Upper Hutt City Centre: a Virtual Heritage Tour
Published on 05 November 2022
Reid Perkins, Community Heritage Advisor from the team at Upper Hutt Libraries, presented 'Upper Hutt City Centre: a Virtual Heritage Tour' on 29 October 2022 at the Central Library.
This was one of the events for Wellington Heritage Week which runs from 24 October to 6 November 2022.
Upper Hutt Libraries has been an active participant in this event for many years and is always proud to showcase Upper Hutt’s important place as part of our regional history.
As supporting resources to this event, the Heritage team has also created a brochure and a website to facilitate self-guided walking tours of our city centre. The website is built on the Council’s ArcGIS platform and can be accessed by scanning a QR code on the back of the brochure or using the QR code image to the left.
You can also click this link and go directly to the website
The virtual heritage tour uses an interactive map and historical images to showcase the stories behind the changes in our city centre. In this way people can engage with the history of this area at the actual physical location and gain some sense of both the changes and continuities that have come to characterise who we are as a city.
The event and its associated resources are also part of the Upper Hutt Council’s Arts, Culture and Heritage Strategy, which was ratified earlier this year. “The Strategy serves as a recognition of the important role Arts, Culture and Heritage play in our city’s sense of identity and well-being. It also outlines the direction and purpose of Council’s activities in collaboration with the local community within these areas over the next five years,” said Mike Ryan, Director of Community Services.
In relation to heritage, the Strategy’s Action Plan includes a pledge to produce engaging and accessible information resources, utilising a range of formats and technologies, with the aim of promoting a shared understanding of our past. It likewise commits to creating heritage trails and signposting of various kinds which will enable people to learn more about the history of the land on which they stand.
Our virtual heritage tour is intended to contribute towards these goals.
The brochures are available from both libraries and Whirinaki Whare Taonga.