Bradken keen to sell Tewsley Street premises

### dunedintv.co.nz November 17, 2014 – 6:25pm
Bradken’s move to Hillside Workshops foundry delayed
It’s been two years since Bradken announced it would move its Dunedin operations to the Hillside Workshops foundry. But the global company seems unable to sell its long-time premises in Tewsley Street. Bradken signed a five-year agreement with KiwiRail to lease the Hillside foundry. It planned to move its entire operation to the site, and expand capacity. Some workers have moved to Hillside, and the foundry’s been marked with the Bradken logo. But the company’s Tewsley Street premises remain open and on the market. Bradken’s been in Tewsley Street for almost 50 years.
Ch39 Link

Bradken Resources Pty Ltd, Mason St frontage (detail) | Derek Smith 2003

ODT articles:
25.1.13 Bradken tight-lipped over Hillside move
22.5.13 Bradken on the move
8.6.13 Bradken’s foundry site likely to be divided
5.7.13 Final day at Hillside
7.8.13 4-day week as Kiwi Rail tender lost
8.8.13 Otago unemployment up 37% on year ago
14.8.13 Bradken earnings down at $A183.6m
21.12.13 Rally helps keep Hillside hopes alive
29.12.13 Bradken staff back on five-day week

DCC Webmap – Bradken, 2 Tewsley Street, Harbourside [click to enlarge]

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### dunedntv.co.nz November 14, 2014 – 7:02pm
Nightly interview: Des Adamson
There’s been good and bad news for the Dunedin business sector recently, with the closure of some operations and expansion of others. Des Adamson is the manager of economic development at Enterprise Dunedin, and he’s here to tell us about the state of business in the city. Video

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*In 2003 photographer Derek Smith generously shared two DVDs of Dunedin images he had made, for my use in heritage advocacy. These include industrial and commercial subjects.

DCC: Wise Response Appeal (potential risks), and raw log export by City Forests

City council vote most interesting in the divide – a sign of better things to come at DCC !?

Crs Benson-Pope, Aaron Hawkins, Staynes and Wilson and Mr Cull voted to sign the appeal, but were defeated by Crs John Bezett, Doug Hall, Noone, Andrew Whiley, Hilary Calvert, Mike Lord and Vandervis. (ODT)

### ODT Online Wed, 21 May 2014
DCC votes against backing risk appeal
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council has ruled out throwing its weight behind the Wise Response Appeal, after councillors divided into camps over environmental concerns and fears of party political lobbying. […] Councillors eventually voted 7-5 against the council adding its name to the appeal, and instead decided only to ”note” a staff report detailing the appeal.
Read more

Wise Response http://wiseresponse.org.nz/

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”What the union is suggesting is that City Forests should take a lower price, make a lower profit, and pay a lower dividend to the ratepayers – so essentially, they are suggesting the ratepayers of Dunedin subsidise the jobs of the wider Otago sawmilling community. It’s a reasonable proposal, but that’s what it means.” –Mayor Dave Cull

### ODT Online Wed, 21 May 2014
Forestry log profit ‘doomed’
By John Lewis
The Amalgamated Workers Union New Zealand has laid blame for the impending closure of Southern Cross Forest Products squarely at the feet of the Dunedin City Council and local forestry growers. Yesterday, receiver KordaMentha announced 101 Otago-based staff at SCFP would be laid off progressively from mid-June.
Read more

● ‘Heads up’ leaves mill workers shocked
● Doubt over $11m owed to unsecured creditors

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin and the southern region’s business future

THE CLIMATE
(we’re sluggish, indebted and unproductive, working long hours for unremarkable results, there’s little or no ability to pay all our living expenses even if we can afford a mortgage — few Dunedin businesses are on the global map, very few of our citizens invest in ‘research and development’ or know what export truly involves — there is splendid isolation, no cohesion, and a striking absence of astute regional leadership)

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Our economy is drifting in very dangerous shoals. The only plausible avenue to sustained growth will be export-led. The high value of the dollar precludes this. Unless we act now the painful process of rebalancing our economy will be forced upon us at some future stage. At that point the pain will be even greater.

### ODT Online Fri, 4 May 2012
Opinion
Boosting export sector only way out of malaise
By Peter Lyons
We are living in a world of zombie economies including our own. These economies are characterised by high debt levels, stagnant or shrinking economies and policies of austerity that offer no solution. Finance Minister Bill English is promising a budget of little hope. He offers austerity almost with relish. It fits his ideological bent towards smaller government. A further unexpected $1 billion budget shortfall precludes any positive spending initiatives. Meanwhile the governor of the Reserve Bank wrings his hands over the high New Zealand dollar which is shredding our export sector. He has maintained this ineffective stance for a number of years.

Positive economic management appears beyond the scope of our policy makers.

New Zealand has been in or on the verge of recession since 2007. Most of the Western world has followed a similar path.
Read more

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LOCAL SENSELESSNESS
(where the ad hoc stadium spend has crippled the council, all the time missing the bigger outlook of how to serve the South Island’s contribution to export-led economic recovery — oh hey, the council’s junior bureaucrats and mayor say let’s play dress-ups with a few central city warehouses and six suburban amenity centres — the Dunedin City Council has to undergo major attitudinal and structural change)

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Apart from the ongoing clusters, there has never seemed to be any straightforward strategy to push economic growth in the city or the region.

### ODT Online Sat, 5 May 2012
Planning for future of Dunedin Inc
By Dene Mackenzie
Dunedin’s economic development draft strategy will be released on Monday. For the first time, the document will be signed off by stakeholders representing diverse areas of the city. There are several things business editor Dene Mackenzie hopes will be included in the new 10-year plan. For about 25 years, Dunedin’s economic strategy has doddered along. Past plans have included Dunedin City Council officers travelling to visit large-scale manufacturing enterprises in a bid to persuade them to establish themselves within the city boundaries, through to catchy slogans and billboards at airports. During that time, the city has seen its large-scale manufacturing base shrink with the loss of thousands of jobs.

Reviews of city council funding strategies need to be undertaken and the strategy must be inclusive of the needs of the business community. It seems that, often, funding decisions are applied on an ad hoc basis, when better value could be extracted from ratepayer funds.

More than 90% of Dunedin businesses are said to have no intention of exporting in the future and the city captured only 2.5% of the country’s recent migrants. That must change for the city to grow and prosper.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Kathryn Ryan interviews agribusiness pioneer George Harrison

BRILLIANT INTERVIEW (if Ryan didn’t interrupt)

### rnz.co.nz Wed 22 Jun 2011 10:06 AM
Nine To Noon with Kathryn Ryan
Agribusiness pioneer Sir Graeme Harrison
Newly-knighted founder and chair of meat company Anzco Foods, which has annual sales of more than $1.2 billion, making it one of New Zealand’s largest exporters. He is also a director of dairy co-operative Westland Milk Products and fishing firm Sealord.
Audio Ogg Vorbis MP3 (32′50″)

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Related:

[comment] 25.5.11
Prof Sir Paul Callaghan, physicist, entrepreneur, and New Zealander of the Year, was in Dunedin yesterday. Link

Sir Paul’s vision for New Zealand is a knowledge-based economy producing high-quality exports that do not strain the environment. Looking after the environment created the kind of society in which highly skilled people wanted to live. It helped reverse the brain drain, and attracted people from overseas. -Otago Daily Times

[post] 22.5.11
Audacious idea: New Zealand X-Prize Environmental and Energy

Hyperfactory founder Derek Handley said $1b is less than a tenth of what the current government has committed to infrastructure projects in the next few years and about the same amount spent bailing out South Canterbury Finance investors. It is also “about twice as much as the amount we hope to lose by hosting the Rugby World Cup”, he said and about the same as our bill for six weeks of imported oil. -Sunday Star Times

[post] 2.4.11
At last, PRODUCTIVITY is?

The Productivity Commission’s inquiry into international freight transport services is of high importance to Otago and Southland, Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie said yesterday. -Otago Daily Times

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

At last, PRODUCTIVITY is?

### ODT Online Sat, 2 Apr 2011
Chamber welcomes inquiry into transport
By Dene Mackenzie
The Productivity Commission’s inquiry into international freight transport services is of high importance to Otago and Southland, Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie said yesterday.

New Zealand Property Investors vice-president Andrew King said the research on house prices was misguided. They were not the main cause of poor productivity.

Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Why should Port Otago dredge?

### ODT Online Sat, 27 Mar 2010
Fishermen oppose Port Otago’s sand, silt proposal
By Allison Rudd
Otago fishermen have formed a working party to write their formal response to Port Otago’s plans to dump more than seven million cubic metres of sand and silt off Taiaroa Head. Port Otago will soon apply for resource consent to widen the Otago Harbour shipping channel and dump 7.2 million cubic metres of dredge material 6.5km out to sea.

The Port Chalmers Fishermen’s Co-operative fears the sand and silt may create a “dead zone” along the coast, threatening fishing stocks and their income.

Read more

Related posts:
21.2.10 So where’s the media explosion?
26.2.10 Latest on Dunedin’s offshore oil and gas prospects
26.2.10 Port Otago: “Next generation” project
11.3.10 ORC: Ports merger only approved if it benefits Otago
18.3.10 Dunedin harbourside for oil base?

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The interesting thing is, aside from port merger politics, a number of New Zealand’s major ports are dredging their channels in anticipation of larger container vessels.

Did the ports’ boards stop to ask the shipping line(s) ‘What size of boats are you planning to send us?’ So we, the port companies, can reliably assess if we need to fund expensive consenting processes and dredging?

Sometimes, the ports’ suit brigades aren’t up to managing their way out of a paper bag? That’s not the right question, or is it. After all, this is a matter of regional-national logistics and planning for sustainable business development in New Zealand.

Bottom line: port activity must be coordinated and quality controlled for the service and development of the national export economy as much as the global shipping trade.

The ports falling into into ad hoc, reactionary localised practice; attempting to do things on the cheap; not attending to maritime safety; not upskilling and training the workforce; failing to coordinate the spread of risk across our major deepwater facilities and access points; not inviting new business partnerships and supplier relationships; and so on – is not about promoting and building an efficient, flexible and sustainable freighting base for New Zealand producers.

Why encourage container traffic through the port of Lyttelton if their cranes are unsuitably old and clunky (showing the lack of major investment in that port company’s infrastructure)?

Why send (larger?) container ships to Port Otago if there’s no harbour master to oversee maritime safety? Why would we think to promote Dunedin as an oil base without a harbour master? (Hello, Otago Regional Council, owner of Port Otago Ltd, are you going to manage your responsibilities to the marine environment anytime soon? …An international vessel grounds in Otago Harbour, we haven’t systems and accountabilities in place to manage spillage and contamination – the boat’s full of high value Fonterra milk powder immediately due to China processing plants – we’ve f***ed the supply chain. Who doesn’t get their money, who is liable?)

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Knowing and managing risks and liabilities going forward through close modelling, system analysis and quality control of New Zealand supply chains, industry processing, freight handling and haulage, transportation planning, trade diplomacy, incentive systems, international gateway ports and airports – amongst other factors – is ESSENTIAL to growing the export economy.

Not too many people know how the ports operate. We assume all the systems and risks are being professionally managed by the port companies, according to statutory requirements.

The truth is – leaving statutory responsibilities aside for a moment (by the way, it’s not all tip-top with these) – each port has been crawling along, instituting its own limited management and operating systems. A power of work at every level is urgently needed to bring industry consistency to the safe management and competitiveness of our New Zealand ports.

Why allow a bunch of ‘sailors’ (many of them accountants with no wider training or expertise), dressed as port executives, to run New Zealand port infrastructure like they know what they’re doing. They don’t.

The ports’ middle management tiers are gripped by the heavy overwhelming reality of historical cumulative logistical weakness in the New Zealand port industry.

All up, ports’ management is not well organised – or sufficiently well skilled and educated – for the practical, hardnosed ‘change management’ required in the national port sector.

The port boards and bosses are under par as strategists. Let the blood-letting begin.

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

The Chronicles of Yarnia

With apologies to CS Lewis, the thread formerly known as “What else! Future options for Dunedin include…”.

Or, How We Ascend/Descend (Your Choice) Into Mud And Cloud Data, Again.

In the (slight but positive) delay to launch duned.in, the multi-author blog Paul is working to develop, I’m starting this new thread – it’s a BRAINSTORMER looking-forward place for your ideas and comments.

What if? threads will flow into the new duned.in so nothing’s lost. Time to ‘generate’. I’ve copied over comments received at High Street Cable Car to start things off. Away we go.

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Peter November 25, 2009 at 11:22 am

Is the High St cable car option the only other one available if the upper Stuart St option is not viable? Isn’t it possible to run a rail car of some description – somewhere flat – like up to the North End, past the uni and Botanical Gardens to, say, the bottom of Baldwin St or out to South Dunedin / St Clair? It strikes me that the cost of going uphill makes the project more prohibitive because of health and safety issues and engineering difficulties. I’m no expert or authority on this. Just a curious citizen.
Whatever happens we need a railcar system that is practical and cheap for both city commuters and tourists. The Christchurch tram system is expensive to run, and to buy tickets for, and just seems to do a little meander around a relatively small area for the tourists. You may as well walk. There’s something kind of fake about it too.
For those real visionaries who are promoting this project – as opposed to the ’stadium visionaries’ – I don’t fancy the chances of anything happening soon or at least for many many years. (We know why, don’t we). I wouldn’t feel encouraged, but nevertheless good on them for persisting. Call me cynical, but the council’s response seems a nice way for gently letting people down and not completely dashing their hopes. If I was a cunning politician I would give such a sop to a sincere and dedicated group who are seen to be promoting something that is beneficial for ALL the people of Dunedin. The city kitty, unfortunately, has already been plundered – and the council knows it.

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Phil [Cole] November 25, 2009 at 8:57 pm

I have to agree with you there, Peter. I think the idea of a cable car or tram system is great. And I congratulate Richard and the team for their work to date. Bill Campbell must be as pleased as. I’m not convinced about the route, however. Ok, it’s historical. So maybe it will mean something to the people who live in the area. But is that the target audience? No, I don’t think it is. The market, if not for commuters, is the tourist market. And the history of a tram route means absolutely nothing to them. I just wonder, when they get to the top of High Street, what are they going to do? What are they going to spend their tourist dollars on during the 24 hours they have in Dunedin, when they are spending 2 or 3 of those hours in Mornington? And, to be fair, the view on the way up is not going to make it onto a lot of video cameras to show back home.

Brilliant idea, and I don’t want this to appear as a brickbat. I do question that we have the best location for the market we’re hoping to attract. Stuart Street would have been ideal, down to the Railway Station, through the CBD, or a route to the beach. But no one will get past Don I suspect.

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Elizabeth November 25, 2009 at 10:11 pm

I diverged off the Dunedin Cable Car organising group before it formed the charitable trust to do further investigation. A very nice group all up.

I hesitated at the time to take on another trusteeship due to workload and priorities – but also, as discussed with the group members, I’m interested in contemporary forms of transit, design and engineering, mobility access (the accessible journey) – and yes, BEST future market(s)… they being on the “flat”, and via route(s) looped, as I see it.

I can’t live in museums. San Francisco is a great experience. Christchurch trams are not. What can Dunedin do differently with new forms of public transport into the future, utilising the city’s great engineering base!!?? Remains one of my deepest interests.

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Richard November 26, 2009 at 8:22 am

Now that’s the line of thinking, I applaud. One in which I am trysting with ‘Pukeko’ at ODT Online. His interest is an aviation musuem on lines (planes?) that have little connection with Dunedin.

I’ll come back and develop my thoughts on cable cars, trams et al when I get some time. The sort of things that form part of what Dr. Rodney Wilson sees as making Dunedin “a heritage city”.

“Big thinking does not happen in small spaces.”

We need a new thread, EK?

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Calvin Oaten November 26, 2009 at 9:47 am

I can’t believe that anyone genuinely thinks that a cable car would fit into the modern transport modes of this city. On the basis of economics, the hopeless task of integration and so called novelty factor, it wouldn’t get past first base. Move on, get over it. Look to the future, not the past. Think outside the square, and outside current traffic ways. For a similar amount of expenditure a gondola from Bethunes Gully up to Mount Cargill would give an experience to die for. The trip would be memorable, the views from the top are 180 degrees, and the overview of Dunedin total. Take a trip up by road and see if I am not right. But hey! don’t forget, the stadium has put paid to any of these dreams.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr