Members of the central and lower North Island Territorial Forces clearing silt from a resident's garden in Christchurch.
Two members of the Auckland and Northland Territorial Units clearing silt from a resident's garden in east Christchurch.
Christchurch has unveiled an ambitious $2 billion plan to re-create the central city as a green, people friendly, low rise zone, inside a garden. Almost six months on from the destructive February earthquake most of the centre still sits cordoned off, and half the buildings need to come down.
A PDF copy of signage for the Places of Tranquillity initiative. Healthy Christchurch lead the collaborative project to create six gardens of beauty and peace to fill in some of the grey demolition sites across Christchurch. The signage promotes the initiative and invites people to register to create tranquil gardens at healthychristchurch.org.nz. From healthychristchurch.org.nz: "Healthy Christchurch is leading this innovative collaboration creating six gardens of beauty and peace to fill in some of the grey demolition sites across Christchurch.These gardens are for peace and tranquillity as well as family and community use with spaces designed for both." "This is a Healthy Christchurch collaboration in partnership with the city's ethnic communities to include their traditions, cultures and spiritual beliefs. This ensures that these communities' voices and presence is more visible in the rebuild of our city. There are three key partners in this collaborative project. Greening the Rubble are providing expertise in temporary site development and project managing the creation. Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture provided the student competition and are supporting the winning students and their designs into fruition. Community and Public Health (CDHB) provide the overall project management, networks and promotion." "In 2012 Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture students created 40 beautiful designs for the Places of Tranquillity. Six winning designs were chosen from the 995 votes made online or at the displays at Community and Public Health and the Migrant Centre. The six winners were announced at the Healthy Christchurch Hui on the 31st May 2012. Each winning student received a Certificate and a $50 Scorpio Book Voucher. The awards were presented by Michelle Mitchell, General Manager of the CERA Wellbeing Team."
To the casual observer, community gardens may look like places where people just come to grow fruit and vegetables. Through digging beneath surface appearances, however, the research literature suggests that there is more to the creation of and participation in community gardens than that which is immediately apparent. The overall aim of this research was to explore and interpret the meaning of community gardens in terms of the sought and experienced well-being of the individuals who participate, and their associated communities. This research was undertaken in the Christchurch/Selwyn district, in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010-2011. This research utilised the technique of photo-elicitation interviews to study the meanings attributed to community gardening, in the post-earthquake environment. Five gardens were investigated. Results show that a range of meanings, and well-being outcomes are experienced through a combination of physical, educational, aesthetic appreciation, contemplative, creative and social connections within the garden and within the overall context of nature. Significantly, within the post-earthquake environment, the community gardens can offer participants the opportunity to appreciate life and what it means for them.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake as residents start to clean up. Jo Mackwell digs out the garden of her parents from under the silt in Reaby Street, Burwood".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Marika Begg with the macrocarpa tree stumps in her garden that were chopped down after earthquake damage. Di Madgin story".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Marika Begg with the macrocarpa tree stumps in her garden that were chopped down after earthquake damage. Di Madgin story".
A sign in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens pointing to a reflection and commemoration area, an area set up for people to reflect on the Christchurch earthquakes and leave a message in the book of condolence.
Today marks seven years since the devastating Christchurch Earthquake. We turn out attention to the Garden City, first celebrating the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra’s 60th anniversary with violinist Natalia Lomeiko, then organist Martin Setchell on the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church organ rising from the rubble.
Elephant grass sculpture in Re:Start mall. This was one of the sculptures presented by the Christchurch Garden City Trust.
Reindeer grass sculpture in Re:Start Mall. This was one of the sculptures presented by the Christchurch Garden City Trust.
Cunningham House at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens is still closed due to earthquake damage. I wonder if it will ever re-open or suffer the demolition fate many other iconic structures in Christchurch have.
An image from a Army News March 2011 article titled, "Territorial Force". The image shows members of the Auckland and Northland Territorial Units clearing silt from a resident's garden in east Christchurch. The resident is out in the garden helping out.
The Peacock Foutain in the Botanic Gardens, in the background is the Christchurch I-Site which has reopened in a potacom.
The remains of a brick boundary wall which has collapsed and fallen in the garden of a property in Christchurch.
A photograph of Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel at a River of Flowers earthquake memorial event in the Botanic Gardens. She is standing near the Tree of Hope and holding a hand-written message. The message is written on one of the All Right? Earthquake Anniversary postcards. All Right? posted the photograph on their Facebook page on 22 February 2014 at 1:36pm.
A video of the 2016 Civic Earthquake Memorial Service, held to mark the fifth anniversary of the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The service was held on the Archery Lawn in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens at midday on 22 February 2016. The service was filmed for the Christchurch City Council by Alan Radford of Multicam TV.
Elephant sculpture made out of grass in Re:Start mall. This was one of the sculptures presented by the Christchurch Garden City Trust.
A city’s planted trees, the great majority of which are in private gardens, play a fundamental role in shaping a city’s wild ecology, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem services. However, studying tree diversity across a city’s many thousands of separate private gardens is logistically challenging. After the disastrous 2010–2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, over 7,000 homes were abandoned and a botanical survey of these gardens was contracted by the Government’s Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) prior to buildings being demolished. This unprecedented access to private gardens across the 443.9 hectares ‘Residential Red Zone’ area of eastern Christchurch is a unique opportunity to explore the composition of trees in private gardens across a large area of a New Zealand city. We analysed these survey data to describe the effects of housing age, socio-economics, human population density, and general soil quality, on tree abundance, species richness, and the proportion of indigenous and exotic species. We found that while most of the tree species were exotic, about half of the individual trees were local native species. There is an increasing realisation of the native tree species values among Christchurch citizens and gardens in more recent areas of housing had a higher proportion of smaller/younger native trees. However, the same sites had proportionately more exotic trees, by species and individuals, amongst their larger planted trees than older areas of housing. The majority of the species, and individuals, of the larger (≥10 cm DBH) trees planted in gardens still tend to be exotic species. In newer suburbs, gardens in wealthy areas had more native trees than gardens from poorer areas, while in older suburbs, poorer areas had more native big trees than wealthy areas. In combination, these describe, in detail unparalleled for at least in New Zealand, how the tree infrastructure of the city varies in space and time. This lays the groundwork for better understanding of how wildlife distribution and abundance, wild plant regeneration, and ecosystem services, are affected by the city’s trees.
Whale-shaped sculpture made out of grass in Re:Start mall. This was one of the sculptures presented by the Christchurch Garden City Trust.
Animal-shaped sculpture made out of grass in Re:Start mall. This was one of the sculptures presented by the Christchurch Garden City Trust.
Text across the top of the cartoon reads 'You know you live in Christchurch when...' Six cameos follow reading 'You can stir a cup of coffee without a spoon' - a cup of coffee is shaken; 'after 30 years you finally know your neighbours' - a group of people get to know one another; 'the latest fitness craze is sandba' - a couple shovel a heap of liquefaction to music from their transistor; 'everyone gets to drive a slalom' - someone weaves along a road avoiding cracks and mud in their car; 'there's a craze in "unique garden features"' - a longdrop has been dug in the garden; and lastly 'you have tea under a doorframe' - a couple eats and drinks under a doorframe for safety. Context - the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011. Published in The Press Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Garden City Helicopters flown by Mark Read uses a 700 litre monsoon bucket to dump water on loose boulders and rocks on the cliff face above Redcliffs School to dislodge them".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Garden City Helicopters flown by Mark Read uses a 700 litre monsoon bucket to dump water on loose boulders and rocks on the cliff face above Redcliffs School to dislodge them".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Garden City Helicopters flown by Mark Read uses a 700 litre monsoon bucket to dump water on loose boulders and rocks on the cliff face above Redcliffs School to dislodge them".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Garden City Helicopters flown by Mark Read uses a 700 litre monsoon bucket to dump water on loose boulders and rocks on the cliff face above Redcliffs School to dislodge them".
A damaged footpath in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Two orange cones have been placed on the damaged concrete to warn people of the uneven surface.
Animal sculpture made out of grass in Re:Start mall in Re:Start mall. This was one of the sculptures presented by the Christchurch Garden City Trust.
A garden in Sydenham created by Greening the Rubble, a community project in Christchurch which aims to create temporary public parks and gardens on the sites of demolished buildings. To the left, the 10 square metre office building can just be seen as well as a mural in the background.