Large fire at former Centrepoint commune in Albany, Auckland

• Firefighters were called to a large fire at the former Centrepoint commune in the Auckland suburb of Albany overnight.
• Survivors of the controversial spiritual commune - including those who lived there as children - have spoken of harrowing experiences in the commune led by convicted sex offender Bert Potter.
• Centrepoint was shut down in 2000 and was in 2021 being used by another organisation as the Kawai Purapura Retreat Centre, before being put on the market in 2023.

There has been a large fire overnight in a building at the former site of the infamous Centrepoint commune in Auckland.

The fire was now out, with a single crew of firefighters still at the scene on Mills Lane in Albany to dampen down hotspots, a northern Fire and Emergency communications’ spokeswoman said.

But at its peak around midnight the glow of flames could be seen from the Northern Motorway, one witness wrote on Facebook.

“If you’re coming off the northern motorway at Ōteha Valley Rd there is a huge fire up by the old Centrepoint.”

Crews from 12 fire appliances were sent to the “large structure fire” at the old Kawai Purapura Retreat Centre, which was also previously the home of the Centrepoint commune, senior station officer Quin Webster said.

Firefighters at the scene of the fire at the former Centrepoint commune in Albany, Auckland, last night. Photo / Hayden Woodward

The number of crews on the scene had halved when he spoke to the Herald at about 2.30am.

“[The fire is] largely extinguished, and we are dampening down hot spots and ensuring the fire is fully out.”

Most of the buildings on the site were derelict, and they believed squatters had been staying there, he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear which building had caught fire.

For years the 7.62ha property was the site of Centrepoint, whose leader Bert Potter was arrested in 1990 for sexual abuse and drugs crimes following raids by the police.

Survivors spoke of their harrowing experiences in the documentary Heaven and Hell – The Centrepoint Story in 2021.

Many had been exploited as children by the campus' adult residents.

The commune was shut down in 2000 and Potter died in 2012 aged 86.

In 2021 the property was home to around 100 people as a holistic education centre. Two years later it was put on the market, OneRoof reported.

It had previously been bought by the Prema Charitable Trust in 2008 for just over $4 million, but by 2023 had a council valuation of almost $9m and was being called “one of the last significant underdeveloped landholdings on the fringe of Albany”.

The property at 14 Mills Lane in Albany went on sale in 2023 and is the site of the infamous commune Centrepoint.

The OneRoof listing at the time stated the property featured accommodation for 120 people, with significant improvements comprising more than 4819sqm (more or less) of gross floor area across 60 buildings.

The site was later withdrawn from sale without finding a buyer.

It wasn’t yet known how the fire began.

“We have strong reasons to believe that squatters are staying at this site. This site is a restricted area, so there shouldn’t be anyone here,” Webster said.

“Currently, there is no power to the entire site, so we believe that the most likely cause is someone who had a small fire here, and it’s got away from them.”

No one was at the scene when firefighters arrived, he said.

“[But] this is a large site, and there have been reports of people here previously.”

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.

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