The man behind Brightwater Hall

Back in 1966, young carpenter John Jary was asked to build a new community hall in Brightwater using donated timber from Wairoa Gorge that had been felled in 1961.

Now 85, John says he was in his early thirties when he was commissioned for the job, which he did with just one other man on an hourly rate.

“It was just me and my apprentice Brian Phipps who built the hall. The Andrews family donated all the wood from native trees on their land in the Wairoa Gorge, which was heart rimu, matai and totora.”

Close to 50 locals volunteered their time to mix and pour the concrete foundations.

“But we never saw them again after that.”

By the time John worked on the hall, he’d already built several other houses in Brightwater.

“Sections at the time cost around $180.”

The two carpenters had an enormous challenge ahead of them as all the wood had been left to season under a macrocarpa tree for five years before it ended up in their hands.

“This meant it was all bent and twisted so the hardest part of the job was trying to straighten out the timber.

“It was a big job for just the two of us, doing it all by hand.”

They painstakingly cut all the flooring on a radial arm saw bench, piece by piece.

“To keep the boards straight we cramped to a string line, as I knew the locals would come in to see how straight it was.”

Walking around the hall last month, John was impressed that all the original wood has stood the test of time.

“The roof was the biggest challenge of all as the sarking is pitched at a 45 degree angle,” he says.

“Before it went up, we had to hand plane the sharp edges off each piece.

“It was a huge job, but all the wood was free, so you work with what you’re given.”

The build was constructed in the days before health and safety, so John and Brian had to balance on steel beams to lay the sarking, which was then brushed with a sealer to protect the roof from the rain.

“It was very slippery. Standing up was difficult as there were no safety nets or harnesses in those days.

“If you fell from that height, you’d have had it. But I didn’t even give it a second thought back then. When I look at it now, it makes you think.”

One day, John heard what sounded like a meat slicer cutting through ham coming from the area where Brian was working.

“I immediately knew what had happened. Brian had sliced into three fingers, so I took him to John Davies, the Wakefield doctor, who stitched him up and he was back ready for work the next day with his hand in bandages!”

He says money ran out halfway through the project.

“It was supposed to be a dollar for a dollar but ended up one to three, so Waimea County (now Tasman District Council) came to the rescue and footed the bill.”

The flooring, roof, walls and stage are constructed entirely from rimu and heart matai - something you’d never see in builds today.

"It’s heart matai, you can’t get it now. And even if you could, the cost alone would rule it out. The darker sections in the wood grain that you can see is the heart, the highest quality.”

One quirk which is still visible is the flooring of the stage, which John remembers has much narrower wood panels than the rest of the hall floor.

“The wood was originally 6x2 inches but was so crooked and bent that by the time the edges were straightened up, they were only 3.5 inches wide, that’s how warped they were.

“And we hand nailed every nail into the wood. No nail guns. There are hundreds across the entire building. Thousands.”

He points out that the balcony feature was never included in the original construction plans but was suggested nearer the end of the build.

“The idea was that you could sit upstairs and see the stage through the wooden railings, but someone has since covered them up with plywood, which is a bit silly. And they’ve used plastic jointers. What’s plastic doing here among all this rimu? It’s diabolical in a place like this. Gee whizz.”

John often attends events at the hall and tells people he was the person who built it.

“I get some strange looks!”

He says back then, building the hall wasn’t particularly his proudest moment, it was just “another job”.

“But standing here today, looking at the amazing timber and craftsmanship, I think, ‘Crikey, that’s a hell of a job for just two.’”

The opening day was in March 1970, but John can’t remember much about it.
If you have any historic photos of the Brightwater Hall, email [email protected] as John would love to see them.