The Otago Daily Times reported last week that St Joseph’s Queenstown parish had decided about 12 months ago to demolish the building.
St Joseph’s parish priest Fr Jaime Lalaguna told the ODT on January 25 the Queenstown Hill building was earthquake-prone, had no historic classification and the Catholic Diocese of Dunedin could not afford to restore it.
But the diocese’s education director, Tony Hanning, said there had been a "misunderstanding" within a section of the resort’s Catholic community that he attributed to "conjecture" about the building’s safety in the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes.
The article had prompted Heritage New Zealand to contact the Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, the Most Rev Colin Campbell to point out the building’s category 2 listing, as well as offers from people interested in buying and relocating it.
Mr Hanning said government legislation passed after the Canterbury earthquakes introducing strengthening requirements for the country’s thousands of earthquake-prone buildings had led to discussions throughout the country about buildings used by or associated with schools.
The convent was connected to a wing of St Joseph’s School, and the primary school’s board of trustees had raised the question of its safety with Bishop Campbell.
As a result, remediation work was carried out on its chimneys.
"In response to those questions at the time, demolition would have been considered if there was a serious danger.
"But the bishop has made it clear, in response to the article that’s appeared recently, there are no plans for demolition.
"I think that has been part of a misunderstanding in which discussion has been interpreted as decision."
Demolition would have been unlikely in any case, as there was "a will to preserve where we can", he said.
That also applied to the nearby St Joseph’s Church and St Patrick’s Church in Arrowtown.
The convent had been home to the resort’s Dominican Sisters for more than 130 years, but has been unoccupied since 2003.
Built as a presbytery in 1877, it was vacated by the parish priest when the first four members of the Dominican order arrived in the resort in 1883.
