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Gear Homestead | |
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Former names | Okowai |
General information | |
Location | Okowai Road, Aotea, Porirua, New Zealand |
Coordinates | 41°07′26″S174°51′07″E / 41.123993°S 174.8518823°E |
Completed | 1887 |
Designated | 23-Jun-1983 |
Reference no. | 1328 |
References | |
"Gear Homestead". New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero. Heritage New Zealand. |
Gear Homestead, named Okowai ('muddy water') by its owner James Gear, is a historic building in Porirua, New Zealand. It was listed by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (since renamed to Heritage New Zealand) as a Category 2 historic place in 1983.
Gear Homestead is significant because of its association with James Gear, a butcher who founded the Gear Meat Preserving and Freezing Company. [1] The company was one of the largest employers in Wellington and also played a large part in the development of Petone. [2]
The building was designed by Robert Edwards and built in 1887 by William Hartley. [3] [4] It was constructed of matai, totara and kauri, and the wall on the south side is about 30 cm thick and filled with sawdust for insulation against southerly winds. [3] When James Gear's health declined and he was confined to a wheelchair, he had a cottage built behind the house, with a ramp connecting it to the main house. He lived in the cottage with a nurse and manservant, separate from his family. [3] The house remained in the ownership of the Gear family until 1967, and in 1975 it was bought by Poriurua City Council. [4]
In the early to mid 1980s, the historic building was used as a major location in Peter Jackson's first film, Bad Taste . The building was home to the Iredale and Tiegan family in the 1995 children’s TV series Mirror, Mirror (TV series), and in 2007 it was used as a location in the horror movie When Night Falls. [5] [6]
The homestead is now a cafe/bar/restaurant and is open 7 days a week. [7]
Media related to Gear Homestead at Wikimedia Commons