Ghost Building

Looming against the sky like some relic of bombed Berlin, this gaunt concrete ruin at Waipaoa, near the main highway bridge, is a crumbling monument to an industrial enterprise which didn't work out.

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Built in 1915 for the Poverty Bay Farmers Meat Co. Ltd., of which the late Mr W. D. Lysnar was the moving force, the Waipaoa Freezing Works was abandoned after the season of 1930-31, and the plant and other salvagable parts were removed. The imposing building above, with many thousands of feet of floor space, would have a considerable value were it situated nearer the City, but where it is, 15 miles out into the country, its only use at the moment is to serve as a store for baled hay.

The Waipaoa works were taken over in 1923 by Nelson Bros. (N.Z.) Ltd., whose Taruheru works were placed in some difficulty by the silting up of the Taruheru River, and were later dismantled. In 1930, Nelsons and the Gisborne Sheepfarmers Company at Kaiti got together, and all work was concentrated at Kaiti, making the Waipaoa works superfluous.

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Cattle graze in front of building. Thirty years ago they would have met their end within its walls

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Solid construction is shown in this interior view

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Briars grow up walls of this modern ruin