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Dunedin City Council – Kaunihera-a-rohe o Otepoti

George Street – Dunedin Retail Quarter upgrade

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Last updated: 03 Mar 2025 9:16am

After three years of hard work, Dunedin’s most significant infrastructure project in decades has come to completion so that our much-loved George Street can become Totally Georgeous.

Working with the community, we have created a people-friendly space that reinforces the area’s status as the city’s preeminent shopping area. This revitalisation includes new paving, street furniture, lighting and public art, so we have a more vibrant central city.

We’ve done this in a way that celebrates Dunedin’s heritage, while also improving safety and accessibility in the area, and replacing our ageing water, wastewater and stormwater pipes – some of which date back to the late 1800s.

The DCC and its design team worked closely with Kāi Tahu, through Aukaha [Dunedin’s main centre alive with Kāi Tahutaka - Aukaha – Kia kaha, aukaha], to integrate a Kāi Tahu cultural narrative and principles into the design. These have been expressed through elements such as the species used for new plantings, public art, paving design, and the use of whakataukī (proverbs) and te reo in the streetscape.

  • Totally Georgeous’ pavers update

    We’re delighted to have been able to give out 32 pallets – about 16,000 pavers in total – to 14 different groups through an initial round of applications.

    Recipients ranged from sports clubs and community hubs, through to health and social support services and more. It’s great to see these old pavers getting a new ‘Totally Georgeous’ lease of life.

    Isaac Construction – DCC’s construction partner on the Retail Quarter upgrade – has also come to the party by offering free labour and assisting with site works on several of the projects which have received pavers to date. The projects Isaac is providing additional support to are:

    • Puketeraki Maara Kai – Pavers have been installed to create a more accessible space in the Maara Kai (food garden). This will allow better access to raised garden beds. An Isaac crew recently visited the Maara Kai to prepare the site, with in-kind assistance from Kennards Hire, Cargill Contracting, while Dunedin Hiab and Crane Hire is volunteering its truck and time to drop off pallets to all the groups.
    • Tomahawk-Smaills Beach Care Trust – Pavers will be installed at the Trust’s nursery to improve accessibility. The nursery is the hub of the Trust’s large volunteer base, which works hard to achieve positive environmental and community outcomes (e.g., by planting at least 2500 native plants each year). Isaac will help install the pavers there later this month.
    • Corstorphine Community Hub – Pavers will be used to help landscape the Hub’s community garden and surrounding area for seating. Wheelchair users visit the garden, which can be boggy at times. Paving will also be used to lead to a memorial bench, making the area safer for users. Isaac will help install the pavers there later this month.

    Pictures from Puketeraki Maara Kai

    Delivering the paversPuketeraki Maara Kai Rōpū members admire the finished job

How to use the new George Street
About the Retail Quarter (George Street) upgrade project
Learn about your new George Street
Check out the plan
What’s happened since 2019

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