Trafalgar Centre nears completion

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32972, 19 July 1972, Page 21

Trafalgar Centre nears completion

On February 17, 1973, more than 10 years of intensive planning, argument, fund raising and finally building, will reach its climax with the opening of Nelson’s Trafalgar Centre.

At a final estimated cost of slightly more than $500,000, the Nelson district will have an ultra-modem, multi-purpose complex to cater for the city’s and district’s sporting, conference and cultural needs.

The centre (shown above), sited within a few minutes’ walk of the heart of the city and surrounded by other sporting facilities, will fill the very large void existing in the city for a major public indoor centre. Taken in conjunction with the building of the 200-bed Rutherford Hotel, the centre will at last place Nelson among the foremost conference and sporting centres of New Zealand.

Foy the Trafalgar Centre Committee, and particularly its chairman (Mr B. 'J. Mills) the road towards the final goal has been anything but a smooth one. The committee has, almost from its conception, been beset with difficulties, ranging from a change of site to the acquisition of the necessary finance. But all these have been overcome and the committee’s resolve to see the project through has remained unshaken.

For long and often were complaints made of the lack of a major hall in Nelson, but until 1962 little was done about remedying it. When Nelson Jaycees looked around that year for a suitable beneficiary for the $6OOO profit made from a holiday carnival, Mr

Mills suggested that the money could form the nucleus for a major hall project. By 1965, a basic definition of the project had been reached and a public committee established. At this stage the only city council representative on it was the then mayor (Mr D. N. Strawbridge). Fund raising on a grand scale commenced in 1968 and the committee was enlarged by the addition of six city councillors.

Today the committee, while remaining predominantly a public one (with five council representatives), is now a recognised council committee. It was known from the outset that finance was the biggest barrier facing the successful completion of the project. Public appeals have raised $160,000. Among these were six donors who each gave more than $7OOO and a further 21 who each gave a minimum of $lOOO. The committee hopes its application for a $30,000 Golden Kiwi grant will be achieved, leaving the balance to be provided by loans and other city council sources.

To service this sum — which might be $340,000, depending upon the outcome of the Golden Kiwi application — the council will levy over the next 20 years an average charge on each ratepayer of $1.50 a year.

“What this building is going to do for Nelson can not be measured in money,” Mr Mills said.

The building, which includes four changing rooms,

five small conference rooms which can also be used as club rooms (each about 900 sq. ft), a main hall with a floor space of 16,756 sq. ft, and a supper room of 2800 sq. ft, has an over-all area of 35,000 sq. ft. Tiered seating will take 846 spectators and the building can seat 2600. Its construction is notable for the huge laminated beams supporting the acoustic-tiled roof. Each of the beams covers a clear span of 148 ft Ilin, making

them the biggest laminated beams ever used in New Zealand. Unusual interior features are ramps designed for the wheelchairs of disabled persons, a large bank of vanity tables in the women’s "powder rooms” and a large press gallery. The main hall can take three full-size basketball courts, or 45 indoor bowling mats, 28 table tennis tables, 12 badminton courts, three tennis courts. There are, too, some unusual features in the surroundings. Provision is made for a “V.I.P. circle,” flagpole block and what Mr Mills describes as a unique feature for this type of complex — a major barbeque area. In his travelling overseas he had never seen such

a facility at this type of building, said Mr Mills. The barbeque would augment the supper room and add to the value of the building for entertainment and the social life of those attending major conferences and sporting and cultural fixtures. The building has already been booked for a number of major conferences next year and several inquiries had been received from other organisations, said Mr Mills. At long last, he said, Nelson would not have to turn away major conferences or national and international sporting, cultural, musical or industrial events. But, most of all, Nelson people would have a central building for all their indoor activities.