The Ashburton District Council is to fund urgent work on a historic Chinese settlement to preserve the site and its buildings.
The Chinese settlement on the outskirts of Ashburton was home to around 90 people at its height in the 1950's. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Graham
The site in the Ashburton suburb of Allentown was established in 1917, and over time grew to a Chinese settlement of about 90 people - most of them market gardeners.
The council took over management of the site in 2013, agreeing to preserve it as a heritage site and erect a memorial.
Its finance committee have approved $45,000 to be spent on draining the site, fencing the area, stabilising and weatherproofing the buildings and the last of the demolition work.
The money is the last of the $130,000 which was allocated to the project in 2017.
Councillor Leen Braam, who chairs the council's Chinese Settlement Working Group, said the primary goal was to retain what was there now.
"Funding has been spent very wisely so far and a recent tender process for full restoration of the site gave us much more clarity about what we could achieve in the future and the money we would need for that."
He said the next phases of the project were likely to include restoration of existing buildings, deconstruction and reconstruction of the settlement's shop, and a memorial to the people who lived and worked at the settlement.
The committee agreed to seek further funding at a later date to complete restoration of the site.
