Donovan's Store at

Ōkārito Ōkārito is a small coastal settlement on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, southwest of Hokitika, and from . It is built at the southern end of the Ōkārito Lagoon at the mouth of the Ōkārito River. The settlement of The Forks ...

on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

of New Zealand is the oldest wooden building in Westland. It was built in the 1860s as a hotel and converted to a general store in the 1890s which operated for over 60 years. It is now a Category 1 listed historic place.

History

The Donovan's Store building was originally the Club Hotel, built on The Strand in 1865 or 1866 during the gold mining rush at Ōkārito. The hotel was converted to a general store in the 1890s and run by James Donovan (1867–1960) and his wife Eva Donovan for about 60 years. As well as the Ōkārito port the store serviced the gold dredge workers and flax cutters and Donovan was known for delivering supplies to isolated gold prospectors. The store mainly sold foodstuffs but many household and other items were sold such as fabric and tools. Donovan ran the store until the 1950s, selling it to Keith (Robbie) Robertson of Whataroa who ran the store part–time until 1965. In 1987 the building was bequeathed to the

Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

by Robertson. The Trust passed the building to the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

(DOC) in 1988. In 1990 the Trust gave the store a Category 1 listing, which designated it as a significant building meriting preservation. It fell into disrepair but the local community decided in the 1990s to restore it to a usable building, with a library premises being one of the possible uses and in 1994 DOC began a five-year restoration programme. The Ōkārito Community Association contributed $100,000 towards the renovation. It owns and maintains the hall in partnership with DOC. In the 1990s the grounds surrounding the store were surveyed by botanist Elizabeth Woods who found roses, a holly tree, grapevine, oak tree and a mixture of other plants. In 2009, the

governor-general Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

, Anand Satyanand, visited the store while on the West Coast.

Construction

The front part of the building is the oldest with a lean-to at the back added later. Reconstruction work on the store showed it was built with a mixture of native timbers including kauri, rimu, kahikatea and imported

Baltic pine ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and oran ...

, the latter possibly scavenged from shipwrecks. The sides and back of the building are clad in corrugated iron.

Current status

Since 1990 the building has been registered by Heritage New Zealand as a Category I structure, with registration number 5008. The building is now used as the Ōkārito Community Library with some of the book stock supplied by the Westland District Library.

References

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History

Construction

Current status

References

Further reading