WAIHI TOWNSHIP AWARD

Mayor Basil Morrison’s dream for Waihi to be the best small town in New Zealand was realised with the announcement that it had won the “Physical Environment” section of the inaugural awards of the Town Centre Association of New Zealand. This organisation was formerly known as Mainstreet New Zealand. It was set up following the lead taken by similar organisations in America and Australia.  Their objectives are to enhance the environments of town centers with the view of promoting economic development and social well being in towns hit by changing retail patterns. These changing patterns include the growth of malls, mega markets, home shopping, Internet shopping and the like.  Waihi first expressed an interest in main street development at a meeting and workshop of community members in the Memorial Hall around 1990.


Tim Shadbolt presents the Township award to Mayor Basil Morrison, accompanied by Waihi Ward Committee Members Mike Haydon and Selwyn Baker, and Boffa Miskell representative Doug Leighton.
At this meeting there was strong support for a town centre upgrade including a heritage theme. Later the Community Board, under the leadership of Joyce Fawcett, took the matter up with promoters of the mainstreet concept. Joyce, along with fellow board members Mary Carmine, Mike Hayden and the late Francis Hansen became inaugural members of a committee, which included many other community members and business people. This committee eventually became Go Waihi.  The Community Board funded a design for a street upgrade done by students from Waikato University, but this design, based on phoenix palms, did not find favour with the public. Eventually Council, as owners of the infrastructure, took the project in hand and the Mayor set up an advisory committee to assist with community consultation on the project. Council commissioned a design by Isthmus who also designed the Mt Maunganui street improvements.

The Isthmus design had some favour but also used palms which people did not seem keen on and did not incorporate the gold mining heritage features that the public continued to favour. Boffa Miskell gained the contract to put the finishing touches on the design and carry it through to completion. They added the heritage theme and, after much discussion with the mayoral advisory committee, decided in favour of the present trees over the palms.  

 

Statues

The idea of statues was floated early in the development of the streetscape concept. From there it was decided on bronze and the subjects to be used were greatly debated.  Former Mayor, Owen Morgan, was consulted and many suggestions bandied about. The Rangatira was decided on early as a tribute to the tangata whenua and the original naming of the area.  

The statue of two children in the gutter has a longer story. From consultation it appeared that members of the public were divided in their opinions of Waihi’s deep gutters. Many wished them removed as they posed a hazard to pedestrians and motorists but a significant number felt they were a heritage feature in themselves with an interesting history and should be preserved. A compromise was struck by simulating a section of deep gutter and commissioning the statues of the two children warming their feet in the  warm water, which was pumped from the mine. The feature forms part of Martha Court, which was created on an empty section for the purpose of establishing a green rest area in the upper part of town.  The next statue, that of a “turn of century” miner is expected to arrive in the next few weeks and will be placed outside the memorial hall.  

   

Mainstreet

Waihi has a very wide main street so it was reasonable to divide it down the middle with a median strip. Replicas of the old gas lamps have been placed along this median and “24 Carat Gold” day lilies are planted in between. At Haszard St a roundabout features a modified version of the old Seddon Memorial which used to be situated there. Gold coloured carpet roses surround the base and it is topped by three lamps.  Seats are situated at frequent intervals all along Seddon St and Rosemont Rd and are well used.  The poppet Head towers above the street and can be seen from all directions entering the town. It is a replica of the num-ber five shaft poppet head from the early underground mining days and was donated by the present mining company Waihi Gold.