Post by Dave Homewood on Jan 22, 2006 21:04:19 GMT 12
The RNZAF took over the New Zealand Centennial Buildings in mid 1940 once the six month Cential Exhibition was completed. They moved in the Technical Training School and various other units there. No. 42 Squadron was also based at Rongotai.
The thing that intrigues me is when you look at photos of the buildings for the exhibition, they are totally massive. The design was a wonderul fully art deco desing, and really smacked of the period.
BUT... was it meant to be pernament? It all looks like concrete or something similar that would last for 1000 years, and yet it didn't. The buildings were lost in a massive fire sometime after the RNZAF exited. The TTS moved to Nelson in 1944.
Does anyone know, was it only meant to be a temporary structure, made of wood but made to look like concrete? I mean concrete wouldn't burn down, not a place that size.
If you want to see what it looked like, search for the keyword Rongotai at the National Archive Time Frames site here using the Quick Search
timeframes.natlib.govt.nz/logicrouter/servlet/LogicRouter?PAGE=object&OUTPUTXSL=object.xslt&pm_RC=REPO02DB&pm_
The thing that intrigues me is when you look at photos of the buildings for the exhibition, they are totally massive. The design was a wonderul fully art deco desing, and really smacked of the period.
BUT... was it meant to be pernament? It all looks like concrete or something similar that would last for 1000 years, and yet it didn't. The buildings were lost in a massive fire sometime after the RNZAF exited. The TTS moved to Nelson in 1944.
Does anyone know, was it only meant to be a temporary structure, made of wood but made to look like concrete? I mean concrete wouldn't burn down, not a place that size.
If you want to see what it looked like, search for the keyword Rongotai at the National Archive Time Frames site here using the Quick Search
timeframes.natlib.govt.nz/logicrouter/servlet/LogicRouter?PAGE=object&OUTPUTXSL=object.xslt&pm_RC=REPO02DB&pm_
