|
Post by skyhawkdon on Feb 21, 2012 19:53:30 GMT 12
|
|
|
Post by obiwan27 on Feb 21, 2012 20:45:46 GMT 12
What a waste, digging up the runway. A complete waste of taxpayer $$$$. On a cherrier note, I have many happy memories of target shooting on the rifle range back in the day.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 21, 2012 20:49:31 GMT 12
It is sad to see this history drestroyed. As I said the other day, Army and Navy history gets turned into a national reserve, Air Force history gets demolished.
These buildings are very similar to the bomb dump buildings at Hobsonville, tunnels and all. I wonder how long before they are demolished for waterfront houses.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 21, 2012 21:10:42 GMT 12
You know, with the lighting and bleak skies it is hard to tell that is Wigram, it looks like north Yorkshire.
|
|
|
Post by beagle on Feb 21, 2012 21:23:02 GMT 12
The bastards, surely they could have kept them as part of the overall [plan and use them for some sort of project in that area or is making money from bulding another road and putting more houses there more important to them.
|
|
|
Post by johnnyfalcon on Feb 21, 2012 21:27:54 GMT 12
Don't start me! grrrrrrr :-( What do YOU think beagle?
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 21, 2012 21:37:28 GMT 12
I agree Beagle, these buildings could have been done up and kept as venues for the community like scout halls, senior citizen clubs, etc. But then considering the land owners there destroyed a perfectly good hall (the Base Institue) and the pool etc they have no interest in the community they are creating, just the square metres of land under the historic buildings that they can shove houses onto.
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Feb 21, 2012 21:38:32 GMT 12
I am seeing far too much of SH1 between Hornby and Ashburton.... it really is hurting.
Good photos though. I think the sheds were used as storage for the past few decades.
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Feb 21, 2012 21:44:45 GMT 12
Dave, I have heard the plan for Hangars 4 and 5 was for community activity. I also heard one was to become a supermarket. That is all 3rd or 4th hand stuff though. There will be a master plan somewhere. I was doing some demolition work in the city a week or so back. The building could clearly be repaired easily, it was literally like a giant 3 bay hangar. The main problem was that someone needed the land it stood on for something else. Perhaps when the dust settles and the new city, new Wigram subdivision, complete with new motorway all come together in harmony to give a great new city.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 21, 2012 21:44:58 GMT 12
I remember that occasionally the cracker stackers, Geoff, Pinetree and Mike, use dto go over the back of the airfield there and blow shit up. Some of the explosions used to rattle hell out of No. 6 Hangar. I'm not sure what they were actually doing, was there a huge hole to blow up old time ex bombs in?
|
|
|
Post by agile on Feb 21, 2012 21:53:01 GMT 12
Well we are a trifle short on places to put houses in this city just at the moment, and I daresay there'd be a large number of people whose regard for the site is outweighed by the desire to have a place to live..... (Granted we are getting a smidgen light on heritage buildings, but I guess these are a luxury just at the moment).
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Feb 21, 2012 22:06:23 GMT 12
Well we are a trifle short on places to put houses in this city just at the moment, I know what you are saying but there is actually a lot of land when compared to Wellington and possibly Auckland. There are major sub-divisions going in at Hei Hei and Prebbleton. It seems hard to believe though that Wigram could perhaps be conceived as the better area. I am thinking proximity to work, transport and shops etc. Much has changed out in the West of the city in the past 30 years. We could probably imagine how an airfield at Wigram would look in the year 2030. The city could conceivably be expanding out towards Rolleston by then. I can envisage Templeton being a suburb of ChCh with possibly a new one between it and Hornby. The airfield really would have been surrounded by housing.
|
|
|
Post by Parrotfish on Feb 21, 2012 22:25:41 GMT 12
Well we are a trifle short on places to put houses in this city just at the moment, I can envisage Templeton being a suburb of ChCh Ummm... It IS a suburb of Christchurch. Cheers.
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Feb 21, 2012 23:21:39 GMT 12
Yep, I think I know what I was trying to say. I was trying to describe a conjoined suburb in much the same way as Hornby is now. I first started working in the area in 1975 but used to visit for periods prior to that. There were still many paddocks about even back then. All the new subdivisions about South Hornby were just being finished off by then, being put in between 1966 to 1971. At least that is when it all seemed to be happening. I reckon with the demand for land that we are hearing about then the stretch out to Templeton will be filled in next to no time. Naturally we couldn't fly over that from Wigram but we could certainly see the buildings encroaching onto Wigram from all sides. The industrial area to the North of the ends of both 03's. Broken Run then appeared under the approach to 31 and of course the Awatea subdivision was eating away at our approach to Grass 03. In the thirty years that I have been flying off the field I have witnessed the green areas slowly disappearing. Much of the spare areas have already gone in the past 4 years. Delamain is almost completed in the top of the pic. Halswell expansion has been massive just off the South Eastern corner of Wigram. I guess the next issue will be the encroachment into the ChCh airport area. The really, really bad part of it all is the green foreground..... hmmm
|
|
|
Post by agile on Feb 22, 2012 11:26:48 GMT 12
It may be that the infrastructure bottlenecks (ie availability of sewer in particular) are less in the Wigram area. It is all very well presuming that land could be developed elsewhere, but the infrastructure has to be in place, and the city needs land now. I too am saddened by the loss of the site - my father served there and I was a passenger on one of the last Dak flights to operate from there. But try telling it to folks who have lost their homes and who are being priced out of the market by a shortage of housing.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 22, 2012 11:39:15 GMT 12
I cannot see the houses that are to be built here being any cheaper than any others around.
|
|
|
Post by skyhawkdon on Feb 22, 2012 14:09:22 GMT 12
The average house and land package in the new Wigram development is around $600k for a 650sm section and 210sm house. Sections on their own start from $200k. Prices around Wigram have definately gone up since the earthquakes.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 22, 2012 14:35:59 GMT 12
Yes, so the argument that these houses will relieve the over-priced property market is crap.
|
|
|
Post by nzjet on Feb 22, 2012 15:24:16 GMT 12
Yes, so the argument that these houses will relieve the over-priced property market is crap. Why do you say that? Its simple, supply and demand. The more sections there are for sale the less likely it is for people to price gouge. not that it wouldn't happen but.. Simple fact is, wigram would not have remained around for much longer even if we were still flying there, take a look at how many houses are build right up to the edge, all it would have taken is one accident through a house or more complaints about noisy sunday morning flying to end it. As much as i hate and despise them there aint nothing you can do. Bring on our new "wigram" aerodrome at Darfield and keep the Natives far far away.
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 22, 2012 15:49:16 GMT 12
I say it is crap because Don said they have ramped up the prices. They are not trying to get people into homes quickly - they are trying to make a bigger buck on the back of a tragedy. Total wankers. Ramping the prices up will not help people get into houses nor fix the market for those who cannot afford to buy there. And the prices won't drop as more homes are built, I'd bet. They have used the quake as an excuse to profiteer in my opinion.
I know there's nothing that can be done to stop housing taking over, that writing was on the wall in the 1990's when the RNZAF left, but it is maddening that these idiots who own the place have no cares about preserving a little bit of the nation's history that could have enhanced the over-priced artificial community they are creating.
Anyone looking to find a home they can actually afford should move out of the city. You could buy two houses for the same price in many other places, including here.
|
|