Archives - Green Island Civic Centre Clock, Dunedin 2002, NZ

Jira New Zealand Limited, PO Box 38, Waimate 7960, South Canterbury, New Zealand.

Head Office 03 689 1374 - fax: 03 689 1375 - Dunedin 03 742 1145 - Christchurch 03 741 1219

Green Island Civic Centre, Dunedin, NZ

Green Island is a suburb to the south of Dunedin. The street clock was a significant feature on the junction of Howden Street and Main South Road by the entrance of what was previously the Green Island Borough Council Offices in the days before amalgamation with Dunedin City.

The Master Clock was a Pulsynetic Long Stroke Master made by Gents of Leicester in England circa 1960. It was a special design exported throughout the British sphere of influence and models brought to New Zealand incorporated features designed to maximise accuracy of timekeeping such as correction for latitude.

Plaque mounted on the base of the structure.

Dual face Slave Clocks

The internal Movement of the slave clocks operated by receiving a one second pulse every 30 seconds from the Master Clock. Unlike modern clock systems, these movements were connected in series and were driven by a constant current regulated source delivering 0.3-0.7A current (depending on type) from a 24-76VDC battery bank (depending on the number of clocks and the environment) which had to be maintained on permanent trickle charge..

Following administrative restructuring, in 1992 the office buildings were redeveloped for other purposes which meant the original master clock had to be removed from the previous main foyer. A new electronic Master Controller system was required. Jira supplied a custom designed Controller which is located discreetly in the switchroom to provide continuous pulses.

In 2002 the clock system was given a major overhaul including new dial plates, bearings and general electro-mechanical servicing. The body was removed for sandblasting and zinc plating in line with Council requests that it be serviced for a further extension of 15 years. We anticipated given its general condition that it should last in excess of 25 years..

In 2010 Council replaced the interior backlights as a matter of routine maintenance. Unfortunately their contractor had little understanding of the dynamics for this clock and accordingly fitted the wrong type of lamp. We advised Council of their error and that the types installed would fail to provide the heating required to protect the clock south face from frost in colder weather. (This was a well known historic problem with this clock)

Apparently the error was not rectified and inevitably the south face froze one cold night and the two faces became displaced in time. It should have been a simple matter to change the lamps and to have corrected the one face at the Controller but what happened was that in 2011 the historic clock was removed by Council and replaced by a GPS synchronised digital time and temperature display.

The reason given for disposing of the old clock was that it was considered to be unreliable because the south face was on the wrong time compared to the north face.