It was “gut instinct” that told Dana Johnston she should photograph Campbell Park Estate before it was sold, back in 2016, and now those photos are about to be revealed.

Echoes of the Unseen - Campbell Park Estate 2016 is the May instalment of Within Reach -The HeART of the Upper Waitaki, a year-long exhibition which is the brainchild of Kurow-based photographer Chloe Lodge, encouraging Waitaki artists to display their work. They occupy a window space for one month at a time - with one or multiple works, at the Kurow Museum and Information Centre.

Dana, who is an illustrator as well as a photographer, said when Chloe approached her about being part of the exhibition, she remembered the pile of photographs that had been stored on a hard drive for the past eight years.

She had taken them before a massive auction of chattels, when the property - situated at Otekaieke, between Kurow and Duntroon, was sold in 2016. So the buildings were completely empty.

“So I got to see it in its complete, naked state, which nobody has,” she said.

“It’s massive - a massive body of work, but I said to Chloe, I will select and edit what I can to fill the space with - but it’s only a teaser of the collection that I have. 

“I didn’t want to do the cliche, 'here’s the castle' - so what I’ve done is more the bits that people may not have seen.” 

Dana will have one photograph on display in the Information Centre window for the month of May, along with 16 others in Feliz and Sage Cafe art space across the road.

“So Chloe’s really given me a push and a platform, which has been amazing.”

Dana described the day and a half she spent photographing every nook and cranny of the estate, as a “complete passion project”.

She knew the manager at the time of the sale, and asked if anyone had photographed the place, but he said the owner at the time would not let anybody in.

“So I said, ‘could I?’ Because I feel that it needs to be documented. I don’t know why, I just had this gut instinct that I needed to go and do it.”

She was given a skeleton key, and a brief tour, and was told she could go anywhere on the estate she wanted to.

What was left of a wetroom at Campbell Park in 2016. PHOTO: Dana Johnston

“I hired a camera that I didn’t even know how to use. My photography skills then and now are very different - like it was eight years ago - and I just went hell for leather. 

“I think the first day I just photographed the entire outside, or what I could, and the second day I went back and did all the insides - you know, the castle.”

She hopes giving people a glimpse of the collection will “create intrigue”.

“Hopefully it lends itself to more interest, because I feel like going on from the exhibition - and this is not going to be a project that happens straight away - I owe the project more than what I can give it. 

“So it probably will take somebody else, like historians or something. I’d really like to do a book, or showcase the photos in some way, but I just don’t know how to do that yet.”

It had been “a process” selecting the photos to exhibit, get them printed and then mounted on foam blocks. The installation would take place on Monday (May 1), in time for the official public opening at 4.30pm that evening, at Feliz and Sage.

The history of Campbell Park dates back to 1857 when William Dansey, an Otago runholder, purchased the land.

The estate was sold to Robert Campbell in 1864 and he built a homestead on the property. Campbell's nephew, Robin Campbell, sold it to the government in 1908, and it was a Government-owned special school for boys from 1908 to 1987.

In 1988, the Ministry of Education sold the estate to American Charles Tompkins and his son Nathan. It was on the market twice before selling in 2016 to NZHouseChina, an Auckland-based company.

Allegations of historic sexual and physical abuse at Campbell Park surfaced in the years after the school closed, and the Ministries of Social Development and Education had, as of 2019, paid out more than $1million to men who were abused as children, while attending the school.

Dana said it felt amazing to finally do something with the photos, because at the time, all she could think was “record the history”.

“I don’t know what this is going to turn into, I don’t know what this is for, I don’t know why I am doing it, but I just had this urge.”

The photos are for sale individually, or can be purchased as a collection. She can also make prints to order.

“It’s just a tiny snippet of what I’ve captured, so it will be cool to see what this is the beginning of, if there is any interest. There could be someone out there, who’s got some ideas.

Dana Johnston. PHOTO: Chloe Lodge