A photograph looking east down Tuam Street. The old Post Office building (now C1 Espresso) can be seen in the distance on the left. On the right is the badly-damaged McKenzie & Willis building.
A photograph of a cleared site between St Asaph Street and Tuam Street. The old Post Office building can be seen in the distance to the left and on the right are badly-damaged High Street buildings.
A photograph of a cleared site between St Asaph Street and Tuam Street. The old Post Office building can be seen in the distance to the left and on the right are badly-damaged High Street buildings.
The South New Brighton Domain jetty into the Avon-Heathcote Estuary. A new jetty replaced an older one about 6-8 years ago, then the earthquakes happened! Before the earthquakes it was straight and level and open!
A photograph of local musician Gemma Syme playing an instrument constructed from old street signs, at Sound Garden. Sound Garden was a Greening the Rubble project created by local artist-musicians and launched as part of FESTA 2013.
A bit of the now demolished QEII (Queen Elizabeth II) Park running track in the "Gap Filler" on the old Deka site in New Brighton (last occupied by a charity barn before a major fire and subsequent demolition).
A residential property at 4 Seabreeze Close in Bexley. The number four and 'Still here' have been spray-painted onto the front of the house. A portable toilet, road cones, and old tyres have been left on the section.
A photograph of old-fashioned speakers and audio equipment near the Worcester Street bridge. The equipment will be used for the Canterbury Tales procession. Canterbury Tales was created by Free Theatre Christchurch, and was the main event of FESTA 2013.
A photograph of building rubble on a demolition site between St Asaph Street and Tuam Street. The old Post Office building can be seen in the distance to the left and on the right are badly-damaged High Street buildings.
A photograph of building rubble on a demolition site between St Asaph Street and Tuam Street. The old Post Office building can be seen in the distance to the left and on the right are badly-damaged High Street buildings.
20131212_6234_1D3-24 Another New Brighton building comes down (Day 346/365) The old Esplanade Tavern is being demolished due to damage suffered in the earthquakes of 2011. Another one of New Brighton's iconic buildings to go. #4457
None
Shands Emporium standing alone on Hereford Street, the buildings on either side of it demolished. The photographer comments, "This lovely old building looks a little more broken every time I see it, after having been exposed to the elements for so long".
One of the most commonly assumed facts about archaeologists (aside from our ability to have adventures, look good in a fedora and be surprisingly skilful with a whip), is that we can look at an object and know how old … Continue reading →
It came as a bit of a surprise when over 1000 fragments of broken stoneware jars were unearthed at an otherwise ordinary Christchurch archaeological site. But there, sitting under some old petrol tanks, was Christchurch history waiting to be found.What … Continue reading →
According to the sign it can take about 30 minutes to walk from the entry point (near the small statue) to the centre and out again. What you can do with a few thousand old bricks and gravel. See next photo for more detail.
The seismic survey truck T-Rex (from University of Texas) was in Bexley and Pacific Park a few days ago and may have left this calling card on the front lawn of my old "red zone" house. Obviously the geotechs will know what it means.
According to the sign it can take about 30 minutes to walk from the entry point (here) to the centre and out again. That is without stepping across the gaps between bricks. What you can do with a few thousand old bricks and gravel!
A photograph taken near the intersection of Manchester Street, Lichfield Street and High Street. A mural has been painted on a brick wall. Behind this, the old Post Office building which now houses C1 Espresso can be seen with Ronnie Van Hout's sculpture on the roof.
A photograph taken near the intersection of Manchester Street, Lichfield Street and High Street. A mural has been painted on a brick wall. Behind this is the old Post Office building (now C1 Espresso). There is a sculpture by Ronnie Van Hout on the roof.
Sitting on the concrete in front of what was my model railway room - a single car garage at the rear of our house in Pacific Park. Reason it is here - one of the houses behind my old house is going to be trucked out. See previous photo.
None
The Avon-Heathcote Estuary is of significant value to Christchurch due to its high productivity, biotic diversity, proximity to the city, and its cultural, recreational and aesthetic qualities. Nonetheless, it has been subjected to decades of degradation from sewage wastewater discharges and encroaching urban development. The result was a eutrophied estuary, high in nitrogen, affected by large blooms of nuisance macroalgae and covered by degraded sediments. In March 2010, treated wastewater was diverted from the estuary to a site 3 km offshore. This quickly reduced water nitrogen by 90% within the estuary and, within months, there was reduced production of macroalgae. However, a series of earthquakes beginning in September 2010 brought massive changes: tilting of the estuary, changes in channels and water flow, and a huge influx of liquefied sediments that covered up to 65% of the estuary floor. Water nitrogen increased due to damage to sewage infrastructure and the diversion pipeline being turned off. Together, these drastically altered the estuarine ecosystem. My study involves three laboratory and five in situ experiments that investigate the base of the food chain and responses of benthic microalgae to earthquake-driven sediment and nutrient changes. It was predicted that the new sediments would be coarser and less contaminated with organic matter and nutrients than the old sediments, would have decreased microalgal biomass, and would prevent invertebrate grazing and bioturbation activities. It was believed that microalgal biomass would become similar across new and old sediments types as the unstable new sediments were resuspended and distributed over the old sediments. Contact cores of the sediment were taken at three sites, across a eutrophication gradient, monthly from September 2011 to March 2012. Extracted chlorophyll a pigments showed that microalgal biomass was generally lower on new liquefied sediments compared to old sediments, although there was considerable site to site variation, with the highly eutrophic sites being the most affected by the emergence of the new sediments. Grazer experiments showed that invertebrates had both positive and negative site-specific effects on microalgal biomass depending on their identity. At one site, new sediments facilitated grazing by Amphibola crenata, whereas at another site, new sediments did not alter the direct and indirect effects of invertebrates (Nicon aestuariensis, Macropthalmus hirtipes, and A. crenata) on microalgae. From nutrient addition experiments it was clear that benthic microalgae were able to use nutrients from within both old and new sediments equally. This implied that microalgae were reducing legacy nutrients in both sediments, and that they are an important buffer against eutrophication. Therefore, in tandem with the wastewater diversion, they could underpin much of the recovery of the estuary. Overall, the new sediments were less favourable for benthic microalgal growth and recolonisation, but were less contaminated than old sediments at highly eutrophic sites. Because the new sediments were less contaminated than the old sediments, they could help return the estuary to a noneutrophic state. However, if the new sediments, which are less favourable for microalgal growth, disperse over the old sediments at highly eutrophic sites, they could become contaminated and interfere with estuarine recovery. Therefore, recovery of microalgal communities and the estuary was expected to be generally long, but variable and site-specific, with the least eutrophic sites recovering quickly, and the most eutrophic sites taking years to return to a pre-earthquake and non-eutrophied state. changes in channels and water flow, and a huge influx of liquefied sediments that covered up to 65% of the estuary floor. Water nitrogen increased due to damage to sewage infrastructure and the diversion pipeline being turned off. Together, these drastically altered the estuarine ecosystem. My study involves three laboratory and five in situ experiments that investigate the base of the food chain and responses of benthic microalgae to earthquake-driven sedimen tand nutrient changes. It was predicted that the new sediments would be coarser and less contaminated with organic matter and nutrients than the old sediments, would have decreased microalgal biomass, and would prevent invertebrate grazing and bioturbation activities. It was believed that microalgal biomass would become similar across new and old sediments types as the unstable new sediments were resuspended and distributed over the old sediments. Contact cores of the sediment were taken at three sites, across a eutrophication gradient, monthly from September 2011 to March 2012. Extracted chlorophyll a pigments showed that microalgal biomass was generally lower on new liquefied sediments compared to old sediments, although there was considerable site to site variation, with the highly eutrophic sites being the most affected by the emergence of the new sediments. Grazer experiments showed that invertebrates had both positive and negative site-specific effects on microalgal biomass depending on their identity. At one site, new sediments facilitated grazing by Amphibola crenata, whereas at another site, new sediments did not alter the direct and indirect effects of invertebrates (Nicon aestuariensis, Macropthalmus hirtipes, and A. crenata) on microalgae. From nutrient addition experiments it was clear that benthic microalgae were able to use nutrients from within both old and new sediments equally. This implied that microalgae were reducing legacy nutrients in both sediments, and that they are
A photograph taken near the intersection of Manchester Street, Lichfield Street and High Street. The old Post Office building, now housing C1 Espresso, can be seen in the distance with Ronnie Van Hout's sculpture on the roof. Coloured shipping containers support the remaining front facade of the Excelsior Hotel building.
A photograph taken near the intersection of Manchester Street, Lichfield Street and High Street. The old Post Office building, now housing C1 Espresso, can be seen in the distance with Ronnie Van Hout's sculpture on the roof. Coloured shipping containers support the remaining front facade of the Excelsior Hotel building.
A photograph of a mural by Chris Finlayson and Dean Blundell on the side of the Manchester Street car park. The artwork gives the illusion that unconventional vehicles are parked in the parking building. The vehicles include an aeroplane, steam train, helicopter, tractor, steamroller, excavator, and two old-fashioned cars.
Maybe it should be titled "Pray Here"! The old church buildings next to the Christchurch Basilica (Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament) have been demolished and replaced with ANOTHER Wilson's Car Park. Hundreds of sites in the city where buildings have been demolished after the earthquakes have been replaced in the short term by car parks!
The earthquake re-pair work has started on the Knox Church on Bealey Avenue, August 14, 2013 Christchurch New Zealand. While building after building is torn down in Christchurch, plans are in place to ensure as much of a 131-year-old church is retained as possible. Knox Church on Bealey Avenue suffered major damage in the February 22 earthquak...
The two nice trees in the front of my old property (now owned by the government) have been cut down so the main section of the house behind could be trucked down the drive. The truck must have been up against the fence to get the height above the house to the left (15 Velsheda Street). Down this drive were numbers 17, 19 and 21 (still occupied b...
A video of interviews with four enterprising young Christchurch residents recorded two years after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The video includes interviews with Gap Filler Director Coralie Winn, Arts Centre Director Andrew Lovatt, artist Mike Hewson, and Student Volunteer Army leader Jason Pembleton. The interviewees are asked four questions: 'What do you think Christchurch city centre will look like in 10 years?', 'What do you most want to see in the new city?', 'What do you miss most about the old city?', and 'What keeps you in Christchurch?'.