Source: Radio New Zealand
Built in a neo-Georgian style, St George’s opened in 1927. RNZ / Robin Martin
Former students of St George’s Preparatory School in Whanganui have been stepping back in time on tours of the almost century-old campus ahead of its demolition.
The district council-owned site is being deconstructed – piece-by-piece – ahead of being repurposed for iwi health organisation Te Oranganui.
Built in the neo-Georgian style in 1927, St George’s was originally a boarding school for boys destined for nearby Whanganui Collegiate. In 1980, faced with declining rolls, it went co-ed before eventually relocating entirely to the Collegiate campus in 2017.
Former student Richard Austin’s father, Geoff, was headmaster from 1957 to 1977. He found the tour an emotional experience.
The entrance to the headmaster’s residence at St George’s. RNZ / Robin Martin
“I was thinking of those moments during my time there. Where I was sitting when I was told about the untimely death of my grandfather. I could just picture where I was sitting and where Dad told me.
“To walk onto the headmaster’s steps into his study. There were red steps where you were about to be caned. I could almost picture my dad’s binoculars hanging over the balcony balustrade.”
He reckoned his dad pumped up his role somewhat.
“He was more like a housemaster for 80 boarders all aged under the age of 12 or 13, and maybe 40 day boys. So, it was a boarding house, which I lived in, and the headmaster’s residence that was entirely discrete, but it didn’t stop me slipping through and helping myself to home food as well as school food.”
Austin – who had no qualms about the buildings coming down – looked back at his time at St George’s fondly.
“Our life there was a microcosm, we just lived a completely organised, regimented and caring life.
“School holidays were great. I had all these swimming pools I could use, all these tennis courts I could use or cricket fields I could play on. It was a wonderful time.”
ARC chief executive Thomas Bishop takes staff from Te Oranganui Trust through St George’s. RNZ / Robin Martin
Whanganui Heritage Trust co-chairperson Mary-Ann Ewing petitioned to save the school but had long accepted that was not possible.
“Our focus turned to salvage looking at the materials, the heritage materials, and we’ve been promoting to the council access for the public to walk through so that past students, teachers and grandparents can effectively say goodbye to it.”
The visit also moved her.
“It was quite emotional walking through. It’s such a beautiful building and we feel we’ve done the right thing arranging these days of walk-throughs, so people can see how much there is to salvage. The beautiful wood.
“And we were very impressed with ARC. They are passionate about salvaging as much as possible.”
ARC Asbestos Removal and Demolition chief executive Thomas Bishop was hoping to salvage up to 95 percent of the building materials.
“Your rimu, your matai, your totara, this material needs to be between 600 and 800 years old to mill. This building’s been up 100 years, so if it’s 600 to 800 years old before it’s even been installed in this building. We’re potentially talking about timber that is over 1000 years old which is pretty special. And it hasn’t seen moisture or the light of day in a hundred years.”
It wasn’t a responsibility Bishop took lightly.
It’s hoped to salvage much of the native timber used to construct St George’s. RNZ / Robin Martin
“There is a lot of history here and we have a lot of focus on is being kaitiaki for this product, this native material. We want to see this last forever, so for us to make sure it gets a new lease of life or installed in something else is hypercritical.”
The brickwork was also a focus.
“So, these bricks were actually clayed and fired here in Whanganui. There’s over 500,000 of them at this stage. It was actually full height double-bricked so there was potential for a million bricks here at one stage, but we’ve got 500,000 potentially left on site which are going to be cleaned up and repurposed.
“We’re still doing a bit more of a deep dive into the roofing tiles to figure out what’s going on with them. I know they were used as ship’s ballast to travel to and from Aotearoa New Zealand back in the day.”
Heritage management consultancy, Geometria, was also going through the buildings with a fine-tooth comb recording every aspect of the school so that it could create a digital record of it – including a three-dimensional representation of it.
Whanganui District Council bought St George’s from the YMCA in 2019.
It has signed a 21-year lease with Te Oranganui which planned to use the site as a community-focused health and wellbeing campus.
ARC Asbestos & Demolition CEO, Thomas Bishop, hopes to salvage 95 percent of the materials used to build St George’s. RNZ / Robin Martin
Te Oranganui Mātaiwhetū chief executive Whetūrangi Walsh-Tapiata said the trust had been able to tour the buildings before the extent of its asbestos issues was known.
“So, we have known about the beauty of the materials, in particular the wood, and as we progressed towards a lease arrangement with the Whanganui District Council and in our conversations with the Whanganui Heritage Trust, we always anticipated that we would like to consider using some of those products as a part of our new development.”
Walsh-Tapiata said the trust wanted the new build, planned for the school’s cricket ground, to honour pre-colonial and more recent history.
“So we are very excited about the possibility of ongoing conversations with the Whanganui District Council to consider how we might be able to use some of those materials.
“We’ve also created an artist group and they’re part of the group that walked through the property earlier this month with a view of seeing how we might be able to utilise some of these products or some of these resources, some of these materials.”
Walsh-Tapiata said as news of the deconstruction of St George’s spread, she expected requests to come in from marae and hapū iwi.
“And I hope they do, because when I look at particularly the wood. I think, wow, what did our land look like 100 or 200 years ago?
“You’ve got to remember that a lot of our forests 200 years ago were shipped to, for example, Wellington, and were part of building our Parliament buildings. So, you know, that is the nature of the beauty of the materials that came out of this region.”
Walsh-Tapiata said Te Oranganui had operated in the region for more than 30 years and its more than 200 staff were often spread around multiple locations.
“One of our goals was to build a fit for purpose facility where we would all be together and that would reflect our values and the way in which we have a wellbeing approach to the services that we offer.”
Walsh-Tapiata said stage one and stage two of the development would be to locate a headquarters for Te Oranganui on the St George’s existing cricket field, while stage three would be to invite partners onto the site of the existing school to create a genuine wellness hub.
It was envisaged more than 100 Te Oranganui staff would be based there.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
