The Weekend Sun
Friday 19 May 2017
37
Yarn bombing for charity The Greerton Village Community Association is delighted with the progress made by more than 150 Bay of Plenty adults and children. They’ve been creating colourful crocheted, knitted and embellished sleeves for this year’s Greerton Community Yarn Bombing of the Cherry Trees to be erected early this winter. Greerton Village Community Knitters and Yarn Bombers coordinator Carol Power believes having the focus of honouring non-profit/ charity groups within our community has increased the uptake of yarn bombers. The number of trees to be yarn bombed has increased from 40 to 60 for 2017. Many of these non-profit organisations, which provide free services for
the community, are struggling to financially keep afloat. Therefore it is fitting that we as a community dig into our pockets and donate a few dollars. This can be done when you visit Greerton Village to enjoy the beautiful yarn bombed trees during winter. Each tree will be yarn bombed to celebrate one of the non-profit organisations and the public will be able to vote for their favourite tree with a gold coin donation. All donations will be evenly distributed to the community groups. A special prize will go to the tree with the most votes. There’ll also be a ‘Yarn Bomb Tree Trail’ activity sheet for children. A gold coin donation to the non-profit/ charity groups will secure entry to the competition and children will go in the draw to win prizes. A huge heart picture frame erected outside the library will represent the ‘heart’ of Greerton. Visitors will be able to take photos at the heart for a gold coin donation. For more, visit the Greerton Village Community Yarn Bombing Facebook page www.facebook.com/ GreertonVillageCommunityYarnBombing/ or contact the organisers, Greerton Village Community Association: phone 571 6347, email office@greertonvillage.org.nz
It started with a bout of rudeness “Shut up you silly old bugger, we want to get to the booze.”
Greerton’s Gwyneth Jones was horrified by the behaviour of some “young ones” – men in their forties – when she attended the 75th Reunion of the Pukemiro School in Huntly 1988. “On the Sunday morning the oldest living pupil at the time, Bill Ingliss, started to tell the story of his family’s arrival as immigrants from Scotland.” Half-way through his talk, Bill was interrupted by the “young ones” – men in their 40s, who abused the old miner for cutting into their drinking time. Gwyneth was annoyed and upset by the “youths”, but out of that rudeness came five historical books and a novel. There was almost no existing documentation on the Glen Afton, Pukemiro, Glen Massey, Rotowaro, Huntly and Kimihia mines, and Gwyneth says what was around wasn’t always accurate. “I found a lot of misinformation in the New Zealand Library and Turnbull Library.”
She also read a book detailing the history of coal in New Zealand, and because she grew up in one of the towns mentioned, she knew the information was inaccurate. “I started researching myself, and discovered the importance of those mines. During World War II, the Waikato kept this whole country going with coal. The South Island coal was much harder grade, so it was sent overseas to make weapons.” Gwyneth interviewed many old coalminers, and Bill Ingliss and his family supplied many old photographs and newspapers articles. Particular poignant is the story of the Rotowaro mine, and the death of the town when the mine closed. “When they went
to the Post Office to get their mail they were given a pamphlet. It told them they had to get out by a certain date because the town was closing, and was being ripped up. “There’s nothing left now, except the Rotowaro Carbonisation Plant, which is a rusty mess,” says Gwyneth. She discovered so much about coal, and the Waikato coal mines, that her intention to document the history of the mines in a small A5 booklet extended to four A4 size books with about 250 pages each, with a fifth in the pipeline. In between recording the story of those mines, Gwyneth wrote her historical novel ‘The Same Flower’ under the pen name Rosalee Brookes, and is working on a second. “It’s a great way to distribute history to the masses, who perhaps wouldn’t read a non-fiction recollection. Growing up in a coal-mining village during World War II, I drew a lot on my childhood for the beginning of the novel.” The books are available at Tauranga Libraries. Karolyn Timarkos
Greerton’s Gwyneth Jones has published a series of non-fiction books and a fiction novel about the history of Waikato coal mines.
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