South Island businesses are getting together to discuss turning an island in Foveaux Strait into a tourist attraction.
The group met on Dog Island, off Bluff, to decide what support they might be able to provide.
The island boasts the tallest lighthouse in the country, several category one historic buildings, and a predator-free status that may eventually see native species reintroduced.
Peter Ridsdale of the Dog Island Trust says there is already plenty of wildlife on the island.
“We've certainly got huka sea lions, seals, shags, a number of different bird species,” he says.
And these are all drawcards which the trust is hoping to capitalise on by turning the island into a tourist attraction.
“What most people are looking for in the island is the ability to be involved in a worthy community project, but also for their staff to be engaged,” says Mr Ridsdale.
Now they're looking for volunteer staff to clean up and restore buildings like the original 1866 lighthouse keeper’s cottage.
Alister Rance of PlaceMakers Southland says there’s plenty of work to do.
“Walking around, already there's some logical stuff that needs done, some is easy, some is hard, some of that looks like asbestos which might be a little bit hard,” he says.
Since European settlement at least 125 vessels have gone down in Bluff Harbour, Foveaux Strait and the waters around Stewart Island.
In 1939, the Waikouaiti went aground on the rocks of Dog Island, and in 1881 England's Glory was totally wrecked near the entrance to Bluff Harbour.
No-one will ever know how many more would have come to grief without the Dog Island beacon, which has been shining since 1865.
“It’s deemed to be one of the most important venues in New Zealand to have a lighthouse, physically so many boats came through here in the 1860s to early 1900s,” says Mr Ridsdale.
Awarua Runanga representative Bubba Thompson says the island is also steeped in local iwi history.
“There's a lot of historical korero around here, about the iwi Maori that was here,” he says.
And for one, Mr Rance can see the island’s potential.
“I can't see this competing with Stewart Island as a tourism destination but in its own right it has a bona fide reason for being – there's an attraction here, it's a neat place to walk around, I’d come here for an afternoon with my family,” he says.
The potential partners have until February to decide if they want to be part of the project.
3 News
source: newshub archive
