Derelict hut once served as a lookout
New Zealand’s southernmost building, north of Scott Base that is, is this derelict hut on Campbell Island.
It was built for the Cape Expedition in World War II.
In 1941 four civilian observers were recruited to each of three bases in the Subantarctic Islands.
There were two on Auckland Island and this one, each team keeping a lookout for enemy shipping and undertaking surveying and scientific study.
A popular occupation was hunting, with the wild sheep on the island providing an abundance of mutton.
The prefabricated huts were made with double plywood walls and double windows.
They were equipped with a large supply of food, and each had a dinghy with an outboard motor.
This base was close to the coast with an emergency retreat hut in the event of attack.
Crews were replaced yearly, with those from the second year onwards being enlisted into the army. They were demobbed in 1945 but the facility was maintained as a weather station. This was abandoned in 1957 when a new one was built, and since that was automated in 1995, Campbell Island has had no permanent human presence. It still attracts tourist expeditions and periodic scientific study.
Peculiar novel
The first appearance of Southland in a work of fiction is in Julius Vogel’s peculiar novel Anno Domini 2000, published in 1889.
Stewart Island, in 2000, has ‘‘huge factories for tinning fresh fish caught on the banks to the south-east, large establishments for dressing the seal-skins brought from the far south and for sorting and preparing for the market the stores of ivory brought from near the Antarctic Pole, the remnants of prehistoric animals which in the regions of eternal cold have been preserved intact for countless ages.’’
At this date the existence of the Antarctic continent was known but it was another six years before anyone landed on it.
Praise for progress
In 1874 a correspondent on a steamer, which had just berthed at Bluff, praised Invercargill for its progress since his previous visit.
‘‘We paid the moderate sum of six shillings each for the privilege of travelling as first class passengers in second-class carriages. The train went at a good speed, a broad 4 feet 8 inch gauge and a level country enabling the driver to go at a rate not to be thought of on the Port Chalmers line ...
‘‘We were obliged unfortunately to make a short stay at Invercargill, but the few hours I was there convinced me that the town had improved wonderfully since I had seen it last – about four years ago. Instead of unkempt, unformed streets, with large open drains filled with slimy water on each side, the present well kept gravelled footpaths and streets are pleasant to look upon, and reflect unlimited credit upon the Municipal powers that be. In former days, empty houses were almost the rule in every street, and broken windows and shattered doors in all parts of the town told the sad story of depopulation.
‘‘All this has been changed. An empty house is now hardly to be found, new houses being built and old ones renovated, while some of the business premises would do credit to a town three times the size of Invercargill.’’
Invercargill had suffered a catastrophic loss of population when the goldrush to the Arrowtown diggings was over.