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Gore District Council
Gore District Council Administration Officer Neil Mair outside the old school hall, which will be demolished.
The Gore district council agreed to urgently demolish two old buildings due to significant vandalism and potential public health risks from asbestos.
But the engravings of former students of the school, found within the walls of the old buildings, will be preserved.
The buildings were part of the old Gore High School, near the Mataura River, and date from the early 1940s.
The council’s facilities management official, Neil Mair, said the two buildings were not only unsightly, but also posed significant risks to the public’s health and safety.
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“Asbestos has been discovered in the broken cement board wall cladding in the small building and in the corrugated ceiling in the hallway.
“Both buildings have defective structures in places and their condition is getting worse by the day. They have been effectively abandoned. ”
In January, the city council secured the hall’s exterior doors and put up external fencing around the smaller building in September, when damage intensified and asbestos was found in the building.
However, the closed doors had not deterred people from gaining access, if the alcohol, cigarettes, matches, candles and drug paraphernalia that littered the floor inside were something to go through, Mair said.
“Due to the high risk of fire in the hallway, we cannot cover it completely as this would prevent people from quickly exiting in the event of a fire.
“Urgent action is needed.”
Gore District Council
Gore High School alumni prints will be preserved when school buildings are demolished.
The names of the former students from 1944, engraved on wooden boards, will be preserved for posterity. Some students, such as W Gee, T Farry, and CP Robertson, became well-known local identities.
The wooden planks were discovered behind shattered interior walls and will be turned over to the Gore District Council’s heritage department for safekeeping.
Councilors discussed the buildings in committee at a meeting Tuesday night and approved an unbudgeted expense of $ 36,190 for the immediate demolition of the two buildings.
The wooden buildings once served as an assembly hall and a classroom adjacent to a brick pump shed. The smaller classroom has gradually deteriorated over the years, while the larger assembly hall has been used by various organizations and groups, including the Gore Musical Theater, the Southern Sound Foundry, and the School of Dance. Jade.
The room has been unoccupied since 2018.
The grounds and buildings of the former high school were turned over to the then Gore City Hall by the Crown in 1956 for use as a community center.
The Gore Community Center Incorporated was created to care for the buildings and ensure their use by residents.
Over the years, the understanding of the occupancy terms by different clubs, especially in relation to maintenance, has been variable, and the level of commitment both in effort and financially has often decreased, Mair said.
Late last year, the top three active groups – repertoire, boxing and karate – told the council that they did not want to be responsible for the wooden buildings, he said.
The two largest brick main buildings, occupied by the Gore Repertory Society, the Gore Karate Club, the Gore Boxing Club, and local dance schools, were not affected.
