Meanwhile, mostly residential properties along Avon River were designated red zone by CERA, meaning liquefactioned riverside ground was too liquefaction prone for repairs. Trashed infrastructure, housing, businesses would cost too much to repair too. Red zoned citizens had to leave, rebuilding their lives, homes, businesses elsewhere.
Red zone, ghost houses were easy to see, as gardens were summer rampant: wild weeds, long grass, flowers, shrubs. Some houses, still inhabited, gardens with cut grass. Council had cut some verges, most were weedy.
Dallington: I did a circuit trek along trashed roads, from Gayhurst Rd Bridge, along Locksley Ave beside Avon River, doubled back along Glenarm Tce, then trekked Gayhurst Rd a bit to snap red zone, ghost houses. 2015. A new Gayhurst Rd Bridge would be opened.
Locksley Ave: Mostly ghost houses by Avon River. Many boarded windows.
13.12.11. Quake tilted power pole. Locksley Ave / Gayhurst Rd view, quake damaged Gayhurst Rd Bridge. 2015. A rebuilt Gayhurst Rd Bridge would be opened
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, ghost house, overgrown garden, Locksley Ave / Gayhurst Rd. The house would be demolished
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed Locksley Ave, nr Gayhurst Rd Bridge & Feb 22 quake stopbank by Avon River
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, boarded, ghost house, overgrown garden, Locksley Ave, nr Gayhurst Rd Bridge
Glenarm Tce: Some ghost houses. Some houses inhabited.
13.12.11. Quake tilted power poles. Serial quake trashed Locklsey Ave / Glenarm Tce
13.12.11. Quake house demolition site, Glenarm Tce
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, ghost house, overgrown garden, Glenarm Tce
Gayhurst Rd: Most ghost houses were near Avon River. Trashed St Paul's School ground was a Macdow / Fletcher construction hub, filled with earthmoving machines & bldg materials. Beyond Glenarm Tce junction, houses were more inhabited. Fewer ghost houses the further I trekked from Avon River.
Power pole ad:
Bexley & East Side Red Zoners
Rally
Sunday 9th October, 2 pm at the
Wairoa Reserve
Corner Wairoa & Morganwood Streets
Come hear Rev Mike Coleman & other guest
speakers discuss:
Full Replacement insurance should be honoured
for all homes due to be demolished in the Red
Zone.
Need for transparency when it comes to why our
homes have been zoned red. Do you want your
land to be rezoned?
Is Rateable Value a fair deal for your Red Zoned
land?
Better relocation options so that homeowners can
move on without losing equity or increasing their
debt burden.
How are you coping? This may be one of the
largest decisions you make in your life!
We will get change by working together.
19.11.11. I'd already seen Rev Mike Coleman protesting at Show Your Colour Crusade, Cranmer Sq: Dissention from citizens dissatisfied with bureaucracies dealing with trashed housing: Council, EQC, CERA, insurers. Public protests had already begun, next year 2012, there would be more.
13.12.11. Post quake, land zoning protest notice, Gayhurst Rd
In Christchurch there were many official & unofficial signs about quakes: business ads, relocations, lost pets, protests, Council, demolition, construction signs. Metro Orbiter bus sign:
The ORBITER
is NOT using this stop
at present due to road
conditions and the
closure of Gayhurst
Bridge...
13.12.11. Orbiter bus, temp route notice, away from Gayhurst Rd quake damage
13.12.11. Green, plastic, sewage tank, Gayhurst Rd
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, boarded ghost house, overgrown garden, Gayhurst Rd
13.12.11. Wood braced, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Gayhurst Rd
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost houses, Gayhurst Rd
SCIRT road sign:
Permanent sewer replacement
Gayhurst Road & surrounds...
Sign on a roadside, green, plastic, sewage tank:
HUMAN WASTE
ONLY
WASH HANDS AFTER DISPOSAL!!
BEWARE OF SPLASHBACKS!!
13.12.11. Serial quake sunk, ghost house, Gayhurst Rd
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Gayhurst Rd
House fence sign:
We are still
living here.
Visitors most
welcome.
Anyone else
be aware of
the Dog.
Burglars Beware!
13.12.11. Post quakes, St Paul's School construction site hub, where the school hall once stood, before demolition, Gayhurst Rd
ST PAUL'S SCHOOL
OPEN @ OUR
TEMPORARY SITE...
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, ghost house, overgrown garden, Gayhurst Rd
13.12.11. Overgrown gardens, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Rupert Pl, off Gayhurst Rd
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Gayhurst Rd
Glenarm Tce: Chatted to a woman & her adult granddaughter. The family had lived there for generations, seeing Dallington grow. The grandmother was 94 years old & didn't want to leave her Glenarm Tce home. The woman said her father had seen houses built near Gayhurst Rd Bridge / Locksley Ave, but the houses were built on swampland. Quakes had returned riversides to swamps.
Rolling her index finger & thumb together she opined that red zoning was all about money & the cost of rebuilding infrastructure. Never mind if a red zone house was damaged or not. Although Locksley Ave houses were trashed below their Glenarm Tce family home, their home was relatively unscathed, yet both roads were red zoned by CERA.
She didn't mind me snapping, but said early days post quakes, it was humiliating all the photographers snapping pics of their distress: "Like we were in a zoo." She pointed out all the neighbours' red zone houses, already abandoned.
"Good luck to you & your mom," I said.
13.12.11. Feb 22 quake trashed, Gayhurst Rd Bridge join, Gayhurst Rd / Dallington Tce
13.12.11. Quake tilted power pole. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Dallington Tce / Gayhurst Rd
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, ghost house, Dallington Tce
13.12.11. Feb 22 quake, Avon River stopbank, Dallington Tce, nr Gayhurst Rd Bridge
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Dallington Tce
Thereafter I trekked red zone Dallington Tce, beside Avon River bank. Dallington Tce road condition was relatively OK: Road works going on, couple of sludge pumps I'd seen months before, still pumping. Two sewage sucker trucks sucked in the middle of the road.
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Dallington Tce
13.12.11. Sewage sucker trucks, Feb 22 quake stopbank, Avon River, Dallington Tce
13.12.11. Post quakes, overgrown driveway, St Paul's School back gate, Dallington Tce
13.12.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Yellow pump & truck, Dallington Tce
Dallington Tce by Avon River: Several ghost houses, overgrown gardens. Some houses, still inhabited. Pongy portaloos, I'd seen months before, still lined pavements.
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, Dallington Tce
13.12.11. Avon River bend, Dallington Tce. Serial quake trashed drain, opp bank, Avonside Dr. The drain would be demolished
River Rd: Trekked residential red zone, snapping many ghost houses. Many boarded windows. Some houses inhabited. Like Dallington Tce, pongy portaloos I'd seen months before still lined pavements. After I passed trashed, Medway St Footbridge over the Avon, River Rd got worse: shingled, deeply rutted, slumped banks, concrete curbs cracked, spalled.
13.12.11. Footbridge over Avon River tributary, Dallington Tce / River Rd
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, River Rd
Despite many ghost houses, with overgrown gardens, inhabited red zone houses had neat gardens, cars parked in driveways, people using quake trashed roads.
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, River Rd
13.12.11. Sept 4 quake trashed, Medway St Footbridge, Avon River, River Rd / Avonside Dr. The footbridge would be deconstructed for heritage storage at Ferrymead
Many cops that humid morning: Saw two cop cars patrolling Gayhurst Rd, one cop on foot too, with clipboard. River Rd: Saw one patrolling cop car, two cops on foot, with clipboards, accompanied by officials in blue, Hi-Vis vests with back logos:
WELFARE
RESPONSE
TEAM
NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT
The blue, Hi-Vis vested officials were Canterbury Temporary Accommodation Service. Their office was in the WINZ bldg, Winston Ave, Papanui.
13.12.11. Post quakes, Welfare Response Team / Canterbury Temporary Accommodation Service & Sallies van, Medway St
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed house, overgrown garden, Medway St / River Rd
13.12.11. Beige portaloo, white, Bobcat digger, River Rd
13.12.11. Sept 4 quake trashed, Medway St Footbridge, Avon River, River Rd / Avonside Dr. The bridge would be deconstructed for heritage storage at Ferrymead
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, River Rd
Medway St, off River Rd: Snapped a parked Salvation Army van, 3 women in blue, Hi-Vis vests with "Welfare" logos. Across Avon River, on Avonside Dr, I snapped another cop with clipboard & an official wearing a blue, Hi-Vis vest. They wandered house to house, door-knocking, peering in windows, trying to find inhabitants.
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, River Rd
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, boarded, ghost house, Lois Pl, off River Rd
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed, ghost house, River Rd
Police state: Cops & CERA minions invaded citizens' abandoned properties, before CERA deals were completed between red zoners & the Crown. Did cops have warrants to enter those overgrown, riverside properties, while stalking red zoners? I didn't see anyone answering door-knockers. Since when did cops show "Welfare" altruism in red zone, overgrown gardens? Were they checking red zoners had left their properties?
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed, boarded, ghost house, River Rd
13.12.11. Post quakes, green, plastic, sewage tank, overgrown park, River Rd
13.12.11. Serial quake trashed River Rd, nr Swanns Rd Bridge
13.12.11. River Rd view, "Welfare" cop & temp accommodation official, checking a red zone, ghost house, Avonside Dr
Swanns Rd Bridge: My Samsung camera battery was exhausted, so I left more River Rd ghosts for another day.
13.12.11. Overgrown garden, serial quake trashed house, River Rd, nr Swanns Rd Bridge
*Trekked Locksley Ave, Glenarm Tce, Gayhurst Rd, Dallington Tce, River Rd, Lois Pl. 169 snaps.
Most of the houses I saw that day would be red zoned & demolished by CERA. I was witnessing NZ National govt's land-grab. Pre-quakes the land was free hold. Post quakes, red zoned land became Crown land, paid for by taxpayers & red zoners' insurances.
Coda:
01.07.20. My 42nd wedding anniversary, married at St Martins, Durban North. During Covid-19 pandemic, Christchurch red zoned, Crown land would be handed back to Christchurch City Council for Council ownership & public use, like the City to Sea walkway & Avon River parkland, tributes to red zoners who'd lost their lands during quakes.
Mar 2022. Gayhurst Rd / Locksley Ave: By Avon River, Dallington Landing, a picnic spot would be opened in the residential red zone where quaked housing was demolished.
May 2022. A new Medway Street Footbridge over Avon River was opened.
Aug 2023. Crown would complete transfer of red zone land to Council.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Vision for Christchurch's river red zone comes full circle (Stuff Co).
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