1971: Turangi Information Centre Museum
November 29, 2022
By AHNZ
New Zealand has many Ghost Towns but in Turangi it has a Ghost Museum. Now derelict, the 1970s buildings are still there as evidence and so are a couple of monuments to what used to be an exciting history destination with the very latest form of exhibit presentation.
Everyone who takes the highway east of Taupo will pass it by without a second (or even a first) look. If you did look you would likely be disuaded by a big sign shouting red letters, all-caps: NGATI TURANGITUKUA CHARITABLE TRUST: PRIVATE PROPERTY. NO DOGS. NO PARKING. TOW AWAY AREA.
The once-museum was a side-project from the Tongariro Power Development (1966-71.) The big hydro-electric project was a National 2.0 scheme and as per usual had its own on-site publicity station which in October 1970 was called the Ministry of Works Information Centre.¹ However, by December 1972 the same place was called the Turangi Information Centre Museum.
The year 1971, then, is the likely time to place the opening of the museum. Especially so since the monument (image, top) has a plaque stating October of 1971 showing either that the museum was opened then or open by then.
“Kopua Kanapanapa. Dedicated to the early settlers Polynesian and European. This monument is symbolic of the unity between their descendants. Unveiled for the people of Taupo Nui-a-tia by the paramount chief of Tuwearetoa Hepi Te Heu Heu on 6yh October 1971.” – inscription on the monument, AHNZ (2022)
“Turangi museum once was open as an extension of the original visitors centre. Indeed some 45 years ago it was regarded as a national treasure …had to be extended to accommodate six buses at a time. So where is it now? Amazingly the original museum is still there. Parked off to one side of State Highway 41 on the southern fringe of residential development among industrial factory development the original building still stands waiting for an enterprising imaginative council to re-open it. Sadly, when it comes to Turangi, there is no such thing as an imaginative Taupo Council…” – What happened to the Turangi Museum?, Tongariro River Motel (2018)
“Mr T. J. Hosking, an archaeologist with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, made a thorough investigation of the sites between 1966 and 1971 and, with local assistance, uncovered many artifacts which are on display at the Turangi Information Centre museum established by the M.O.W. public relations officer, Mr F. C. R. Ford, with Mr Hosking’s help.” – Ministry of Works, Press (1972,) Papers Past
“We needed a museum and Warren Gibson asked if I could sesign one…I wanted it to be different; it was not going to have any show cases. In those days everything in museums was locked away in glass cases. I wanted to build a diorama which was the new thing in those days.” – Hosking, Harrington (2007)
“I designed and built a monument dedicated to the early settlers, both Maori and Pakeha. A large boulder with an interesting band of red iron oxide through it was used to represent the land we both live on. I carved a replica of a peg-topped stockade post to represent the Maori inhabitants, from those who had settled recently, right back to the first ones to arrive. It was fixed to a groove in the rock. An old horse-drawn swing plough was placed on top of the boulder to symbolize European settlement…Sir Hepi te Heuheu had approved of the drawings.” – ibid
Before the anti-establishment Baby Boomers came of age New Zealand was full of positive civic energy and proud of its colonial past. Numerous historical societies sprang up, consumer products branded themselves as heritage-positive, the 7-volume collectors encyclopedia New Zealand’s Heritage was issued. Canterbury Museum proudly offered Canterbury Colonists Galleries to visitors. Hamilton built a new theatre and called it the Founders Memorial Theater. Trevor Hosking and the Turangi Museum were situated in this era of a proud nation so alien to New Zealanders of the 2020s. Ref. 1971: New Zealand’s Heritage: The Making of a Nation, AHNZ
Turangi was a government town, an artificial creation pumped (1964) and dumped (late 70s) by The State. After the community and its civic energy had served its use it was disposed off and liquidated. So was the museum. Neither the Ministry of Works, the Electricity Department, nor the Tuwharetoa Trust Board were interested in maintaining the popular attraction. The collection was disseminated out of the area.
Reports, including that of chief architect, Hosking, indicate that there was a fantastic collection too. It’s mostly in mothballs now either at the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa) or Taupo Museum all out of view. A contributing factor is probably that Hosking, like his generation and those who came before, did not present the modern revisionist history we are offered today. Those New Zealanders accepted a wider world view including Moa Hunter culture and other ancient inhabitants of our islands. In collections like Turangi’s there was also the evidence to support those ideas. Well, we can’t have that!
Image ref. AHNZ (September, 2022)
Ref. A Museum Underfoot, Alison Harrington (2007)
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