Mangaweka Cantilever Bridge 

We're looking to list Mangaweka Cantilever Bridge over the Rangitīkei River as a Category 2 historic place and we're keen to get your feedback.

Mangaweka Cantilever Bridge sits within Mōkai Pātea in the central North Island and is situated near the site of Pounga, a Ngāti Hauiti settlement on the Otara-Taupō-Pātea overland track. 

Built in 1904, the 141-metre-long bridge is notable for being the first and only steel cantilever road bridge constructed in Aotearoa New Zealand. In a flood-prone area the cantilever design avoided mid-stream piers.  

The bridge also complements a dramatic natural environment, including sheer papa cliffs. It was threatened with demolition following closure in 2016, however after strong community support the bridge was retained. 

Tell us what you think. Read more about this place and make a submission here. Submissions close Tuesday 23 January 2024. 

Addington Cemetery, Ōtautahi Christchurch 

We’re looking to list Addington Cemetery as a Category 1 historic place. The cemetery was established 165 years ago and is the final resting place of such prominent Cantabrians as suffragist Kate Sheppard, members of the Deans family, politician Tommy Taylor and wealthy philanthropist Allan McLean.  

Interestingly, a bit of dissent was one of the driving factors behind the cemetery’s establishment. Addington Cemetery was established in reaction to dissatisfaction with the fact that all burials at Christchurch’s first cemetery – the Barbadoes Street Cemetery – had to be conducted according to Anglican rites. 

The cemetery is located in a mostly residential area and follows the garden cemetery tradition, being rectangular in plan with a tightly spaced formal grid pattern of rows, plots and narrow paths. It is densely packed and contains a range of grave and memorial types. 

Tell us what you think. Read more about this place and make a submission here. Submissions close Friday 26 January 2024.  

Futuro House, Ōhoka 

We’re proposing to include the Area 51 Futuro House on the New Zealand Heritage List Rārangi Kōrero as a Category 1 historic place. 

Built in Christchurch in the mid-1970s, the Area 51 Futuro House is one of only 68 surviving worldwide – and is even rarer as a Futuro house that is renovated and habitable. 

Initially conceived of as an easy-to-relocate ski hut by Finnish designer Matti Suuronen, Futuros became part of an international vision for “houses of the future” – as well as a response to increasing house prices in the early ‘70s. 

Adverts in the Press claimed they were low in cost, required virtually no maintenance, were easily transported and “ideal for hill side sections”. Futuro houses featured as bank spaces at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games and also appeared at the A&P show. 

Despite this, Futuro houses were never mass produced in Aotearoa, with only 12 made. This was put down to their radical design (described, not incorrectly, as “resembling flying saucers”) as well as the 1973 oil crisis driving up the cost of plastic. 

Like many Futuro houses, the Area 51 example was used in a variety of roles, including as a high-country research station and a whitebait and fishing hut before being relocated to its current home in Ōhoka. 

Tell us what you think. Read more about this place and make a submission here. Submissions close Friday 26 January 2024.