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Palmerston North's Abandoned Fire station

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Description: These images were taken for the October 8th, 1978 edition of the Tribune weekly newspaper, the first of which was published with the caption: “Some of the damage that's occuring [sic] at the station.”

There were two related articles published with the images: “High-Rise Building Planned as Vandals Strike Deserted Station” and “Old Fire Station Open Invitation to Squatters” – the second of which is reproduced below:

“Palmerston North's old deserted fire station is an open invitation for squatters to move in and live there. So says the president of the Manawatu Tenants' Protection Association, Mrs Wendy Craig.

And she said the association would be right there with anyone who did so, to back them up and give them free legal aid in the event of eviction attempts. She could not see that they would be evicted: "It's Palmerston North's biggest embarrassment. I don't think anybody would evict them, because the station's been left empty for so long.

"Tenants' Protection would be right behind them all the way. "I would like to know who would evict them. The City Council? The Government? The Ministry of Works?" The issue of what was happening to the fire station hadn't been resolved by these parties for a year. People who needed accommodation could take matters into their own hands.

"The station belongs to the people of Palmerston North, whether it's owned by the City Council or the Government. "I think, as a community, the people of Palmerston North should stand up and demand that we use it. Whether for Fishbowl, families, the unemployed, or pensioners."

She said the unemployed support seminar which was held in Palmerston North on Wednesday night was told that giving unemployed people a chance to learn skills like mechanics and carpentry would help them to get work -and the old fire station was an ideal place for that sort of thing to be tried.

"Money is just being wasted there." Unemployed people could live there, and be given job training at the same place. And people now being "ripped off" by landlords could make use of free accommodation that was just being vandalised, she said.

The station was an embarrassment to the city now – it would be more embarrassing if people who went to live there were evicted. She knew of "quite a lot" of people who were desperate for accommodation in Palmerston North. They were often being forced to live in shocking conditions, waiting to get into state housing.

In the last few weeks she had heard of 12 families which were particularly bad cases. One of them was so desperate that she personally got the Housing Corporation advance her case so that the family could get proper accommodation. Another family, involving four children, was being forced to move "around and around" the city, paying rent as high as $40 a week, in their search for long-term accommodation. There were people living at the Salvation Army as well, who could easily be living at the fire station.”

These images form part of the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection. Unfortunately, only negatives between April and December 1978 are held.