The well-advanced demolition of Hinepare nurses' home on Hospital Hill, Napier. The frontage is expected to disappear by the end of this week. Photo / Warren Buckland
The well-advanced demolition of Hinepare nurses' home on Hospital Hill, Napier. The frontage is expected to disappear by the end of this week. Photo / Warren Buckland
The site of former Napier hilltop nurses hostel Hinepare is expected to be grass by Christmas.
Demolition of the 70-year-old four-storey hostel off Napier Tce started at the end of April and government agency Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), holding the site in trust for potential Treaty settlement inclusion, says the above-ground structure will be gone by the end of this week.
A spokesperson said the crew will then start removing the foundations, with an archaeological expert on site to monitor the progress.
The phase is expected to take a further two to three weeks, but if any archaeological sites or items, or koiwi (human skeletal remains), are found, work will pause to allow management of the discovery.
“The site should be cleared and fully grassed before Christmas,” the spokesperson said.
“Any future use of the property will be up to the new owners to decide,” Linz says.
The demolition project also includes the Tuakana Annex off Hospital Tce, expected to start soon, all but completing the disappearance of the buildings of and around Napier Hospital, which closed 25 years ago.
Linz aimed to see 90 per cent of material from the nurses’ home recycled, the major, concrete proportion being broken down and reused for projects like roading and footpaths, with steel reinforcing also separated and recycled.
It has also made bathtubs, sinks, furniture, and other fittings available to the local community and plans the same with Tuakana, from iron from the garage has been donated to charity.
Vacant since 2012, Hinepare still had some use pending its demolition, including being a warren for police training exercises. Photo / NZME
Having ceased to operate as a nurses’ home, at what was once a substantial training site for New Zealand nurses, Hinepare was used for some years as a boarding facility, including accommodation for seasonal workers, but it had been vacant since it closed suddenly in 2012 after failing earthquake risk assessment.
The longer-term future of the site is undecided, but the property is being offered to Napier-based Waitangi Tribunal post-settlement governance entity Mana Ahuriri as part of its Treaty settlement.
Mana Ahuriri Trust general manager Parris Greening said that with Hinepare having been one of the Deed of Settlement Properties (DSP). Mana Ahuriri has been working closely with several organisations, including its own company, Mana Ahuriri Holdings Limited Partnership, LINZ and demolition company McMahon.
The trust had led the cultural aspects of demolition, and he said. “This has included conducting karakia on the site with our Roopu Karakia, to protect those involved in the demolition.”
On Monday Mana Ahuriri started cultural monitoring as the contract started to “break ground” as the project begins the potential transition of ownership of the site.
He said Mana Ahuriri is not yet ready to make any announcements on the future development, but that would be done initially to membership before being shared with partners and wider community.
