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For 50 years, a former fortification has been the unlikely home of the Devonport Folk Music Club, long outliving its short history as the Fort Victoria Fire Command Post

WORDS: CELIA WALKER • IMAGERY: JASON DORDAY

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2 The Bunker, open and inviting for a club night.

Visiting Canadian guest musician Joël Fafard and audience.

With its military heritage, hard and unglamorous concrete construction, and rough-around-the-edges finish, you might expect a visit to The Bunker on Takarunga/Mt Victoria to be of only fleeting interest.

Step inside this unassuming structure, however, and you’ll discover another world – a living archive of folk music, local social history, vintage clutter and human warmth.

The Bunker, home of the Devonport Folk Music Club, is tucked out of sight off the narrow summit road on Takarunga. The road has been closed to general traffic for a year, so it comes as a surprise to hear from musician and club member Micheal Young that the club is “famous”. “People from all over the world want to come here; it is renowned,” he says.

These are impressive claims for a tiny venue that, at capacity, can squeeze in 80 people, seated on an assemblage of tiered benches, old office chairs, vintage armchairs and other odds and ends of furniture.

But the unusual location of the heritage building isn’t the only drawcard; it’s also the warm atmosphere and web of human connections that have been built up over half a century.

A key factor in developing the latter was the personality of Roger Giles. The club’s long-time president, who sadly passed away in March, was a prominent figure in Auckland’s folk music scene. He came to New Zealand in the 1960s from rural Shropshire on what was supposed to be a temporary visit to learn the Godfrey Bowen sheep-shearing technique. He joined the club by chance, not long after it had formed in 1966, on the urging of a flatmate.

“I didn’t associate my origins with folk music,” Roger recalled, when interviewed for Heritage New Zealand magazine earlier this year, telling stories of his exposure to “singers who would come and act the goat” in the pub that was his childhood home in England. He went on to become the club’s front man and played a large role in shaping The Bunker’s eccentric character.

Alongside Roger was always his partner Hilary Condon, who still organises the troops behind the scenes and carries out the administration that keeps the group running. The club meets regularly – every Monday and on some other nights – perpetuating a long history of activity at the site.

The location on which The Bunker sits is shaped with fortifications that were present long before European alterations started taking place.

A significant place for Māori, Takarunga is a tūpuna maunga with a story that stretches back centuries. Although the maunga was uninhabited at the time of the first documented European exploration in 1827, various iwi have associations with the area, including Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Whātua and Te Kawerau a Maki.

The remains of lengthy Māori occupation are still visible, despite incursions such as a water reservoir and a disappearing gun emplacement. These include terracing on the northern and north-eastern slopes, kumara pits just below The Bunker, and shell middens all over the site, which are occasionally exposed by the various paths and public tracks.

Findings from a relatively small excavation carried out in the 1980s included ditches usually associated with defensive palisades, suggestive of a well-established pā.

The impetus for the construction of The Bunker itself was fear of an attack by Russia in the 1880s, resulting

“People from all over the world want to come here; it is renowned”

in many defences being built around the Waitematā Harbour, including a large complex of tunnels and fortifications on neighbouring Maungauika/North Head that were begun in 1885.

Built in 1891 as the Fire Command Post, The Bunker was a communications point connecting Fort Victoria to the positions on Maungauika and Fort Takapuna, with a telephone link set up in 1896.

The military use of the building was primarily for its strategic position, although the Navy used it briefly as an ammunition store and laboratory between the wars until local pressure saw the ammunition moved out and the

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site returned to the Devonport Borough Council. The last military use was during World War II, when it was requisitioned for use as a workshop and storage facility.

Sheep sometimes took up residence when the building was abandoned for a while after World War II, and it was also later used by boy scouts as a den and base for adventures on the mountain.

The structure hasn’t entirely shaken off its scout-den past; The Bunker’s current kitchen dates from the 1955 renovations to the building carried out by the Victoria Scout Troop.

Despite extensive refurbishment by the scouts, and by the folk music club before it shifted there in 1970, there have been ongoing issues with peeling paint and dampness owing to the building being recessed into the mountainside. The positioning of wall panels along the northern side – with an array of memorabilia, archival posters and snippets about the building’s history – covers up the worst of it.

Another current drawback of the location is a lack of water. Despite being sited next to the large reservoir at the top of Takarunga, the water supply has dwindled to a trickle, so Watercare supplies water for each club night to make the ubiquitous cups of tea.

Roger’s own care of the building went far beyond keeping up with the damp inside. For years during his daily walks with dog Jess, he cleared the detritus left by those sliding down the slopes on cardboard, and gradually weeded out invasive pest plants.

He recalled how in the club’s early days on the site, cows sheltered from the prevailing northwest winds in The Bunker’s doorway until he pressured the council to end the grazing lease. He also coordinated the removal of truckloads of the Sodom apple weed using a labour force of local schoolchildren.

Stringed instrument player Micheal Young sees the club’s unusual venue as a means of enticing a new generation of musicians to the group. Micheal is a tall Texan who arrived in Devonport during a round-theworld yacht voyage in the late 1990s; as with Roger, the lure of the suburb, and the club, meant he never really left.

Micheal says the club’s inclusive attitude helped him launch his own music career, which he now pursues full-time. The club is “a place for people to grow, where they are able to make mistakes – and have the freedom to be themselves”, he says.

Micheal credits much of the enduring success to the work of Roger and Hilary. “They have dedicated their entire lives to the club,” he says.

His own passion for the venue is driving him to try to attract younger members to help alter the club’s aging demographic profile and keep its membership viable. He invites younger singer/songwriters – who he says move in a different world of bars and open-mic nights – to his monthly Bunker Hill Unplugged sessions.

Alongside this drive, the club has a new 10-year lease on the building granted by the iwi-led Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority, along with special dispensation for vehicle access.

And with the spirited commitment of its many members, the Devonport Folk Music Club looks set to keep the music playing in this spot for years to come.

tūpuna maunga:

ancestral mountain

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6 Grass growing over the partially recessed roof of The Bunker.

The late Roger Giles, the club’s long-time president and a prominent figure in Auckland’s folk music scene, is featured in this painting by Gretchen Scott-Blyth.

Looking in from the entrance to compère Paul Jonson.

The club library, with librarian Sheila Duggan.

Hilary Condon, club secretary and treasurer.

Club committee members Mike Wright (left) and Paul Jonson, who also runs his own monthly club at Orewa.

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