Events Notice:
New Zealand Historic Places Trust
Otago Branch Committee AGMTONIGHT
Thursday 20 September 2012, Dunedin Railway Station café
6:30pm to 8:30pmGuest speaker: Stephen Macknight (structural engineer)
EQ-prone Buildings – The Way Forward
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### ODT Online Thu, 20 Sep 2012
Spend a little time inside, for a fee
By Hamish McNeilly
From next month the doors to the 116-year-old Dunedin Prison will be opened to those wanting a tour of the historic property. The Dunedin Charitable Trust bought the prison for $20,000 in June, after Ngai Tahu deferred its Treaty right to buy the surplus property. Trustee Sarah Girvan said while dates were not yet finalised, small group tours to see the “bare bones prison” were likely to begin next month for a donation of $10 per person. Donations would go towards the prison’s conservation plan – expected to begin in November – and which would “identify our next step in terms of redevelopment”.
Read more
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Related Posts:
6.6.12 Dunedin Prison purchased by trust
18.10.11 Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
### ODT Online Wed, 26 Sep 2012
Years of work preserving city’s heritage recognised
By Rebecca Fox
Years of work by Dunedin man Stewart Harvey helping to restore and protect the city’s heritage has been recognised with a national award. Mr Harvey was recently presented with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust certificate of merit award by trust board member Anna Crighton at a surprise event.
Read more
### ODT Online Sun, 7 Oct 2012
Guided tours of former prison starting
By Hamish McNeilly
Guided tours of the historic Dunedin Prison will begin next Saturday, the trust behind the new venture has confirmed. The prison was largely in the same condition as when it was decommissioned five years ago, but cleaners had recently gone through the property, and most of the lighting was now working. The trust planned to raise $2.6 million to turn the courtyard into an outdoor dining area, set up a prison tour experience and convert the former wardens’ office into office and venue-hire space.
Money raised from the tours, which attract a donation of $10, would go towards the prison’s conservation. The first tour of up to a maximum of 15 people would be held on October 13, tours continuing every Saturday and Tuesday until the end of the month. The midday tours were expected to take around 40 minutes.
Read more
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Anyone interested in a tour can register on the trust’s website
http://www.dunedinprisontrust.co.nz/
Tour Dates:
Saturday, 13 October
Tuesday, 16 October
Saturday, 20 October
Tuesday, 23 October
Saturday, 27 October
Tuesday, 30 October
### ODT Online Sat, 13 Oct 2012
Trust still needs stone for prison wall
The Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust is part-way towards its goal of finding enough stone to reinstate the low wall on the prison’s lower High St frontage but is still seeking more.
Read more
### ODT Online Mon, 15 Oct 2012
Inside insight
By Rebecca Fox
Prison officer Ken Burt explains the workings of the former Dunedin prison to its first tour group on Saturday. The tours, on Saturdays and Tuesdays until the end of the month, were fully booked, Dunedin Prison Trust chairman Stewart Harvey said. While only planning to take 15 people per tour, they stretched to 18 yesterday to meet demand. Overall, 100 people had booked for the chance to see inside the prison which was closed in 2009.
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Nice to see Chris and Margaret Betteridge back in town.
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### ODT Online Sun, 4 Nov 2012
Aussie expert stunned by former Dunedin prison
By Rebecca Fox
Australian heritage conservator Chris Betteridge has been “knocked out” by the architecture of the former Dunedin prison. Mr Betteridge is in Dunedin this week to begin a conservation management plan for the prison on behalf of the Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust. “It’s a beautiful building complex with the law courts and the railway station, but once inside it’s a different feel – dark, dreary, sombre,” he said. He and his wife, Margaret, who also carried out the conservation management plans for the city’s southern and northern cemeteries, will pull together all the information on the prison, do additional research and consult other heritage experts about the building and provide the trust with a detailed plan.
Read more
### 3news.co.nz Sat, 10 Nov 2012 6:29p.m.
Dunedin Prison becomes tourist trap
By Krissy Moreau
It has housed axe murderers and baby killers, but now Dunedin’s old prison is being transformed into a world-class tourist attraction.
Dunedin Prison guard Ken Burt spent 28 years locking up criminals in the prison’s cells. Now he’s locking up tourists. Prison life from a bygone era is what’s drawing tourists to the not-quite-finished attraction – how they lived, how they rebelled.
Read more + Video
### ODT Online Fri, 9 May 2014
Prison conservation plan shown to trust today
Home » News » Dunedin
By Eileen Goodwin and Debbie Porteous
Decisions about the future of the historic Dunedin Prison will follow the completion of a conservation plan, Dunedin Prison Trust chairman Stewart Harvey says. Sydney-based heritage consultants Margaret and Chris Betteridge spent 18 months on the plan, which they said yesterday strengthens the case for the trust’s plan to create a heritage prison experience.
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Are the Butchers still involved with this project? Pleased to see this Sydney based couple involved. They seem competent and provide a wide experience of similar projects.
Frank., the Betteridges also wrote the conservation plans for the Northern and Southern cemeteries and which strongly factored in the then-named New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand) assessment for registration as Category I historic places. During that conservation plan work I was chairing NZHPT Otago Branch so met with the couple on occasion to provide feedback to their drafts. They’re a long established reputable conservation-based practice firm with good business nous. Also, very personable and enthused by well-planned and actioned community initiatives for contemporary use of historic heritage that provide revenue as well as continuous learning opportunities.
Heritage building consultant Guy Williams checks the condition of the slate roof.
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### dunedin.co.nz May 21, 2014 – 8:12pm
Fire Service gives prison roof the once over
The former Dunedin Prison roof was given the once over this afternoon, with a little help from the Dunedin Fire Service.
Video
● http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/303137/birds-eye-view
EXCITING
### ODT Online Fri, 7 Aug 2015
Prison becoming ‘must-see’ attraction
By Craig Borley
[…] The Dunedin Prison Trust lodged a planning application with the Dunedin City Council last week, detailing about $250,000 of restorative work which would return the prison’s exterior to its original 1898 condition. The building’s roof and walls would be repaired and seismic strengthening carried out, work expected to cost another $250,000.
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