Forty years ago this week, a nightmare was unfolding for residents of a south Dunedin suburb, as nearly 70 homes slid off a hillside in a massive landslip.
In this week’s visit to the Ngā Taonga Sound Archives, we revisit the Abbotsford disaster of 1979.
Problems with the new subdivision had first become apparent several months earlier, when homes started developing cracks and a water main burst.
Landslide at Abbotsford, Dunedin, showing wrecked houses Photo: Supplied/Alexander Turnbull Library
“Geologists had known since the 1930s that the soil in the area was prone to slipping, but back in 1979 there weren’t the planning processes in place and it still got approved as a site for a subdivision,” Sarah Johnston from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision told Jesse Mulligan.
“Most of the affected houses were less than 20 years old – some were brand new, some of them the people hadn’t moved into them yet.”
In late July 1979, the local council started issuing demolition orders to owners of several damaged homes, but there was widespread confusion over what compensation they could receive from the Earthquake and War Damages Commission – (the former version of the EQC)
“All starts to sound very similar to the post-quake situation [in Christchurch],” Johnston says.
This developing story was covered in detail day after day by local RNZ commercial station 4ZB. By 1 August, things were starting to speed up.
“The Abbotsford slip is now moving at the rate of 30 centimetres, that’s a foot, every day. The slip has picked up speed in the last few days and one resident says it’s moving so fast, he can’t see the point in acting on the demolition order served to him today,” news presenter Frank Campbell said at the time.
“Mr Graeme Hooper was one of three Abbotsford residents upon whom demolition notices were served today. These notices bring the total to six in the last few days. Mr Hooper says the slip is moving much faster than before and he intends to defy the demolition order.
“Any serving of a demolition order on me at the moment, is against my rights. This property, for what it’s worth, still belongs to me. So I see no reason until somebody fronts up with a compensation payment which is what we feel we’re entitled to after paying our insurance premiums that we should defy the notice. At the moment, my house is in such a state that I think it’ll demolish itself at any rate,” Hooper was recorded as saying.
“Meanwhile the Borough Council is to meet soon to discuss the way the slip victims are being treated. The council receives daily calls from other centres concerned about the implications of the slip and the compensation confusion,” new presenter Frank Campbell said at the time.
Finally, on 8 August, which was cold and snowy, the whole hillside gave way, taking several streets and more than 18 hectares with it in just 15 minutes. Eventually 69 houses in all would be destroyed and hundreds of people made homeless.
Radio reporters Ray Hays, Penny O’Connor and Jim Sullivan all struggled to find words to convey the scene as suburbia simply disappeared.
“The scene, well, it can only be described as indescribable. I went through the affected area at 2 O’clock and, as I said, everything just simply defies description. It’s a whole 30 metres deep and up to 100 metres wide, at the bottom of the canyon are houses, up to about 30 of them, there are cars, nobody knows how many, and there’s mud – hundreds of thousands of tonnes of mud. And whatever else is included, well that’s anybody’s guess,” Ray Hays said.
“A soccer field at the bottom of this massive gap in the landscape, well, that’ll never see another game of football, and it’s doubtful if the adjacent rugby field will be of much use from now on either. There’s $175,000 worth of clubrooms sitting there.
“But back to the major tragedy area, and of that it can only be said that it’s a miracle that out of all of this there’s been no loss of life. The full extent of the damage can’t be estimated until it’s daylight, and that’s about three quarters of an hour away yet, and then in spite of what I’m now describing I’m certain that there’ll be many a shock for those watching.”
Penny O’Connor then provided the following report on the incident: “We’re halfway up Kristy Street, down at the bottom, I can see the police lights flashing, looking out at an indescribable mountain of mud, twisted trees, wires are down, and there’s water running down the street. There’s no sign of any people or cars at the moment. It’s not raining, it’s very calm and it’s hard to see what’s going on unless you get very closer. But this hillside has changed altogether, someone described it as a ‘great bloody big amoeba coming towards us’.
Jim Sullivan also reported about what he saw in the middle of the hole.
“In the middle of it, the roofs of the houses, some of them completely turned on their side, debris, rubbish, brickwork, all lying in among the clay and the rubble – it’s a great yellow gash, straight through the area of Abbotsford that’s been affected for the last few weeks.”
While no-one was killed, 17 people were trapped for several hours on one slow-moving spit of land, but due to the speed of the slip, no- one was seriously injured or killed. But for the people who lost their homes and had to listen as they broke up and slipped away, it was a terrifying night.
One of the residents affected says her husband rushed into the house telling her to get the kids and leave.
“I’d opened the backdoor and I’d heard houses crashing, and glass breaking … so we went out the front door and was going to go the neighbours, then I realised if we were going to be in danger, then so was she.
“Very nerve-wracking, I can’t explain what feeling it is to suddenly hear, as somebody said, the ground was trembling, the hill was moving, but you weren’t aware of that, you were more aware of the crashes and knowing ‘my God, that’s somebody else’s house gone’. I think that was the feeling I had and it was just unbelievable.”
“It was a bloody night of terror, and I think it’s a miracle that nobody was killed,” her husband said.
After watching their houses slide away from them, Abbotsford residents then had to deal with on-going stress over compensation and finding new homes.
One affected resident, who was eight months pregnant, said she’s packing to move to her mother-in-law’s place, which was also affected, and after hopes for a state house.
“You’ve got to experience it to know, the tension between the family, my husband, my daughter, is just unbelievable. You try not to bicker but everybody’s just so worried, we don’t know what we’re going to do. That’s how it comes out.”
Another resident said although it was night, the noise of the crashing houses was terrifying.
“I think for the night, sitting on that landslide, watching things happen was probably the biggest freight I think I’ve ever had and I ever want to have. You couldn’t do nothing. All we could do is watch … and see the houses in the distant slowly moving away and falling apart.”
Photo: Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
