ASHBURTON

Chinese Market Garden Settlement restoration

Exciting progress is taking place on the development of the Ng King Brothers' Chinese Market Garden Settlement site in Ashburton.

Work started in early February with builders restoring and strengthening the buildings to a safe standard so that the site can be reopened as a community park in the future. The work is jointly funded by a Chinese Poll Tax grant award, the Ashburton District Council, and the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga incentive fund.

Declared a post-1900 archaeological site by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga on 8 July 2019, this place is a vital part of the region’s history and of New Zealand’s Chinese heritage. Trading as King Bros, the market garden was the largest in the South Island, selling fruit and vegetables to Ashburton and its surrounds. By the 1950s the site was home to 14 families and at least 80 people.

Heritage New Zealand archaeologist, Frank van der Heijden, was on-site to monitor groundworks taking place as part of drainage repairs. “It was exciting to uncover clear evidence of the washing basin site, where a local stream was diverted to wash produce,” says Frank. Future work may include delineating the outlines of buildings no longer standing, based on archaeological footprints.

The Christchurch offices of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga also hosted Ng King family members to an interpretation workshop in February. “It was an amazing opportunity to bring together many wonderful memories and ideas,” says Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Outreach Advisor, Rosemary Baird. “We were lucky to have members of the older generation present who have personal memories of working on the country delivery runs and on-site at the market garden.”

The interpretation panels are planned as part of an overall landscape design, which will include plantings, walkways and picnic areas. “For the Ng King families, this project is a way to give back to the community that supported their business,” says Arlene Baird, who is managing the project on behalf of Ashburton District Council. “They want to create a place of recreation and rest, as well as keep alive their history for Ashburton residents”. n Writer: Rosemary Baird

Aotearoa Unearthed podcast released

Aotearoa Unearthed: Archaeology for Everyone is a new podcast by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in partnership with the New Zealand Archaeology Association.

During the 2020 lockdown, Outreach Advisor, Rosemary Baird, dreamed about doing a podcast exploring archaeology. “I have always loved talking to archaeologists and hearing about their work.” she says. Rosemary has a background in oral history, so it was a natural fit for her to do the recording and audio editing. Most of the interviews were recorded over Zoom, due to travel constraints.

“This has been the most rewarding project,” says Rosemary. “All the archaeologists have been so generous with their time. They’ve given me a new appreciation for how much archaeology can tell us about the people who went before us in New Zealand. We have a special and unique history.”

The podcast was released for Archaeology Week in late April 2021, with topics including toilets and drains, repatriation of kōiwi, reading a landscape through a Māori lens, children’s artefacts, the Southern Cemeteries Project, the Dunedin foreshore, Māori rock art and the management of archaeology in New Zealand.

Regional Services manager and archaeologist, Pam Bain, has been a great supporter of the project. “There are no New Zealand archaeology podcasts out there, even though there are plenty of international archaeology podcasts. This is a really exciting way for us to start sharing about New Zealand archaeologists’ incredible discoveries and work”.

The podcast episodes are available free on Spotify and iTunes.