LAYERS OF GOLD MEDIA RELEASE 18.3.11

Layers Of Gold Launches With Announcement Of
Bluestone Award Recipient

Layers of Gold, Dunedin’s third Heritage Festival, themed around the 150th Anniversary of the Discovery of Gold in Gabriel’s Gully, was officially opened tonight at the Festival’s HQ in the old BNZ Building in Princes Street. A major feature of the launch was the announcement of the 2011 recipient of Dunedin’s Bluestone Award- Ann Barsby, the Founder of the Southern Heritage Trust.

The city’s Bluestone Awards recognise individuals whose long-term leadership, achievement and contribution to the living heritage of Dunedin has been exemplary.

On making the award presentation, Deputy Mayor, Chris Staynes said, “Ann Barsby is a most deserving recipient of this award. She has given more than ten years of tireless and voluntary devotion to the appreciation and protection of Otago’s social, cultural, architectural and industrial heritage. Ann’s contribution continues to build and foster awareness and appreciation of Dunedin’s extensive Heritage. She is a fantastic champion of Dunedin. ”

Born in the Channel Islands in 1941, Ann, a trained Secondary School teacher, moved to New Zealand with her family in 1971. She became the Head of the combined Department of Catering, Tourism and Science at the Otago Polytechnic and upon retirement in 2000, decided to focus her considerable energies on Heritage, which has always been one of her passions. At the end of 2001, entirely on her own initiative, she founded the Southern Heritage Trust, whose expressed aim is to foster the appreciation and preservation of Otago’s rich heritage in its various aspects.

The Southern Heritage Trust, formed in 2002, researches and publishes heritage materials, maintains heritage websites and collaborates with other agencies, groups and individuals in heritage activities. It also has an advocacy role in heritage matters. Its base is in the Sexton’s Cottage at Dunedin’s Northern Cemetery, which it maintains as an information gallery.

Ann Barsby has worked towards the preservation of the Dunedin Gasworks and its development as a museum and tourist attraction. She has also initiated the development of a number of Heritage Trails including themed trails in the Northern Cemetery, the Otago Heritage Roses Society trail, and a heritage trail for the Otago Motor Club. Many of these trails come with accompanying brochures and in the case of the Northern Cemetery Trails she has prepared teacher resources for primary schools as part of the social studies curriculum.

Ann produced a historical booklet for the Dunedin Court House, interpretation panels for Hindon Railway Station in cooperation with Taieri Gorge Railway, assisted in the Dunedin Railway Station Centenary, and contributed to successive Dunedin Heritage Festivals.
Over the next three days, Layers of Gold, is set to celebrate the 1861 gold rush which became the catalyst that laid the foundations of Dunedin’s rich heritage.

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