The minutes of the April Public meeting of the Assoociation are available here.
Newtown History – The Laura Rosier Project
At the April meeting History Honours student Jessie Annett-Wood explained the Laura Rosier book archive and showed printed examples of the methods being used as she helps recover the archival material and formats it into a digitally editable form.
Laura Rosier spent the 1980’s and early 1990’s researching and compiling a history of Newtown, collating historical photographic material for a Newtown History book. Laura had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the dates of photos and the dates of landmark structures that appear in them.
Laura and her husband Vaughan Rosier were active members of the Newtown Residents’ Association. Vaughan was the Newtown Residents’ Association treasurer for many years, and made grant applications for assisting the publishing the Newtown book.
Unfortunately with her book very nearly complete Laura Rosier died suddenly in February 1994
After Vaughan Rosier died in 1996 the book material was bequeathed to Martin Hanley and Anna Kemble Welch, neighbours and friends of Vaughan and Laura.
Preparing the final edits for publishing has been a long protracted process including nearly losing the material with an editor collaborator of Laura’s who suffered from progressively worsening dementia while working with the archive.
The very muddled archive material came back in 2012, and with Jessie and other university students’ help Martin and Anna have re-activated the publishing project.
The intention is to compile a digital copy ‘time capsule’ edition exactly as Laura Rosier intended. With an additional supplementary digital edition that includes footnotes and annotations highlighting any areas of incompleteness, or where significant changes over the last 20 years make the written descriptions confusing.
FROM LAURA’S ARCHIVE:
November Quiz: What is happening in this 1904 photo
July Quiz: Where is the grand Newtown residence shown in this image from around 1910? Bonus points if you know who lived there.
The correct answer is: The photo is 320 Mansfield Street, behind in the background can be seen a house on Russell Terrace. Today this site is part of Newtown Park Flats. The ornate fence is all that remains of the Transport Manager’s House. [ At the southern end of the Newtown Park Flats complex, before the entrance to Newtown Park ]
June Quiz: Guess the location & purpose of this chimney.
Yes I know we told you at the May meeting – but its such an amazing photo, especially when you click on it to enlarge it & see the people up it !
The correct answer is: The Brick and Tile works at 291 Mansfield Street. Some of the remains of the kilns can still be seen down the laneway at 291.
May Quiz: The location of this 1965 photo
The correct answer is: John Street, with the Dairy being the north west corner of Countdown.
Local Alcohol Policy Submission
Wellington City Council is developing an Alcohol Management Strategy for the city. Input has been sought through meetings with community groups, the hospitality industry and via a series of community workshops.
Members participated in the WCC community workshop at St Annes Hall in March. As an organisation we have discussed the issues widely at many of our monthly meetings, and we advocated strongly over many years for our streets and parks becoming a Liquor Free Zone.
Key aspects of the Association’s latest submission to WCC were agreed at the April meeting.
Thanks to Peter Cooke, Tom Law and Bernard O’Shaughnessy for all their work collating the submission. You can read it here: ALCOHOL PLANNING POLICY- Newtown Submission_April13
And you can read the Mount Cook Mobilised submission here: MCM_Alcohol_submission_Apr2013_FINAL
Quick Headlines from April 2013 Newtown Residents Assn Meeting
History Project – Jessie Annett-Wood explained the methods being used to recover the archival material and get it into editable form;
Local Alcohol Policy Submission – Key positions for the Assn’s submission to WCC were agreed (thanks to Peter Cooke, Tom Law and Bernard O’Shaughnessy);
Community Constable and Tagging– concerns were raised at the lack of visible presence in Newtown, and an outbreak of tagging (Paul Eagle, Peter Frater and Jeanie McCafferty to follow up);
Lessons from John St Draft Paper – the main points in the draft were endorsed. Final to be signed off by the Executive
Local Elections Candidates’ Meeting – The Assn is organising a candidates meeting for 25 September.
Lessons from John St Works – draft paper for feedback
By far the most important issue dealt with by the Association over the past year has been the impact of the major works around the John St / Riddiford St / Adelaide Road intersection on the Newtown business community, and in particular the retailers in the immediate area.
The Association’s draft paper draws some lessons from the John Street upgrade experience and makes recommendations to Wellington City Council that could help the council to more effectively manage the relationships with affected communities when undertaking similar large and ongoing public upgrade projects.
We accept the need for WCC to undertake such major works in the broader interest of the City. However we believe that more attention could usefully be given to understanding, managing and mitigating the negative impacts that may arise for the neighbourhoods where these large scale works take place.
The main points in the paper were endorsed at the April members meeting.
A big thanks to the hard working volunteers who contributed to this, particularly Jeanie McCafferty.
Constructive and pro-actively attempting to make Wellington a better place: Newtown Works Draft Paper
Minutes of NRA March 2013 Meeting
Minutes of Newtown Residents’ Assn March 2013 meeting.NRA March 2013 Minutes
Meeting 15 April 2013
The April meeting will be on Monday 15 April at the Newtown Hall Daniell St (opposite the Mediteranean Food Warehouse) starting at 7:30pm.
Meetings are the third Monday of every month through until November. Mark your calendar for: 20 May, 17 June, 15 July, 19 August, 16 September, 21 October, and 18 November.
Quick Headlines from the March NRA Meeting
Quick Headlines from the March NRA meeting last night.
Alcohol Policy – Do not miss your chance to hear what is going on and have your say. Public meeting in St Annes Hall on Thursday 21 March starting 7:00pm
John Street Works – At last the work is complete. The NRA has decided to put together a paper to WCC setting out what it sees as the “lessons to be learnt” from this.
Basin Options – WCC vote on the Basin Flyover is to take place Thursday. Do not be shy about contacting councillors and letting them know what you think about this.
Newtown Festival – the meeting passed a vote of thanks to the Festival Committee for what had been a great event.
Community Survey/Vision Exercise – a subgroup was set up to look at options for carrying out a community survey of visioning exercise.
Super City? – WCC is about to open a round of consultations on options for changes to the structure of local government in the region.
Newtown Ave Liquor Licence Application – this application has been withdrawn. The meeting passed a vote of thanks to Anna Costley of the NCCC for mobilising local public opinion on this and the earlier Riddiford St application.
Alcohol Management Strategy Community Workshop St Annes Hall 21 March
As part of its process for developing an Alcohol Management Strategy, Wellington City Council is holding a Community workshop at St Annes Parish Hall Newtown on the evening of Thursday 21 March from 7:00-9:00pm.
This is your chance to get information about the process and input your views at an early stage in the process.
Meeting – Monday 18 March
The March meeting will be on Monday 18 March at the Newtown Hall Daniell St (opposite the Mediteranean Food Warehouse) starting at 7:30pm
Minutes of February 2013 meeting
The minutes of the February meeting are available here. Click on NRA Fed 2013 Minutes
Minutes of November 2012 meeting
Meeting – Monday 18 February
will be held on Monday 18th February 2013 at Newtown Hall, Daniell St (opposite Mediterranean Warehouse) at 7.30pm
The Basin Bridge project Public Information Days
Public Information days will be held on the following dates
22 November 24 and 25 November
4 – 8pm 1 – 5pm
at Mt Cook School at St Joseph’s Church, Brougham Street
This is your opportunity to learn more about the project and fi nd out what these improvements will mean
for you and your community.
Representatives from the NZTA’s project team will be on hand to answer your questions and to provide
information on the next steps in the project as the NZTA intends to lodge Resource Management Act
consents in early 2013.
The Basin Bridge project is part of the Tunnel to Tunnel (T2T) inner city transport improvements.
Further information on the project, and links to the T2T improvements, including details on the National
War Memorial Park and Buckle Street Underpass, can be found online at http://www.nzta.govt.nz/basin-bridge
or by calling 0508 9484 4636.
NRA Meeting October 2012 Minutes
Minutes of the NRA October 2012 Meeting
newtown.org.nz 