In The Shed Issue #80 we visited this heritage park and met the great folks caring for and restoring industrial machines and vehicles.
Here is a short video of their collection of volunteer fire brigade engines from around the South Island. Our tour guide is Michael Rooney.
In The Shed Issue #80 we visited this heritage park and met the great folks caring for and restoring industrial machines and vehicles.
Here is a short video of their collection of volunteer fire brigade engines from around the South Island. Our tour guide is Michael Rooney.
The West Coast has a history as rich as it is rugged, with a past steeped in mining, logging, and dairy farming on a forest-clad strip between the mountains and the sea. Up by Hokitika airport is a sheddies’ paradise where relics from this past are being resurrected by an enthusiastic and capable band of volunteers.
“It all started back in 1981. Everything was going by train out to scrap, so we formed a club to stop it,” says Mort Cruickshank. The “we” were four young men – Spike Jones, Jim Straton, Mike Rooney and Mort. They formed the Westland Farm and Vintage Machinery Club and started salvaging old machinery that had been destined for the dump. With no premises, they kept it in their backyard sheds and met sporadically to plan the future.
Four decades on, and the Westland Industrial Heritage Park, spread over several acres up by Hokitika airport, is packed with machinery, sheds and enthusiasts. It is a hub of community activities, has a Menzshed on site and is increasingly a drawcard for tourists.
