Heritage study begins

Council to consider early Maori settlement to million dollar baches.

The history of the Coromandel - from how people made a living to the enduring holiday experiences on the Peninsula - is to be researched and recorded for Thames-Coromandel District Council.

Dr Ann McKewan will be visiting the Peninsula to focus initially on two communities – Mercury Bay and Tairua-Pauanui – as part of implementing the Council’s Heritage Strategy.

Dr McKewan’s research aims to build a picture of the Peninsula from its earliest settlement to the present through themes. These themes will cover settlement, the economy of the Peninsula, governance, building communities and ‘mind and body’ which considers the arts, recreation and how people connect with the place.

Dr McKewan told this month’s Policy and Planning Committee that preserving heritage did not always mean having to throw lots of money at a particular building or placing unnecessary restrictions on property through District Plan provisions.

“Some issues can be addressed by integrating heritage into the Council’s own processes,” she said. “It’s not about locking things up in the District Plan and making people jump through Resource Consent hoops, but about the Council engaging with the community to find ways to tell people stories.

“It’s important to keep those stories going and then what you hope happens is that people will want to protect their environment and heritage.”

She said the Council had afforded some protection through its District Plan to the colonial history particularly in Thames and Coromandel, but there was currently nothing to recognise the heritage that existed on the east coast of the Peninsula.

“Community Plans have provided me with a useful insight into what communities might expect. The holidaying heritage of the Peninsula is what people think about when they think of the Coromandel yet there’s currently nothing that considers that.”

The Community Plan in Pauanui, for example, had sought for the vision of the original ‘seaside resort’ development by the Hopper brothers’ to be recognised and considered in any future development of the town. This and other suggestions that arose through Community Plans can be considered through the Peninsula Blueprint.

The ‘mind and body’ theme would similarly consider the history of arts on the Coromandel – as a “hippy retreat” for arts and crafts or a place to build a million dollar bach or hovel in the bush. “It’s an important and interesting part of the heritage on the Coromandel that people have ‘gone bush’.”

Dr McKewan will be visiting Community Boards this month and following her research, will disseminate information to communities and stakeholders for input before the Council considers any recommendation for the District Plan and the Peninsula Blueprint.