When telling the stories behind buildings, structures and machinery, there are a number of different slants that can be taken. Often, the emphasis is on the architecture, the science or the social history. This mult takes you on a short walk around the centre of town and tells stories which reflects the stories from an Engineering perspective.
Designed to be enjoyable for locals as well as visitors.
Please bring your own pen and note final is in a high muggle area.
The official European settlement of Dunedin started in 1848 when Scottish Presbyterians arrived. The Gabriels Gully gold rush of 1861 brought thousands of miners and much money to Otago. Dunedin became the largest city in NZ and there was an increasing demand for engineering services.
Go on the walk to find out some facts about Dunedin that are not listed in any guide books. The final cache is hidden at:
S45 52.ABC E170 30.DEF
The walk is 2.5km and it is recommended that you allow 1.5Hrs. The majority of this walk is on the flat. Please note you can get to all of the points via ramps instead of stairs making it available to strollers and wheelchairs.
1. Toitū Otago Settlers Museum
The oldest building on this site was opened in 1907 as an Art Gallery. The adjoining Settlers Hall opened 1908, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of Dunedin city and the Otago province. They were designed by Architect Arthur John Burnside and built by Mr Orr Campbell. The Donald Reid wing was built by Loan and Watson and opened in 1922. Josephine was moved into this wing in the 1960s.
The New Zealand Railways Road Services bus depot was designed in 1936-37 by James Hodge White following a national competition. The bus depot opened in November 1939. It is an art deco design. The walls are finished with marble.
A significant design feature is the way buses were able to drive around the main concorse. There was garage space for 25 buses.
2. Bell Hill, The Cutting and Reclamation
The original shoreline followed the foot of the hills that you can see from the Museum. It is also indicated by the blue line on the map (see images). Early photographs and paints (found in the Museum) show that a prominent hill dominated the centre of Dunedin. It was too steep for wheeled vehicles to cross and sloped into the Harbour to allow a road to pass around it. The shoreline at the time was at the base of the cliff near lower High Street and Dunbar Street. The hill was a considerable barrier between those who had settled near the original landing site and jetty (located near the present Southern Cross Hotel site) and those located on the flat area at the northern part of town. In 1959 the first attack on the hill was made by blasting a six metre wide cutting into the solid rock to enable wheeled traffic to proceed along Princes Street.
The influx of both ships and people to Dunedin in the early 1860's following the discovery of gold inland, created a pressing need for more flat land around the harbour to accommodate the commercial expansion. The Provincial Government decided that Bell Hill, which despite the Princes Street Cutting was still a massive barrier in centre of town, should be demolished to provide spoil for the reclamation work. The earthworks were undertaken using a mix of private contractors and prison labour. At times up to 500 men were working on the project which involved blasting the rock and shoveling it into horse-drawn trucks which ran on rails; to discharge their loads on the tidal flats. On the newly reclaimed ground, streets were formed by the Provincial Government and handed over to the City Corporation.
3. Main Intercepting Sewer
Beneath the Queen Gardens area is a labyrinth of trunk utilities including electricity, telecommunications and storm-water. The largest of these is the Main Intercepting Sewer. Sewer construction commenced in Dunedin in 1863. The major Dunedin lines were in Jervios Street, High/Rattray Streets (the Exchange), St Andrew Street and Fredrick Street. Except for part of the St Andrew Street sewer, all of these remain in use today (nearly 150 years later).
London first installed sewers around the same time (between 1859 and 1865).
4. One way street system
The one-way concept was developed by a traffic engineering partnership of De Leuw Cather from the United States and Rankins & Hill of Australia in 1964. The City's Engineer's department undertook the design and implementation of the project. The City Council adopted it after very extensive public consultation and liaison with the National Roads Board, in the face of strong opposition from retailers, newspapers, the Otago Hospital Board and others, which meant physical work didn't commence until 4 years after the original report was received. All opposition ceased a few days after the system opened, clearly because of the dramatic improvement it had on traffic flows throughout the city and beyond.
5. Cumberland Street Overbridge
The first bridge over Cumberland Street was one block south of the present one. It has riverted steel plate girders and was constructed in 1886 by the Dunedin firm of Kincaid, McQueen & Co. Castings for the bridge were made from the first steel produced commercially in New Zealand at Smellie Brothers new iron work at Burnside, Green Island. Smillie Brothers became the Otago Iron Rolling Mills which operated until 1953 and eventually evolved into the current Farra Engineering. The new prestressed concrete bridge was opened in 1977 and the old bridge was removed soon after, although the old masonry abutments are still visible.
F= How many words are on the three lane signs passing under the Overbridge?
6. New Zealand Express Company Building
The building is now known as Consultancy House, formally known as the NZ Mutual Funds Ltd (MFL) Building. It is one of the very early reinforced concrete multi-storey buildings in New Zealand and was built in 1908 for the NZ Express Company Ltd (a transport and cartage company). It was the tallest building in the city (at the time) and incorporated many features which were very advanced for its time, some of which weren't widely used until many years later. Some of these features included central heating system using hot water distribution and radiators from a single boiler possibly NZ's first reinforced concrete raft foundation (containing 250 tons of reinforcing) to overcome the problems of building on the old foreshore and precast concrete floor slabs.
B = the number of fire escape landings on the front of the building (do not count the tiny one off ground level).
7. T&G Building
The structural design of this building (now named Upstart House) was carried out in 1955. The building was designed to be 11 storeys high which was then considered to be a high-rise structure.
D = first number above lobby door divided by the last number above the lobby door.
8. Former ANZ Bank Building
The building was constructed in 1874 for the Union Bank. The Union was the first bank in Dunedin.
9. Chief Post Building
The foundations for this building were laid in 1929 and the construction during the 1930s depression gave employment to workman and added impetus to business generally. The riveted steel girder frame was encased in concrete and was said to be earthquake-proof (the first in Dunedin).
10. Shoreline Plaque
This plaque marks the landing place for the first settlers in 1848. The land on the harbour side of this point was reclaimed with material from Bell Hill.
On the plaque the date is E3rd March 1848.
11. Grand Hotel
This building now houses the Casino ad is surrounded on three sides by the Southern Cross Hotel. The architect was Louis Boldini. It was built in 1883 and clad in Oamaru limestone. It is constructed of fireproof material (a marketing factor) and also featured an example of the recently invented electric lift.
12. The Exchange - A Transport Terminus
This area is the earliest major transport hub in Dunedin. Horse trams commenced in 1879. Operation of the legendary cable cars began in 1881 with the final service terminating in 1957. In 1903, electric trams commenced operations along Princes and George Street replacing horse trams. Dunedin had more tramlines in proportion to population than an city in the world. In 1952, trolley buses started to replace the tram services.
A = number of penguins and red telephone booths in the exchange square +1
13. Cable Car Underground Chamber
There is an underground chamber beneath the surface of High Street near the entrance to the Southern Cross Hotel that has an interesting history. It started life in 1883 when it was built as part of the Mornington Cable Car line up High Street. It housed the large pulley for the continuous cable that ran from the engine house in Mornington, Cable cars gripped the cable and were pulled up the street and lowered down.
During the 1950s, the electricity supply system to the CBD was upgraded, which included installing a series of underground substations, one of which was located in the pit. This was a tricky task as the pit was close to one of the City's main sewers, and was covered in 75 years of grease split from the axle bearings of the pulley. Interestingly, the entry is via a side tunnel from a manhole cover in the footpath. The old brick walls of the pit had to be underpinned and deepened to accommodate the electricity transformer and switchgear. A large hatch in the centre of the roadway provided access to lower the transformer in place, and a large fan and grill was installed for ventilation and to dry the renovated pit. It is no longer in use.
14. Bank of New Zealand Building
The present building replaces an earlier one built in 1863 for the Bank of New Zealand. It was itself a significant builsing bur nor large enough, so was replaced by the present building. It was vacated by the BNZ in 1999 after 116 years.
The exterior of the building is largely unaltered, in the basement, where the walls are 1.89 metres thick, there was an hydraulic lift servicing upper floors and the usual strong rooms as well as smelting rooms originally built to handle the gold trade of the province.
15. National Bank Building
In 1998 the building was vacated as a bank and then sold. Through 2004 the new owners redeveloped the 1912 building using adaptive reuse techniques and conservation principles. A prime objective was to restore the banking chamber, one of the city's most impressive public spaces, using sustainable principles.
The new energy efficient roof light replaces the original use of natural light. The strengthening at basement level enabled conservation of the bank vaults into basement car parking.
On the historic building plaque it says that is was made using Ferra - (C = number of letters of this second word).
16. First Church
A Church Reserve was established here by the first settlers in 1848 but construction of the current building wasn't commenced until 1867 as the site was lowered to provide fill for reclamation work. The design competition for a church was won by Robert Arthur Lawson and construction was undertaken by D & J Hunter, Builders.
The spire is 53 m high. When originally built, the top portion of the spire was slightly out of perpendicular and 4.6 m too short so had to be rebuilt. The church opened in 1873 and has seating for 1,000 people.
The exterior walls of the church are of brick, lined with Oamaru stone, making a solid wall about 500mm thick. The tower and spire were similarly constructed, the spire being hollow for about two thirds of its height, with the remainder solid. The tower was strengthened with galvanised tie rods in 1964/65 and these were replaced with stainless steel rods in 1990. J R G Hanlon was the Structural Engineer for the strengthening and W H Naylor was the contractor.
Behind the church there is a great view over the peninsula and south Dunedin.
17. Plane Table Behind First Church
The base for this is made from the foundation stones of an 1850s Presbyterian Church that used to be in Dowling Street. From here, it is possible to look back at the features we have visited, such as the reclaimed areas.
This information has been taken from the leaflets produced by The Institution of Professional Engineers(IPENZ) Engineering Heritage Otago Chapter with assistance from Otago Settlers Museum and DCC Community & Recreation Services. Hard copies of these leaflets are unfortunately no longer distributed anywhere in town but you can find them at http://www.ipenz.org.nz/heritage/itemdetail.cfm?itemid=2465