Former Dunedin heritage policy planner Glen Hazelton, working from his new home in Perth, has a role with Heritage New Zealand taking lessons learned here to save heritage in other small towns and cities.
Dr Hazelton spent seven years at the Dunedin City Council, a period in which a host of Dunedin’s crumbling 19th-century buildings were given a new lease of life.
He was best known for his work in the warehouse precinct in and around Vogel St, where blocks of heritage buildings are being returned to their former glory. He left his job at the council to move to Perth last September, where he is working in the local government area, though not in heritage.
But he said his new role was flexible enough to allow him to pick up other project work, enabling him to work with Heritage New Zealand.
His role with that organisation was as a contractor, working to develop a guideline and implementation programme called Saving the Town.
"Basically, what we’re trying to do is take the positive successes we have learnt from Dunedin and other places and develop a programme to help local authorities, building owners, heritage advocates and the community to take a positive approach to saving heritage in small towns and cities."
Dr Hazelton said there were other places in New Zealand where, like Dunedin, despite constraints and challenges, heritage buildings could be saved.
"Even more than that, you can have that heritage restoration contribute to broader regeneration and positive benefits for your town."
Saving the town was about providing not only that inspiration, but also the tools, policy changes and approaches that could help make it happen.
"We’re trying to better enable people to harness this potential around New Zealand."
Dr Hazelton said despite his move to Australia, he was still passionate about this country’s heritage.
"Being involved in Dunedin was always more for me than just a job.
"It’s something I believe in and am passionate about — it was never a 9-to-5 job — and I am determined to continue to contribute positively where I can."
He said he had continued his association with Dunedin, volunteering on trusts and working on a larger project still "in its early days".
"I love Dunedin.
"It’s somewhere I’m passionate about.
"I want to see it do well, and being away from the city reinforces those things you love about it and want to see improve further."
He said he never planned the end of his council role being the end of his connections to the city.
"I always said I’d continue to take those opportunities to contribute when they came up, whether or not they were with the DCC."
