Memories of Victoria Park

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DescriptionIn 1974 when a vacancy for Caretaker at the Greymouth Trotting Club’s Victoria Park (later to be renamed Victoria Park Raceway) occurred, My Dad Tom McIntyre shown on face page, applied for and got the position. It was described as a part time position requiring around ten hours a week. Dad immediately found that he had a job that he could easily spend a full eight hours plus a day at with sometimes Saturday and Sunday included as well. Dad’s reimbursement for doing this job was free accommodation and phone at the Caretakers house, a two story building on the corner of Leonard and William Sts on the race course property itself.

On my first visit to the race course house as we came to call it, I was emotionally upset that Mum and Dad no longer lived in the house I called “home,” where I spent all my childhood and teenage years growing up in Puketahi St. During Dad’s “reign” as caretaker and he did reign, he laid the law down to one and all, when it came to the grounds and his beloved track. Dad did make many huge improvements to the grounds and buildings. Gardens were built along the edge of the lagoon in from the Preston Rd gate, roading was made more organized and curb and channeling and new stables were built. In 1975 the track itself was completely dug up and drainage pipes laid and a new running rail and fences built.

Also in 1975 the roof section of the small stand was blown off, in what was known as Cyclone Alison. The remainder of the stand was later demolished and a new, standing only stand was built. In later years the seating area of the main stand was burnt in a fire and most of the damage was confined to that area and the rooms below with water damage done to the bar area on the ground floor. Most of the work to reconstruct the stand was put out to contract by Insurance, but Dad still found plenty to do and “direct” operations.

During Mum and Dad’s time living at the Caretakers house they had more than their share of excitement. In the early hours of one morning Dad awoke to the smell of smoke and got out of bed to investigate. As soon as his bare feet touched the floor he knew the basement was on fire as the floor was hot. Bulk coal for the house fires was stored in the basement and had it got a proper hold it would have burnt 29 Leonard St to the ground, with possible loss of life, as Mum with her bad legs found it very difficult to use the stairs outside that bought you down to ground level. Thankfully the damage was contained to the basement, but the fire turned out to be arson and about half an hour later, the Fire Brigade was called away from Leonard St to another fire, this time a fishing boat up on a slipway off Preston Rd, where it was having maintenance carried out on it. The culprit was arrested and when Dad was informed, he asked the Police if he could have ten minutes alone with the prisoner, but they thought better of it.

Flooding in the lower lying parts of Greymouth, which included the town area and the streets around the Race Course, was very common. When the river rose with heavy rains in the back country areas, water from the lagoon would spill out and flood into the town, as well as the water gushing “up” out of the storm water drains, from the back pressure of the rivers high level. While Mum and Dad were living at the Race Course, these once in one hundred years, overflowing of the river, flooding the town, happened from memory four times and the depth of the water at the house got to at least 1m deep, BUT, then came the really big one. I think it would have been in 1988, when the water around the Caretakers house was 2.3m deep. Mum and Dad were evacuated from the upper story back door, by jet boat, which took them away over the corrugated iron front boundary fence, which was 1.9m or 6 foot high. Water never entered the upstairs living area of the house, but the single story houses all around that area had water up to 2m deep through them and that flood signaled the end of most of them. That flood forced the Greymouth Borough Council to come up with new ideas. One was to totally rebuild the shopping area on higher ground further south near the Hospital, but they settled on an idea that had been around for a while. The plan was to build earth flood walls around the town, to separate it from the river and the lagoon. Where it crossed a roadway, concrete ends were poured against the earth walls and at flood time, concrete slabs were lowered on edge, into place to keep the water out. Pumps were also installed to clear away the water that came up through the storm water drains. The flood wall system wasn’t put to the full test for a few years, but eventually it was and was one 100% successful and saved the town from severe flooding again. Last edited by: Tracey Butler