“Brilliant crowd” enjoys Tarakohe reunion
Solid State, from left, Johnny Westrupp, Rangi Westrupp, Paul Sangster, Nettie Westrupp and Paul Nees. “The Westrupp band was bloody unbelievable—you wouldn’t even have known they stopped playing all those years ago.” Photo: Neil Wilson.
About 150 people got together in Golden Bay last weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of the closure of the Golden Bay Cement Works at Tarakohe. This year also marked the centenary of the founding of the company that started the works.
Locals and out-of-towners marked the occasion with a guided tour of the site, a wine-and-cheese night with Tim Shadbolt, a remembrance service and an old-fashioned Saturday night ‘do'.
Johnny Westrupp was part of the crew that stayed on after the works closed in 1988 to clear the site and prepare it for sale. He started work as a wharfie in 1963 and became the shipping foreman.
"It was a very good job," he said. "But when the works closed and a lot a people said that Takaka would die I just moved on. It's another part of life. Nothing lasts forever, that's why you've got to enjoy what you've got. Look at the opportunities that opened up for people after the works closed."
Johnny played lead guitar in the Bay's legendary band Solid State. When the organising committee were looking for entertainment for the old-fashioned ‘do', Solid State was their first choice. Johnny, his wife Nettie, his brother Rangi and former band members Paul Sangster and Paul Nees quickly agreed to re-form for the occasion.
"We had an excellent night," said Johnny. "Of course they were a brilliant crowd and we just played them the songs that they know. It helps to have a good big sackful of songs so you can give them what you think they'll enjoy."
People at the ‘do' enjoyed the band's work. One of them was Rex Heuvel, who worked at Tarakohe between 1981 and 1988 and was the top yard foreman at the time the works closed. He said the reunion was great.
"I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was very well organised. The old-fashioned ‘do' was very good. The Westrupp band was bloody unbelievable-you wouldn't even have known they stopped playing all those years ago. They played all the good old songs and people loved it. The supper was excellent too. Tim Shadbolt on the Friday night was just brilliant-he's a great entertainer. If they have another reunion in five years' time I'll go, for sure. It was great to catch up with all the old buggers you worked with that you haven't seen for 20 years. It's like we've all aged together so we all still look the same."
Rex enjoyed being reminded about all the little things that were part of being at the cement works. "They used to organise a garden competition," he said. "And every Christmas they had Santa going round in a company vehicle giving out presents to all the staff children."
Lorraine Woods started in 1957 as an office girl in the old Pohara Hall, then the cement works office.
"It was very small, very cold and very cramped," she said. "The new office opened in 1958 and that was much better. My job was general office work typing and filing and working on the switchboard, and I ended up doing the payroll. It was a lovely job-I loved my time there. I had two stints and finished up in 1965. The thing I remember most is the way they looked after their staff. When an employee's wife had a baby, the firm sent flowers and a sum of money to buy nappies and so on. If you were off sick, they'd send a parcel of tobacco and chocolate."
When Allan Kilgour first floated the idea of a reunion, Lorraine agreed to join the committee. She said everyone worked diligently to put it together.
"All the hard work paid off, though, because the reunion was such a success," she said. "It would have been really nice if some of the locals who sat back and said it was going to be too dear had just got in behind it from the start. Then they could have enjoyed its success as much as the rest of us did."
People who attended the reunion were able to buy a very special memento of their time at the Tarakohe cement works. Colour film of Tarakohe, shot in the 1940s and 1950s by Bob Haile and Claude Reilly, has been put on DVD by a hard-working team from the Golden Bay High School Home and School Association.
Spokesperson Jeanine Taylor explained: "Tony and Kathy Reilly had all this precious film that they'd got from Tony's father, Claude, but it was beginning to deteriorate," said Mrs Taylor. "They had it restored and digitised at their own expense and then offered to the Home and School as a potential fundraiser. The film is just brilliant. Some of it was shot from a small plane and it gives a great idea of what the Bay was like all those years ago."
Turning the hours of film into logical, coherent and marketable DVDs took lots of editing and other skills. "Tony has been just amazing," said Mrs Taylor. "He did a lot of the editing because he knew which bits belonged together and what they all meant. Ian Simpson, the local electronics whizz, has been brilliant too. He decided that this was a community project that he wanted to support, so he has done lots of work on it for nothing. Kevin Delaney volunteered to do the voice-over for the Tarakohe edition and he did a really good job. He describes things from a working man's perspective. It's really relaxed and informative."
The film was sorted into four broad categories: the history of the school, the building of the Cobb Dam, Tarakohe in the 40s and 50s, and snippets of Golden Bay life. Eventually the Home and School will have all four editions for sale through the school office and the museum, but they made a priority of the Tarakohe edition in time for the big reunion. They sold 27 copies at the reunion and hope to sell more soon.
Neil Wilson
