Back in the ’70s and ’80s, Wellington went through massive changes. Some were done in the name of general progress, and others in preparation for the next big quake. This fascinating documentary from 1983 documents it all.

Hometown Boomtown documents the ways Wellington rapidly changed in the ’70s and early ’80s. It’s a fascinating look into how developers and the public viewed aspects of this redevelopment. You can watch the entire film for free at NZ on Screen, Iwi Whitiātua.

The 1983 film interviews Wellington figures from Sir Michael Fowler and author David McGill, to Professor Helen Tippett and developer Bob Jones and many others. It tries to capture a range of reactions to Wellington’s large-scale demolition and development.

Many debates and ethics were touched on; the main one being the pull between progress and safety, and preservation, identity and sentimentality.

For Fowler, especially, this stemmed from wanting to be prepared for the next big earthquake. He wanted the new structures to be able to last forever. And that meant steel, concrete and glass.

Some, like John Burns of the Historical Places Trust, suggested we don’t have to be all old or all new. Many cities are a mix of historical and modern structures.

So maybe, the solution is to keep some of our older places for that history and sentimentality. They could even be repurposed so their lives continue in another form. The new and old could inform each other, both in terms of building design and purpose, and ideology.

Bob Jones talks at length in the film about leaving the public out of property decisions. The city’s look and functions should only then be influenced by property owners; a stance the public likely wouldn’t have been too happy about.

Speaking of the public, there’s a lot of discussion about how personal identity is wrapped up in a town’s structures. Many mourned for the buildings lost, the old architecture sent to the tip, and for the frequented pubs and landmarks that disappeared overnight. These buildings were described as “almost friends” in people’s lives.

There was a sense that many felt attached to Wellington’s structures and wanted a say in what happened to them. Or in case of their demolition, what the space could be used for next. Much of the doco features epic shots of construction and demolition. But there’s a short segment that shows communities coming together to campaign for parks. They even make their own, going as far as to tear up a car park and plant trees to make Aro Park: a “people’s park.”

There’s a segment that discusses the city plan. A map is shown distinct districts for retail, offices, industrial and residential areas. But Helen Tippett, dean of Victoria University’s School of Architecture at the time, says this isn’t how people really live.

She describes how people are expected to work in one area, shop in another and live somewhere else again. This segregation or single-use style of development, she says, is a remnant of post-war planning that was beginning to be questioned. Sounds like a case for mixed-use neighbourhoods or 15-minute cities to us!

It’s hard to overstate how rapidly these changes were happening. Wellington is a city that’s always changing. And we’re still dealing with some of the same issues and concerns as we were almost 40 years ago. Even in this documentary, people talked about how much the city had changed since the previous push for development and the construction of the motorway.

We’re still strengthening earthquake-prone buildings or knocking them down to make something stronger. Amidst these blitzes, we are confronted with questions of how we want our cities to look and function, and who gets to decide that.

“[If] you ignore the weather, you could be in any modern capital.”

Hometown Boomtown

Wellington’s look and feel have always been deeply important to its inhabitants. We’ll always be changing and our city will change with us. This film reminds us of Wellington’s ever-shifting nature, and what we have to consider if we want it to reflect us and change for the better.

Hometown Boomtown is directed by John Reid and narrated by Bernard Kearns. The full 48-minute film is available for free here. We recommend checking it out as an interesting piece of Wellington’s history that still speaks to today. If nothing else, it’s a curious ride of nostalgia, ethics, moody synth music, and ’80s editing.

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Further resources

• The 15 minute City by Kōrero Wellington
• Wellington: Hometown/Boomtown by Andrew Hyams
• Codesign with community: spotting codesign-washing by Isabella Cawthorn and Boopsie Maran
• Whose ‘identity’ are we preserving in Auckland’s special character housing areas? by Carolyn Hill

Tags: Development, urban development, urban environment