Artist draws on memories in park fight
Palmer donates work to be auctioned in court bid to oppose redevelopment
Renowned Auckland printmaker and painter Stanley Palmer has joined the fight to protect Western Springs’ Chamberlain Park as a green space.
The 80- year- old has donated a print of his artwork “Tower” to be auctioned off by citizens’ action group Save Chamberlain Park Inc to raise money for a legal bid in the High Court opposing a development for the park planned by Albert- Eden Local Board.
The lobbyists want to see the 78- year- old public golf course restored and preserved as a shared green space and have been involved in a stoush with the board since it announced in 2015 it would spend $ 30 million replacing the existing 18- hole golf course with a ninehole course, public park and playground.
Palmer, who grew up on the adjacent Linwood Ave, told the Weekend Herald he got behind the cause because of his affinity with the area and his memories of playing there as a young boy with his siblings and neighbours.
The children had a pact with the greenkeeper that they could roam and do as they pleased as long as they didn’t bother the golfers and looked after the space.
“We just played endlessly in the long grass. In the summer we built huts in the gorse. It was just like paradise around there. There was a lot more wildlife around the course at that time.”
However, developments like the Northwestern Motorway had changed the landscape he loved, he said, and at times he had been moved to tears by the pollution of the
Waititiko ( Meola Creek) that runs through the park. “I’ve seen the creek just die. It’s been neglected.”
Although the Local Board’s redevelopment plan included restoring the creek, which Palmer agreed with, he said the move came a bit late.
He was also concerned some of the park’s green space would be replaced with concrete for roading and car parks and astro turf for sports’ fields during the project.
Palmer told the Weekend Herald the money earmarked for the redevelopment would be better spent on a planting scheme to encourage native birds from Titirangi to nest in the park’s trees and restoring some of the holes that were prone to flooding.
“I’m not against development but it has to be really well thought out. It’s a bit like a bad facelift — leave it alone or restore it.”
It was possible for golfers and local residents to co- exist and enjoy Chamberlain Park side- by- side, he said.
Hagley Park in Christchurch and London’s Richmond Public Golf Course were two examples of shared spaces he noted that worked well.
He said residents from all over the region came to Chamberlain Park — just 17 per cent of golfers who use the course live in the Albert- Eden ward — so any development there was an “Auckland issue” instead of one to be decided by just the Local Board.
Quoting William Pitt, the First Earl of Chatham of the 1700s, Palmer said parks were “the lungs” of a city.
“[ They’re] how the city breathes and it’s going to become more and more important — maybe not in my time, but in 50 years it’s going to be invaluable that space.”
A proud Aucklander for 73 of his 80 years, Palmer has advocated for the protection of several historic place around the region.
He was part of a group who spent a decade fighting to save the Presbyterian church and hall that make up Mt Eden Village centre.
New Zealand landscapes and iconic places have also served as inspiration for much of Palmer’s artwork, which i s included in the national collection at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and most other New Zealand public collections.
His “Tower” print — which a spokesman for Save Chamberlain Park Inc said may fetch $ 2000 or more at auction — is a depiction of the iconic Mt Eden Shot Tower built in 1914 by the Colonial Ammunition Company.
Palmer said it was “big job” balancing the growing need for housing and infrastructure in the Auckland region against the preservation of heritage places and nature areas.
“I’m not a town planner but I think you preserve what you can that’s really worthwhile and you make sure everything that’s built is built really well.”
He is meeting with Jacinda Ardern, deputy leader of the Labour Party and MP for Mt Albert, on Monday to discuss his concerns about the redevelopment.
So Hodgson has set out to test whether the bacterium used to make Sentry Hill Organic’s sheep’s milk Cheese with No Name can hear and respond to heavy metal — a genre he’s passionate about.
The project involves setting up an iPod that will play the music in the maturing space at White’s central Hawke’s Bay farm of about 60 of 130 cheeses every morning for about three weeks.
“The cheese will get turned a couple of times a week so that will get multi- vibrations on all facets of the cheese,” Hodgson said.
The other half of the batch will be used as the control, maturing under normal conditions.
Cheese lovers will have the opportunity to sample both batches and other New Zealand cheeses at a tasting evening at Auckland gourmet food store Sabato on July 25.
Tickets to the tasting go on sale on Sabato’s website on July 1.