A warm welcome to Sarah Gallagher

A warm welcome to Sarah Gallagher

By Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha | Dunedin UNESCO City Of Literature | Posted: Monday Jun 23, 2025

Ōtepoti City of Literature is thrilled that one of the special writers in our whānau, Sarah Gallagher, will be joining us at Dunedin City Council Kaunihera-a-rohe o Ōtepoti in the role of Tumuaki, Wharepukapuka o Ōtepoti, Director, Library Services.

Sarah brings a rich kete of experience and deep connections from the arts and heritage community in Ōtepoti. As well as her extensive leadership background in the library and information and heritage sectors, Sarah is a highly regarded writer and researcher and well known for her long-standing work documenting the creative and quirky student flat names of North Dunedin. Her book, Scarfie Flats of Dunedin (Imagination Press, 2019), co-authored with Dr Ian Chapman, captures a slice of local student life through hundreds of flat names, stories, and photographs — from Pink Flat the Door to The Libra Flat #Our Pad. Her Dunedin Flat Names Project, which began in 2000, has become a much-loved social archive, preserving this distinctive cultural history.

Sarah says,

“Andrew Paul Wood’s epic, Dunediniad: A Psychogeographical Ode to Dunedin, published in 2018 locally by Kilmog Press, draws on the ‘pantheon’ of flat names. One of my favourite aspects of the research was unpicking the network of relationships between names and places, and discovering how artists, poets and musicians have been inspired by the legacy of named flats to form their own creative expressions!”

Writer-in-residence Gail Ingram was so taken with Scarfie Flats during her time at the Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage in March 2025 that she penned the following playful and evocative tribute:

My student flat

for the students of Dunedin 2025

You are now entering Pandora

the Thunder Box, a Halfway Hou$e

for the Silver Fox, let the

Wardrobe open onto the Howes of God,

Wahaha, the Dirty Pirate

in the Shrieking Shack

has seen Granger Things in this

Goon Saloon, Doll’s House Debacle

a Sinking Ship we’re all in,

a Hotel California you can never

leave the SmackdownRaw, it sure is

Thirsty work in the Kennel,

Howe to the Moon all you like,

poor Fridgette lost Fridge

and the Bando turned out

to be the Art Gallery, Haunted. Follow me

to the Ski Lodge at the Summit,

a Manik House, still the same old

Hoe-tel carry-on, better off to put

a road Cone on its head,

and feel free to take a Bic to strike out

the Cock Pit and the Boning Room,

I will. Wait, don’t go!

we meet again, Pink Flat

the Door, we’re ‘all ears’, and yes,

pour me a cup, Pink Teapot dear, at Poppie’s Pad,

a 7 eleven will do, under the pale blue

book spines of the Library,

I understand What Happens at Nana’s

Stays at Nana’s. Meanwhile, on Castle,

The Moat is a party of broken eggshells,

bottles and spilled couches, inside no doubt

a Rat and its Litterbox,

Queen, bless his soul, rides Bucking-him

Palace, you Rascals

on Regent, mine house is no Penthouse

or honeypot, perhaps a Bee Hive

for study, you’ve been To Howe and Back

but now you’ve arrived

at my Cosy Corner, my Humble Abode

on a giant’s street,

the Writer’s Cottage.

 

As Sarah steps into her new role, she shares:

“I’m very much looking forward to working with my library and council kaimahi, mana whenua and our diverse community to deliver a stand-out library service here in Ōtepoti Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature!”

 

Nau mai, haere mai, Sarah – we are proud to have you with us.