Otago students at Pitt St: No longer drunk possums in trees

Last night I heard (muted) sirens about, nothing more – not realising what was happening a few houses away up Pitt St. My place is tucked in off the road, nothing seemed out of the usual for a Thursday night, ‘student party night’ —just typical city noise that often includes sirens and choppers. Reading through a consent file for 97 Filleul St collected from DCC that afternoon, I was absorbed, completely missing the street action…. On waking this morning, I opened the first message on my phone, from a journalist asking if I’d heard the party on Pitt St last night? Hmm

18 Pitt Street, Dunedin [Google Street View Nov 2009] tweaked

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 12:50, April 29 2016
Dunedin student seriously injured after jumping from roof
By Laura Walters and Hamish McNeilly
A Dunedin student in hospital with life-threatening injuries jumped from a roof just minutes after party-goers were told to turn their music down by noise control officers. Dunedin District Command Centre Senior Sergeant Brian Benn said police were called to the house on Pitt St about 11.30pm on Thursday. “A drunken student tried to jump off a roof. That didn’t end too well for him.” Benn said no one at the party saw the 21-year-old land after jumping from the roof, but when partygoers went to find out what happened they found him with “reasonably serious injuries”. Neighbours said the flat had been quiet during 2016 until Thursday night’s party. “It was a terrible racket,” one neighbour said. St John ambulance spokesman Andy Gray said the student’s condition was updated from serious to critical due to his “life threatening injuries”. He was taken to Dunedin Hospital but the large party continued.
Read more

Fri, 29 Apr 2016
ODT: Student ‘critical’ after jump off roof
A student is fighting for his life after jumping off the roof of a two-storey house at a large Dunedin flat party last night. Senior Sergeant Brian Benn, of Dunedin, said the 21-year-old was seriously injured after “an aerial stunt” at the Pitt St party went wrong.

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Not for the first time.
Last year, it began with the male students at 53 Royal Tce….

Comment by Elizabeth
2016/04/07 at 2:38 am
An associate caught sight of a particularly juvenile and UNSAFE act that occurred next door [at 53]….
The scene.
Two storeyed house with dormer windows in the City Rise, tenanted by university 3rd or 4th year male students.
Constant noise and behavioural issues…. well-known to Noise Control, Campus Watch and Proctor [Police attention very much the next step – these young idiots have been told].

One of them had earlier broken his leg. Following recovery and some time later…. his so-called ‘friends’ egged him on to jump from a dormer roof (at second floor level) into a shallow paddling pool at ground level. He had to think about it for quite a while…. obviously he was facing serious injury or worse if he got it wrong, given the building height and shallowness of the water. Being a mental statistic he jumped – by luck not good management he did not need an ambulance.

What was that about safety nets – let the morons kill themselves, one less noise complaint.

Recent student idiocy:
● 53 Royal Tce – Dunedin [no injury, not recorded] Late 2015
● 598 Castle St – Dunedin [multiple crowd injuries] 4 Mar 2016 Link
● 124 Dundas St – Dunedin [serious head injury] 12 Mar 2016 Link
● 18 Pitt St – Dunedin 2016 [critical injury] 28 Apr 2016

Related Post and Comments:
7.3.16 Balcony Collapse at Six60 concert, 598 Castle Street, Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: red_cross_joshua_dwire_03.svg 2 | creativebloq.com – falling dude
[whatifdunedin overlay]

Balcony Collapse at Six60 concert, 598 Castle Street, Dunedin

Tweet:

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Paul Henry
Monday 7 Mar 2016 8:02 a.m. (via newshub.co.nz)
Key: More police wouldn’t have prevented balcony collapse Updated

Paul Henry
Monday 7 Mar 2016 12:42 p.m. (via newshub.co.nz)
Police should have been given more notice of Six60 concert – O’Connor

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Six60 outside Castle Street flat that inspired their name. Photo: Instagram/Six60 (via RNZ News)

its SLiK Published on Mar 4, 2016
Balcony collapses near Six60 gig

Otago Daily Times Published on Mar 4, 2016
Balcony collapse on Dunedin’s Castle Street

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### radionz.co.nz Updated at 11:33 am today
RNZ News
No criminal inquiry into balcony collapse
The police have decided against opening a criminal investigation into a balcony collapse at a concert in Dunedin. […] A young woman studying at Otago University has been transferred to Christchurch Hospital, with what have been reported as spinal injuries. A young male student from Otago Polytechnic has undergone surgery at Dunedin Hospital. […] While police did not intend to investigate further from a criminal point of view, they would work with the reviews being carried out by Worksafe New Zealand and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Action was urgently needed to ensure people’s safety and preserve the reputations of the city and Otago University, [Mayor Cull] said.

Other events during this year’s orientation week, such as couch burning and concern about verbal abuse, including a rape threat and racial slurs, have prompted students themselves to call for action.

[Mayor Cull:] The council had no power to control the event at which the balcony collapsed as it was held on private property, and that might need to change. […]

Balcony ‘met building standards’
Mr Cull said the council’s chief building inspector had examined the balcony yesterday, and said it met the requirements of the building code. “I welcome the [Department of Building and Housing’s] further investigation to make it absolutely clear what caused it.” He said whether the partygoers were jumping up and down on the balcony was not the issue; it was that hundreds of people turned up to an event that would not normally be held in a domestic venue. “It’s just not acceptable to expect those kind of situations to not present more risk than if it’s professionally organised.”
Read more

### radionz.co.nz Updated at 8:00 am today
New footage of balcony collapse concert
By Ian Telfer – Dunedin
High-tech footage of a balcony collapse at a student concert has revealed no-one was jumping on it when it fell.
Read more + Photos

HARLENE KNOWS NOT HOW TO RULE [23 February 2012]
RNZ: University vice-chancellor seeking to halt wild parties

█ Listen to Ian Telfer on Morning Report

█ Listen to the interview with Dave Cull on Morning Report

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Stuff.co.nz stories:

● 7.3.16 Performer warned people to ‘get off the balcony’…
● 6.3.16 Harrowing injuries after balcony collapse…
● 6.3.16 Dunedin balcony collapse – Government orders investigation
● 5.3.16 Balcony collapse: Concerns raised about stability…
● 5.3.16 Balcony collapses at Six60 gig…

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Comment at What if? Dunedin:

Anonymous 2016/03/06 at 11:05 pm
Dealing with some issues here:

– on the claim that “the concert was impromptu” – it was “announced” via social media on Monday and the University was aware prior (Campus Watch were detailed). Animation Research Ltd had a 360 degree motion camera rig in operation (and captured footage of the collapse). A stage was erected and sound gear installed. This is not impromptu.

– an “impromptu” event would still need to be notified
see here: http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/Frefor/pdf/event-safety-guidelines-osh-200104.pdfhttp://www.waitakere.govt.nz/Frefor/pdf/event-safety-guidelines-osh-200104.pdf
“Any planned activity where any structure, open area, roadway or other area will contain more people than normally found in that location at one time.”

– the venue was unsafe. Egress, crush barriers and evacuation were inadequate (a van was parked across the leg-in blocking access) as the band were performing (and ARL were working, and news media were reporting), this meets the definition of a “workplace” and both HSA and Worksafe legislation apply.

The event organizer has strict liability here. Those suggesting that the balcony collapse was the fault of those on it and that they should take “personal responsibility” are unfortunately misguided. It is up to the event organizer and those assessing the management plan to identify and control these risks. This was clearly inadequate in this case.

I would not want to be standing anywhere near the event organizers once the detailed investigation starts.

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Related Post and Comments:
3.11.15 Dunedin: University students into excess alcohol, party drugs, sexual abuse, vandalism #CRIME —Balcony collapse discussed from comment 71132

█ For more, enter the terms *students*, *university*, *harlene* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin North care less filthy slum

—– Original Message —–
From: Jeff Dickie
To: Elizabeth Kerr
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2014 5:45 PM
Subject: Sunday in the slums of North Dunedin

Hi Elizabeth, your comments re the new hotel [“Cull’s Cockup”, the new “Farry’s Folly”] are very good and congratulations on the National Radio coverage.

In the next day or so I’d like to post something on your Whatif site regarding the implications of the DCC neglecting core business and services. We’ve watched as the North End has transformed from an integrated community combining residents and students to an intensely populated and filthy slum. Largely as a result of poor planning by the DCC and University. I took these photos on Sunday, 16 March.

While Dave preens himself in front of the mirror and is distracted by the latest snake oil salesmen, there are some very serious social issues developing.

Regards, Jeff

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George Street

Castle Street

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Related Post and Comments:
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
25.3.13 University of Otago: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder…
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it

For more, enter *university* or *campus* in the search box at right.

Dunedin North drunks

Mr Gable stressed not all the partygoers exhibited bad behaviour, with others trying to calm the more aggressive young men.

### ODT Online Wed, 19 Mar 2014
Man attacked by St Patrick’s revellers
By Hamish McNeilly
A Dunedin man says he had his shirt ripped, glasses pulled off his face and his car’s wing mirror yanked off after he confronted drunken St Patrick’s Day revellers who were urinating on his property. Walking from work to his Malvern St home, Chris Gable encountered a large crowd of green-clad revellers in the area of the former Woodhaugh Hotel, about 5pm on Monday. […] He later had to leave the property, and while he was away, his neighbour, Jeff Dickie found an estimated 40 people on Mr Gable’s section, including some bouncing on his trampoline and others urinating on his property.
Read more

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Figures released under the Official Information Act show the Fire Service recorded 586 nuisance fires in the North Dunedin student area between February 20, 2009, and February 20, 2014. Of those, 179 were recorded last year – compared with 77 in 2009.

### ODT Online Wed, 19 Mar 2014
Student fires dampened
By Hamish McNeilly
Nuisance fires in the student quarter hit a five-year high last year, with Castle St the area’s top hot spot. To dampen fire threats, the Fire Service, police, University of Otago and Dunedin City Council have taken a zero tolerance approach to such fires in the city. Fire Service East Otago area manager Laurence Voight said that approach, coupled with fire prevention activities during Orientation Week appeared to have ”reduced the unwanted behaviour”.
Read more

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Meanwhile Vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne, on advice received from the likes of Stuart McLauchlan and John Ward (did we mention Mayor Cull?), ‘decides’ the University of Otago should sponsor, yes, the ‘drinking culture’ that attends a professional but barely coherent and losing rugby team, The Highlanders. Some things are cumulative by fragile branding connection… a marketing marriage borne in heaven: A GREAT EXAMPLE TO ALL. This, a ‘subtle’ buttering device, before the DCC’s Stadium gets offloaded to the University for nothing, and Hail Mary/Harlene! the University doesn’t have to pay rates.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr