The Graeme Mudge mural on the band rooms wall facing the Taruheru River was placed in storage after the building was deemed unsuitable for moving and uninhabitable after flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle.
The Graeme Mudge mural on the band rooms wall facing the Taruheru River was placed in storage after the building was deemed unsuitable for moving and uninhabitable after flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle.
The pipes and drums of the City of Gisborne Highland Pipe Band are playing on ... with a little help from some friends.
Things looked bleak when – two years ago this week – the Taruheru River topped its banks during Cyclone Gabrielle and flooded the band rooms to about a metre’s depth.
Gabrielle struck the district on February 13, 2023. By the time floodwaters receded, silt lay throughout the building.
Pipe band president Robert Hunter says the band lost equipment worth about $50,000 due to the flooding. Pipes, drums, uniforms, furniture and memorabilia were lost, and insurance did not cover their replacement.
“The band rooms (off Palmerston Rd next to the St John Ambulance building and behind the Girl Guide Hall) were deemed unsuitable for moving and uninhabitable,” Hunter said.
On July 19, the building was demolished at a cost of $14,000, paid with funds the pipe band had accumulated over many years.
Demolition left a large hole in the ground, but the demolition quote did not cover the full cost of filling it in.
The Rotary Club of Gisborne offered to fill the hole with topsoil and provided a team of workers who, along with band members, levelled the site.
Rotary club members Bill Harding and Peter Nikolov (left), band drum sergeant Kelly McCafferty, and Rotarians Ashley Nuttall, Ray Kitchen and Peter Martin spread topsoil over the depression left after the demolition of the band rooms.
Restored: City of Gisborne Highland Pipe Band's building is gone and so is the hole in the ground the demolition exposed.
Rotary also provided $14,000 to help replace band uniforms and equipment. This funding came from Rotary clubs around New Zealand that contributed to Cyclone Gabrielle recovery efforts.
The building was built as a band room in 1904, and the City of Gisborne Highland Pipe Band had used it since 1982, originally sharing it with the Gisborne Concert Band, Hunter said.
Gisborne District Council leased the land to the pipe band, which owned the building.
Band members raised the money for rates and lease fees over many years by cutting firewood, running garage sales and holding concerts.
“Thanks to the kindness of both the Gisborne Concert Band and the Gisborne Civic Brass Band, the City of Gisborne Highland Pipe Band now shared the band rooms in Childers Rd,” Hunter said.
Members of the pipe band also greatly appreciated the help – practical and financial – of the Rotary Club of Gisborne.
The City of Gisborne Highland Pipe Band now plays from the Band Room in Childers Rd after its former base on the Palmerston Rd riverside was flooded during Cyclone Gabrielle.
Pipe band’s beginnings
The Gisborne Highland Pipe Band (Gisborne had not been declared a city yet) began in December 1946, when 15 people signed the application for the pipe band to become an incorporated society. They were Reg Howe, Bain Mackintosh, Ross Kennedy, Harry Butler, Hugh Finlay, John McCallum, Bert Davidson, Des Fielder, Bob Fleming, Ben Hudson, Jim Davidson, Norm Hamilton, Charlie Ferguson, Doug McDonald and Ross Donaldson. Tony Chrisp, too, was there at the start, but was too young to sign.
The band grew out of the Poverty Bay Highland Pipe Band, which was particularly active during World War II under Pipe Major Dave Miller, a Scotsman who drove the Findlay’s bakery van on the country run for many years.
Eight members of the Poverty Bay band were keen to compete at outside competitions and, with some eager youngsters, they started the Gisborne band for this purpose.
Membership grew quickly. In about a year, a full band of 20 could turn out.
Raffles, subscriptions and donations of money and practical help were vital in helping the band overcome post-war shortages of equipment and material.
The manufacture of the drums was typical. The metal shells were made by J.S. Allan & Son Ltd and donated. Athol Allan of that firm was first patron of the band.
The wooden hoops were bent to shape in Christies Furniture Factory in Gisborne. Side drummer Ross Kennedy was a French polisher there and Doug Lewis was among the cabinet-making workmates he coerced into completing a tricky job.
Lewis decided to learn the tenor drum and in 1948 became a playing member. He was later band president.
Leather tensioners for the ropes to tighten the drum (pig)skins were made in Gisborne, as were the other small fittings.
Construction of the drum major’s mace was a triumph of invention. The head was turned on a lathe and fitted to the end of a converted billiard cue.
Band members’ first contest was in Levin in February 1949. Over the next few years they were in high demand for local functions and parades. Once a month they marched Gladstone Rd during Friday late shopping.
Inter-house marching was popular in the 1950s, and the band provided music for the marching girls. Galas, Anzac Day services, the A&P show and rugby matches were regular engagements.
By 1960, most of the early members had ceased active membership of the band and the ranks had thinned alarmingly. The commitment required was a big factor.
In one of the early years, the band paraded 60 times, in addition to weekly band practice and regular Sunday-morning drill sessions.
Further education, jobs in other centres, and family commitments had taken a toll on membership, and in 1961 the band went into recess.
On March 25, 1964, current and former members appointed three trustees to administer the band’s assets. They were Tony Chrisp, Des Fielder and Ben Hudson, who were there at the start in 1946.
People still wanted to hear the pipes, though. A few members gathered informally to meet such requests and for the enjoyment of playing as a group.
When the Springboks rugby team opened their New Zealand tour in Gisborne at the end of June 1965, the interest generated by the welcoming pipers kick-started the resurgence of the band.
In March 1966, the Gisborne band got a good deal on the uniforms their Whanganui counterparts were discarding for new models.
That tartan, Cameron of Erracht, replaced the McLean of Duart tartan from which the earlier kilts had been made.
In October that year the band was officially re-formed as the City of Gisborne Highland Pipe Band.
The pipe major was one of the trustees, Des Fielder, an uphosterer who had served his apprenticeship with furniture-maker George Emms and then started his own business.
In the mid-1950s, he saved enough to get himself to Glasgow, Scotland, where he worked as an upholsterer by day and studied at the College of Piping by night. For almost a year he drank in the lore of the pipes at the college, yet he had no Scottish background.
At 14 he had taken up the pipes because someone advertised free lessons, and he developed a passion for the instrument.
A talented tutor, Fielder was instrumental in rebuilding the band’s strength by training new pipers with the help of several experienced bandsmen.
Drum major Bryson Watt trained drummers from the time of the band’s revival in 1966 and won many staff-flourishing events on his own account.
Long-time pipe major David Andrew had his first band appearance on Anzac Day 1966 at the age of 12. In 1992, he took part in the Selkirk Common Riding, one of the great Scottish border parades.
Cyclone Gabrielle and the loss of the band rooms and equipment were huge setbacks, but pipe band members have regrouped with replacement equipment and an eye to the future.
Andrew and the other band members are still playing the pipes and beating the drums – in practice and at public gatherings – and would like nothing more than to welcome the next generation of pipers and drummers to membership of the City of Gisborne Highland Pipe Band.
Anyone interested can contact David Andrew for piping and Kelly McCafferty for drumming.
