Oamaru's Opera House and the Orokonui Ecosanctuary, 20km north of Dunedin, are, respectively, $3.73 million and $1.5 million richer after visits from a cheque-bearing Internal Affairs Minister, Rick Barker, yesterday.
The two grants make up more than a quarter of the $16 million the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board has allocated for distribution to significant projects that benefit the wider community in 2008-09.
The Opera House grant means restoration and redevelopment can be completed without billing ratepayers.
The Waitaki District Council is turning the 101-year-old historic building in Oamaru's main street into a performing arts, function and conference centre.
The work is budgeted at $9.7 million and is expected to be completed in October.
Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton said the Opera House project would have been beyond the community's means without the Government's help.
The grant to the Orokonui Ecosanctuary would allow the Otago Natural History Trust to begin construction of its $2.3 million visitor and education centre.
Mr Barker said the ecosanctuary, the South Island's largest forest sanctuary with a predator-proof fence, would play an important role in New Zealand's conservation efforts.
Trust chairman Ralph Allen welcomed the grant and invited the minister back to see the finished facility in a year's time.
