Fifteen kilometres up The Coast from Westport, Denniston is situated on the Mount Rochfort plateau, 600 metres above the beach and about one and a half kilometres inland.
The sitting room had panoramic views to the West out across the Tasman Sea to the curvature of the earth (amazing sunsets). Windows at the other end of the room looked out to the snow clad peaks of the Papahaua mountain range.
By the time that this photograph was taken the population of Denniston had reduced from around 1,400 to 23.
Taken from near the front of the fire station, to the Right is the garage of Denniston Motors, with a petrol bowser on the forecourt and, unmoved for many years, an early 1930s school bus within.
Across the intersection, with its' red-lead painted corrugated iron cladding is the Doctor's house and surgery facing the (unseen) Post Office. Beyond the Doctors' is the Police Station, with the cell block (unseen) in the back yard.
It was a good time to be living on the sub-alpine plateau, the residents were mainly artists, musicians and potters, etc. and there were great parties that would attract friends from across the island and go on for days.
But the halcyon era would not last, by the 1990s commercial dope growers had moved in, arson became the new game in town and the doctors' was fortified, even the garage burnt. But what little is left slumbers on as a no more than a ghostly curiosity for tourist.
Original photo by Gerard Richards of Auckland (his sporty Vauxhall HC Viva to Left), subsequently tarted up and reminisced upon by self.
The sitting room had panoramic views to the West out across the Tasman Sea to the curvature of the earth (amazing sunsets). Windows at the other end of the room looked out to the snow clad peaks of the Papahaua mountain range.
By the time that this photograph was taken the population of Denniston had reduced from around 1,400 to 23.
Taken from near the front of the fire station, to the Right is the garage of Denniston Motors, with a petrol bowser on the forecourt and, unmoved for many years, an early 1930s school bus within.
Across the intersection, with its' red-lead painted corrugated iron cladding is the Doctor's house and surgery facing the (unseen) Post Office. Beyond the Doctors' is the Police Station, with the cell block (unseen) in the back yard.
It was a good time to be living on the sub-alpine plateau, the residents were mainly artists, musicians and potters, etc. and there were great parties that would attract friends from across the island and go on for days.
But the halcyon era would not last, by the 1990s commercial dope growers had moved in, arson became the new game in town and the doctors' was fortified, even the garage burnt. But what little is left slumbers on as a no more than a ghostly curiosity for tourist.
Original photo by Gerard Richards of Auckland (his sporty Vauxhall HC Viva to Left), subsequently tarted up and reminisced upon by self.
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