News
Joining Forces
Posted 24 07 2017 by Emma Coutts
in News
Mid Winter Christmas
Of late the Dunedin branch of the NZILA have teamed up with the NZPI, RMLA and NZIS to host joint events. We have found the teaming up approach highly successful and has made it easier to organise and host events and improved turn out from all institutes.
On the 30th of June we hosted a mid-winter Christmas. For this a tour of the Dunedin prison (which is registered as a category 1 historic place under the Historic Places Act 1993) was arranged. Around 45 members from all 4 institutes met in town for a drink before a guided tour of the prison which was only decommissioned a mere 7 years ago!
The guided tour highlighted how prisoners would have been processed through the facility, stories of escapees climbing out between window bars or covering themselves in soap in the laundry to escape through air vents. Not to mention the dates that toilets were installed in 2000, the move to Milburn in 2007 would have been luxury.
The prison now hosts a range of small Dunedin businesses and activities including two escape rooms. Parts of the building have been modified/restored as the prison was the set for parts of The Light Between Oceans (2016) movie. The trust has plans of further restoration in the future to preserve the history and character of the historic building.
Following the tour, we all met up at Café Rue for nibbles and drinks. The feedback following events has been extremely positive, it has been fantastic for the Dunedin NZILA members to join forces with other likeminded professions and plans are already in place for the next Christmas event.
