Guy Williams reports on a restoration project planned for one of New Zealand’s most historically significant sites, in rugged high country north of the former Skippers settlement.
The Wakatipu Heritage Trust has an ambitious plan for a remote site near Queenstown where the first electricity for industrial use was generated in New Zealand.
For the past 18 months, its members have been quietly working on a plan to rebuild a powerhouse that once covered a hydro-electric plant high in the hills north of the historic Skippers settlement.
The plant was built at the bottom of a 60-metre cliff in the left branch of Skippers Creek, about 27km north of the resort, in 1886.
Its two dynamos generated electricity that was transmitted by a 3km-long stretch of No8 copper wire, on poles over a high ridge, to a stamper battery at the Bullendale gold mine and settlement in the neighbouring valley.
Trustee and project leader Grant Hensman said the trust was originally formed to restore the Arrowtown jail, a project completed two years ago.
Its next project was "always going to be Bullendale".
The plant's wheels and dynamos were exposed to the weather, and the timber base supporting it was rotting.
"It's been lying out there in the open, deteriorating, and needs a shelter."
A conservation report and building plans had been completed, and the trust was now looking for a builder.
However, the next six months would be spent making applications to charitable trusts to raise the estimated $250,000 needed to fund the project.
The 90-square-metre building had been designed to replicate the original structure as closely as possible, using old photos, Mr Hensman said.
The power house was dismantled in 1919 and the materials were used to build the adjacent Dynamo Hut, a trampers' hut now owned by the Department of Conservation.
Trustee and Lakes District Museum director David Clarke said the hydro plant produced some of the first commercial electricity in the world, and needed to be preserved for future generations.
"Over time parts have been pilfered, but there is enough there to set up the plant in something like its original configuration, and cover it to stop further damage."
Listed by Heritage New Zealand as category one historic places, the hydro-electric plant and Bullendale settlement sites were of "international significance".
As well as powering the quartz-crushing battery at Bullendale, the plant powered a public hall and some of the workers' homes.
It was "mind-boggling" to think how the machinery was transported to the rugged site, which was remote even by today's standards, Mr Clarke said.
The site, about three hours' walk on old farm and pack tracks from the road end at Skippers, lies within the Mt Aurum Recreation Reserve.
Department of Conservation Wakatipu operations manager Geoff Owen said the project would help "preserve a significant piece of history" in the hills.
"It's the concept of people being able to engage with history rather than looking at it through a glass window."
The department relied on the community getting involved in the preservation of such sites, Mr Owen said.
After a period of financial constraint, the department had to "always try to put our money in the right places", and additional funding announced by the Government in last year's Budget would be spent on protecting biodiversity.
Last month the Queenstown Lakes District Council approved a $4000 grant to the Wakatipu Heritage Trust as reimbursement for the cost of building and resource consents for the project.
- Generated first hydro-electric power for industrial use in New Zealand
- Connected to New Zealand’s first electric power transmission line
- Powered one of the most remote hydro-electric systems in the world
- Operated from 1886 to 1901
- Dynamos placed on replica timber framework for centenary in 1986.
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"The department relied on the community getting involved in the preservation of such sites, Mr Owen said.
After a period of financial constraint, the department had to "always try to put our money in the right places", and additional funding announced by the Government in last year's Budget would be spent on protecting biodiversity.".
So what does that mean doc?, you want other people to pay for it so you don't have to, you want to protect 'biodiversity' which sounds like code for your own pockets.