At my age thinking is a regular pastime and the delays over the Forrester Heights development have been in my thoughts. Since the sale of that area north of the Lookout was first mentioned, there have been a variety of objections to its development. But little progress.
A concern by some objectors is the possibility of a landslide because of under runners in the clay below.
But has there ever been any concern over the location of the Harbour View Rest Home?
This large Oamaru stone building (originally The Victoria Home built in 1897) is on similar excavated land.
It is on the same type of clay which can be seen on those cliffs at the harbourside.
Those caves on that cliff have not changed since I first discovered them while growing up in Test St. The Cape was our playground.
I understand that expert surveys have declared this subdivision area to be geologically sound.
A good example of the stability of this clay is to be found in Test and Avon Sts. The houses above the high clay cuttings have been safe and sound since the original homes were built there more than 100 years ago.
I have heard it said that the proposed subdivision slope is too steep for housing. Well, for six years we lived at 5 Greta St where our 1910 villa type home was built on land the same degree of incline as Forrester Heights.
Then we bought this Tamar St Reserve A section in 1950.
They say that a Maori midden has been discovered in the development area. Does that justify a halt to proceedings?
It is possible that whatever has been found there had been left by Te Rauparaha when his marauders called for refreshments on one of his murderous forays.
In January 1844 Dr Robert Shortland stood on what is now Oamaru's Look Out. This is what he wrote in his survey for the Government at that time.
"Below me stood a wilderness of tussock and clumps of flax, cabbage tree and toi toi, swamps and streams with no sign of human habitation.
It must have been like this from the beginning of time." I am amazed at the rapid growth of Oamaru so soon after Dr Shortland's visit. Twenty years on, the first of Oamaru's impressive limestone buildings had appeared.
How slow progress is today compared with those early bureaucracy-free years.
Because those determined early settlers were unrestricted in so many ways, they rapidly created a quite remarkable town.
Thomas Forrester, his son J. M. Forrester, and R. A. Lawson, designed those classic buildings that are admired today.
It is more than five years since the "for sale" signs appeared on the Forrester Heights subdivision site while opportunities have been lost and values fallen.
But why does a project such as that important one take so long? Because of politics, and bureaucracy and slow-down tactics.
Wouldn't it be great to fund the repayment of the loan on our magnificent opera house from the proceeds of the development.
Those high spending new residents would be singing the praises of this good town while we old-time ratepayers would be praising the council.
I hope that the long-standing Endowment-Reserve A entanglement can soon be resolved at government level and I will be able to "see" progress at last.
