Gasworks ready for fest

From fossils to forges, a series of events this month will make history come alive.

The Ōtepoti Dunedin Heritage Festival began yesterday with an exploration of Earth’s marvels at the Otago Rock and Mineral Club.

On Saturday the popular Gasworks Museum Markets return after a hiatus while insecure bricks were removed from the top of the heritage listed 25m-tall chimney.

Festival co-ordinator Jonathan Cweorth said the chimney had been stabilised and was now secure, making the site completely safe.

All areas of the museum are open, including displays of Victorian machinery used to maintain a gas network to thousands of households across the city.

"It is one of the very few gasworks museums in the world ... that still has the original machines in working order."

The historic working forge will operate and blacksmiths will teach a beginners’ class, showing how to transform metal into something beautiful through the application of heat and force.

The museum will also host a repair station.

"We try and put a repair shop into each heritage festival, so in here we will have experts in sewing and electrical repair and tech repair.

"People can bring their damaged goods in and get some advice and maybe even get a repair on the day."

Dunedin Gasworks Museum volunteer John Heaven is displaying his handmade whirligig toys, which have mechanisms that enable them to move.

"He has got about a dozen of them that he made for his grandkids, so he will just be demonstrating them and the kids can have fun turning the levers and seeing how they work."

This year’s festival marks a centennial celebration of the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition of 1925-26.

The six-month event drew more than three million visits.

The exhibition remains one of the country’s most ambitious, large-scale showcases.

Alongside activities at the Gasworks Museum, more are taking place across the city.

On Saturday at the Community Gallery, Hocken Collections archivist Tom Riley will present a session on what to do with items such as documents, photographs, journals and letters.

"If you have no idea what to do with it or how to preserve it or where to take it if you don't want to keep it at home, but you want it to stay in the public record, then Tom will be full of great advice."

• For a full list of events during the Ōtepoti Dunedin Heritage Festival visit southernheritage.org.nz

sam.henderson@thestar.co.nz