Funding approved for work at Phoenix Mill waterwheel site

The restored historic Phoenix Mill waterwheel being lifted to be placed in a concrete stone pit at its original site in Old Mill Rd in November.

After some slight confusion, funding has been approved for landscaping work to complete the long-running Phoenix Mill waterwheel restoration project.

At a meeting of the Waitaki District Council on Tuesday, councillors, with the exception of Hugh Perkins who sent apologies, voted in favour of a $5000 grant from the council's Resource Management Act fund for the completion of landscaping work, requested by the Phoenix Mill Restoration Trust.

That would also involve the removal of gravel from the stream that ran past the wheel, after the material was deposited there to create a culvert.

The final recommendation differed slightly to the recommendation included in a report tabled at the meeting, which said the funding was for work to repair a wooden pedestrian and vehicle access bridge across the scheme.

Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said the error in the report was a result of an oversight and should have stated the recommendation was for landscaping, after earlier funding of about $9000 had been secured for the bridge repairs from the council's heritage fund.

Once both projects had been completed, the council would take over the maintenance of the Old Mill Rd site.

Mr Kircher did not vote on the recommendation as he is a trustee of the trust, alongside Alan McLay and chairwoman Carol Berry.

Work to restore the 10m diameter wheel, which powered the Phoenix Flour Mill, started in June 2017, about six years after it was dismantled and stored.

It was lifted back into place on September 24 after a stone pit, using some of the original stonework, was constructed to house it.

It was formally handed back to the community at a ceremony in mid-November.

Listed as category 2 with Heritage New Zealand, the wheel was installed at the site of the Phoenix Flour Mill in 1878 and powered the mill, before the mill building was removed about 1907.

daniel.birchfield@odt.co.nz