Those are the words of George Wealleans, who has mastered the art of preservation as founder and inaugural president of the Ferrymead Post and Telegraph Historical Society.
It is why the 75-year-old is in charge of the group responsible for conserving the country’s communications’ history in a 1920s Post Office building, nestled within Ferrymead Heritage Park.
“If I don’t, then who’s going to?” said Wealleans.
“It’s partly ego, partly a desire to preserve our history. You might as well preserve something you’re keen on.”
The items, sourced from all over the country, are in working order, allowing visitors to get a feel for what life was like before the digital age.
The exhibition may look like a museum, but it has not strayed too far from its original purpose – the building still provides postal agency services and philatelic (postage stamp) sales.
Wealleans and a few others established the society in 1977 during a time when the country’s morse system and telegraph service were closing down in 1963 and 1988, respectively.
One of the members already worked at the Ferrymead tramways, so the heritage park was seen as the perfect location to keep the practice alive.
Otherwise, it would have “ended up on shelves in a shed.”
“When some of the equipment out there was ready to be taken out, we wanted to see it preserved. So I called a meeting with post officers in town and established a group,” he said.
“[Now] we have been tasked, or dumped, with the idea of looking after this stuff on behalf of the people of New Zealand.
“But there’s no benefit of looking after this stuff other than our hobby.”
In the 23 years that followed, he completed school certificate and locked in his first job at the Timaru Post Office at 16-years-old as a trainee telephone mechanician.
In search of love, he relocated to Christchurch in 1971 to get hitched, eventually building a house, raising three children of his own, and starting a new role at the telephone exchange.
“We’re still at the same address with the same phone number in Avondale.”
Wealleans loved the idea of being able to help facilitate communication between others.
The biggest change he witnessed over time was cell phones. But as someone who championed communication, they were “abhorrent,” as they created too many distractions.
“Each component leads to a core computer, then it goes out through a cellular network and up to a satellite, passing bits of messages, then back down to say, the phone of your mate who just happens to be having lunch in San Francisco.”
But after 31 years in the industry, it all changed when he was made redundant in 1992 – two years after deciding to take a decade-long hiatus as president of the historical society.
He spent the next 17 years after that working in a factory making plastic bags before he “weaseled” his way back into the society’s presidential role about 10 years ago.
“In every job I’ve had, there’s been an element of being your own master,” said Wealleans.
“Obviously you’re following the instructions. Like at the plastic bag machine, you’re given instructions on how long to make the bag, but they didn’t tell you how fast to make it.
“So I fine-tuned the machine a bit to get it going at say, 65 bags a minute, instead of 50.”
Wealleans is at the heritage park nearly every day, and he would not have it any other way.
But a major regret was not becoming an architect after nearly failing a technical exam in high school – a dream that grew momentum the second he received his first Meccano set.
Said Wealleans: “I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m an artist but I can visualise things from a technical perspective, put it on paper and draw it, like a circuit diagram. I’ve always treated my job as a hobby because I love my work. I’m able to share all my experiences with a whole lot of people, even those who aren’t ex-post office.”
