their dim interiors, such as, for example, working conditions of the past.
Hopefully, they were not as unpleasant and dangerous as William Blake's "dark satanic mills" - but better working conditions had to be fought for, and in the 19th century, Dunedin workers were in the forefront of campaigning for the eight-hour day.
My own experience of the shop floor was a brief job in the panning room of A. Murdoch & Co in St Andrew St in the late 1970s.
There was always a sense of satisfaction in being part of the manufacturing process as I weighed out the secret ingredients for their tomato sauce recipe or rolled in the drums of briny cauliflower to produce great vats of chow-chow and piccalilli.
So what is the future for this remarkable piece of industrial and architectural history?
We now know, fortunately, it won't be transformed into a harbourside precinct of cafes and residential apartments; we have the south side of the Steamer Basin for that.
We do know there is a spirited determination from businesses to maintain the area as a strong and vibrant industrial zone.
What is less certain is how the historic area can be protected, maintained and developed as one of Dunedin's great treasures, in harmony with its present use.
• Tony Eyre is a Dunedin writer.
