The Cardrona Heritage Trust is keen to breathe new life into a project started in 2015, but stalled for nearly three years because of Covid-19.
The charitable trust formed with Tim Scurr as chairman when entrepreneur Desiree Reid was developing the Cardrona Distillery about seven years ago.
A heritage collection and display was always intended to become part of the overall project, and trust members searched for digital and print material for a local archive.
They also chatted with Animation Research Ltd founder Sir Ian Taylor about ideas, explored the interactive zone at the Chelsea Sugar Factory site in Auckland to see if that could suit Cardrona, and began fundraising.
Trust member Mary Lee also set up a website, Historicscanns.com and uploaded historic images from Cardrona and Queenstown.
Then Covid-19 arrived and threw a spanner in the works.
Mr Scurr has since retired, so his cousin John Scurr agreed to become interim chairman until the trust could muster some ‘‘young blood’’ and increase the group’s membership.
‘‘We are trying to get the momentum going again after a three-year hiatus,’’ he said.
Six or seven people have stepped forward to pick up the threads of the work done before Covid, including former Cardrona Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Blyth Adams and former dairy farmer Alvin Reid, father of Desiree, who moved to the Upper Clutha when his daughter began the distillery development.
