Port bid for hill fires up artist

Press, 25 September 1989, Page 9

Port bid for hill fires up artist

PA Dunedin The artist, Ralph Hotere, will fly to Wellington this morning to discuss the proposed excavation of the hill beneath Observation Point at Port Chalmers with the Minister for the Environment, Mr Woollaston. Port Otago has announced plans to flatten the hill, an ancient Maori pa site and site of Hotere’s studio, to allow more storage space at the container terminal. “I’m just going to see what I can do,” he said last evening. “Just play it by ear.” Hotere was so fired up by the issue that he agreed to do his first television interview in 20 years.

He said the cliff and houses on it were historically important to the port town and it was also a Maori pa and burial site.

Also to be demolished is a sculpture by Chris Booth called “Aramoana.” The Port Otago company has offered to move the sculpture, but Booth said it was designed for the cliff-top. At the moment sightseers can look through a sighting device on the sculpture towards the proposed site of the Aramoana smelter.

The Port Otago development manager, Mr Tony Arnesen, said the land was needed because forestry exports were expected to increase six-fold over the next decade and there was not enough space to stockpile logs.