In a year brimming with community events, The Star reporters Simon Henderson and Brenda Harwood share their favourite photos from 2023, highlighting some the year’s memorable moments.
As election fever gripped the country, retired journalist Philip Somerville complete with whimsical red and white-striped "Cat in the Hat" top hat, tuxedo and eye-catching yellow bow tie, was back at Dunedin’s Opoho Church for his candidate election debate, which has become an increasingly famous fixture in the election calendar since he began hosting them in the mid-1990s.
As Chinese New Year celebrations at Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden ushered in the Year of the Rabbit, a quiet moment of reflection was captured during a performance by Chinese Cultural and Arts Association member Cindy Chou.
A group of about 30 University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic students called the Heavy Breathers, many who lived at a formerly well-known Butts Rd student party flat called the Lake House, took on the task of running the Emerson’s Dunedin Marathon as a fundraiser for charity campaign Spark That Chat and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. An initial target of $10,000 was surpassed and they ultimately raised over $107,000 for charity. The group now plans to continue to work to help others.
Squirming kittens make life tricky at the Otago SPCA intake centre for (from left) Cat Rescue Dunedin Charitable Trust chairwoman Debby Foster, SPCA vet nurse Phoebe Loper and SPCA centre manager Ellen Andrews, earlier this month. The two organisations were bracing for another huge kitten season, after an already busy year of working to tackle Dunedin’s stray, feral and un-desexed cat population, and thereby prevent the births of hundreds of kittens. Both organisations needed support with funds, space, food and fosterers to help care for the flood of kittens, which was expected to peak in January-February 2024.
Putting out the call for Dunedin people to do their bit to spot possums across the city during June’s Spotlight on Possums event were (from left) Predator Free Dunedin communications and engagement lead Jacinta Steed, City Sanctuary Project community ranger Zac Martin, Halo Project operations lead Harvey Aughton and City Sanctuary project co-ordinator Kate Tanner. The project aimed to encourage local people to rug up and head out into the backyard, local park, or reserve and be part of a Dunedin-wide survey of possum numbers. A conservation collective of more than 20 organisations working to protect native biodiversity and strengthen communities, Predator Free Dunedin has a long-term goal of removing possums, rats and stoats from Dunedin’s urban and rural landscapes by 2050.
Former Evening Star reporter and subeditor, and chief subeditor of The Star Midweek and Weekender, Barry Idour, holds the paper’s July 1, 1979 edition showing overwhelming public opposition to the introduction of plastic rubbish bags in Dunedin. Mr Idour was featured in The Star’s 24-page 160th anniversary supplement in June, which traced the newspaper’s history from its foundation as daily The Evening Star in 1863, which morphed into a twice-weekly tabloid in 1979, and then to the weekly
The Star community newspaper of today. The supplement also highlighted major events in Dunedin and New Zealand over the years, from natural disasters to sporting triumphs and exciting events such as visits by the Royals and The Beatles.
