West Eyreton Heritage Project
- At the Boards October 2021 meeting, a deputation was made by Tim Fulton from West Eyreton regarding the state of the mound where the West Eyreton Train Platform once stood. Tim was concerned that this landmark was being eroded by time as cattle walking along North Eyre Road and that people couldn’t recognise that this was the site of the old train station as pictured below.
- A report was brought to the Board’s April 2022 meeting outlining that staff would work with Tim and Bernard Kingsbury to determine what steps would be appropriate in portraying the historic nature of the elements within the West Eyreton township.
- Staff have worked with Tim and Bernard and Board Member Mark Brown and have determined that while the mound is not in fact part of the railway system, there is a rich quantity of historic elements both related to the railway and also life in West Eyreton in and around the township. Discussion therefore turned to how this heritage could be shown and celebrated to visitors to West Eyreton with two potential projects being suggested as below;
Historic sign in Oak Reserve
Bernard Kingsbury has provided us with the below plan along with additional information which they would like to see digitised and lazer etched onto a steel sign and placed on the edge of Oak Reserve for people to look at.
The intention would be to include a QR code on the sign which people could scan to access further information. This could also link to information about local eaterys such as Cust Hotel etc. Staff believe that a sign such as this would likely cost approximately $4,000.
Railway Siding Sign
When the railway was removed, so too were the siding signs. The West Ereyton sign happened to ‘fall off the back of the truck’ at the time and is now located on the front of the West Eyreton Hall as shown below.
Recently many of these siding signs have been replaced/maintained on the Rangiora Oxford line such as at Bennets, Stoke, Fernside and Springbank. These have created a standard visual for the portrayal of the location of previous railway stations within our district. It was agreed that a new sign would be ideal to match into these and could be located in front of the old siding in West Eyreton. Staff have looked at the cost of the above replacements and estimate that the costs of this work would be approximately $3,000.
- The plan below shows the location of these two proposals and together would help people understand the history of the West Eyreton township and railway. Currently there is $18,50 remaining budget within the Oak Reserve project which had previously been earmarked for a park bench. Tim, Mark and Bernard, agreed that they felt that the priority for the area was 1) The historic sign, 2) the siding sign and 3) a park bench with the bench potentially being left as a future project.
- If the Board agreed with this priority, this would require a budget allocation of $5,150 towards West Eyreton Heritage Project which would allow the two signs to be completed. A seat could then be brought to the board in the future when required.
- If the board did not agree to this priority and wanted the seat to be completed, this would still require additional budget of 1650 to be allocated to enable a seat to be purchased and installed.
- Staff recommend the priority listed above by Mark, Bernard and Tim and the allocation of budget to the two signs.
Confirmed Minutes – 2023 Oxford Ohoka Community Board meeting
Moved: T Fulton Seconded: M Brown
THAT the Oxford-Ohoka Community Board:
(f) Approves the allocation of $5,150 towards historic signs within West
Eyreton including the previously allocated $1,850 from the Oak Reserve
West Eyreton project noting that this would mean that a seat would
need to await future budget allocation.
(g) Approves Greenspace staff working with a sub-group consisting of
Councillor Tim Fulton, Board member Mark Brown and Community
Member Bernard Kingsbury to finalise the exact location and style of
these signs.