A careful balancing act underway for Fiji's historic Levuka

Transcript

The historic Fijian town of Levuka is searching for specialists to help preserve the old buildings which have helped earn it World Heritage status.

The town's timber buildings are a significant part of the port which the UN agency UNESCO found to be an outstanding example of late 19th-century Pacific port settlements.

The Chief Executive of the Levuka Town Council, Suliana Sandys, says the town is enjoying more visitors and economic activity but it is also under pressure to ensure the buildings are kept up.

SULIANA SANDYS: The increase has been tremendous. In fact, in the last two weeks we've had a full house at the hotels and the homestays that we have around here. Some have even booked into schools and church halls.

SALLY ROUND: So is this creating additional pressures on the town?

SS: Yes, it sure has put a little bit more pressure on the town, more pressure on the council to try and work with the townspeople to see if we can increase our accommodation areas, can help by opening up... You know on Sundays in Fiji, especially in a small town like Levuka, Sundays are observed. Now we may have to change that and ask our shop-owners and restaurant owners to open up so that we may provide services for these people that are coming in.

SR: How are you balancing the heritage nature of the town with the increasing number of people that will be coming to it?

SS: That's a good question. At the moment, the increase has not been that great. We can accommodate what we're getting at the moment. But for the near future we're looking at getting the different government organisations and the different NGOs already in existence here in town to work together in improving the infrastructure and also improving the services, increasing, also, the support structure here in council so we can have technical assistance for conservation. We are just about ready to have a look at the new scheme plan for the town. It's almost complete, as well. So once that's through then things will begin to fall into place. We're trying to bring in a wood conservationist and a few other people so that we can carry out a conservation survey of the town first. Because most of our buildings are wooden buildings.

SR: And are you having problems with them rotting?

SS: Some that have been closed and not taken care of regularly have begun to rot. The others, there's still time to save them if we can get these types of skilled workers in.

SR: So you're looking for a specialist?

SS: More or less. It will help us because they can tell us, really, what needs to be done, what type of timber to use, especially now with this onset of rainy days. We're getting more rainy days now than we used to. I'm hoping that the department of heritage will be able to get us someone or we're hoping that maybe one of these overseas countries may be able to lend us someone.

SR: So this could be thousands of dollars worth of repairs?

SS: Yes, that's true. Like I said, without a proper advisor on the type of work to be done and the timber... Most of the houses here in Levuka were built with Canadian Oregon, and we cannot afford to get those kinds of things today. This is why we need a wood conservationist.