New committee urgently needed for Whanganui aviation museum project

The tower at Whanganui Airport was decommissioned in 1989. Photo / NZME

Plans for a museum in Whanganui Airport’s control tower are on track, but the group driving the project is battling dwindling membership.

Whanganui Airport Control Tower Restoration Group president Theresa Enriquez, who is set to leave the city, said committee member John Henderson died last month.

“This is too important to let go,” she said.

“We need to honour John, who has kept it going for the last several years, and Owen [Cantillon-Rice], the original visionary.”

In April, the Chronicle reported that the upgrade of the control tower’s exterior was complete and internal fire protection and refurbishment work had begun.

The project is a partnership between the group and Whanganui District Council.

Enriquez said the refurbishment was almost complete, and the next stage involved “designing and building the museum itself”.

But a new president, executive and committee were needed.

The group’s annual meeting is in the upper lounge at Christ Church, 243 Wicksteed St, at 1pm on Saturday.

“We have to construct all the display cases and things, but that is something the new committee will have to take on.

“We’ve also got bits and bobs all over the place because we’ve never had an office.

“Moving into the new stage, it will become an entity that needs to be nurtured and cared for.”

The tower, a Category 1 heritage building, opened in 1961 and was decommissioned in 1989.

The museum will fill the bottom three floors of the tower, with the airport’s Unicom system operating from the top floor.

The Unicom service, which began operating in Whanganui in 2020, provides aerodrome and aircraft information to pilots in the local area and is not a full air traffic control service.

It was needed because the operations of the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy increased the airport’s aircraft movements.

Enriquez said Cantillon-Rice “did so much” for the project before he died in 2014.

“He got the council to agree to let the group have [the tower], he started fundraising, and he did the initial restoration to save it from falling down.

“At the same time, John came in and was involved the whole way.”

In April, Henderson said the museum would showcase the region’s aviation history and celebrate “milestones, stories and innovations that have contributed to aviation in New Zealand”.

Enriquez said the museum would be open to the public on weekends, public holidays and for special events, with the group eventually becoming the Whanganui Airport Aviation Museum Society.

“I’m still going to be involved until I leave Whanganui, but we need new blood to take this project to the next level,” she said.

“Please come to the AGM, because the more people who are capable of helping, the less each person has to do.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.