Mark Hosie - Stepping up to the plate

It only took 11 years for retired engineer Mark Hosie to make his mark in his beloved Arrowtown, celebrated recently for his role in motivating the local troops to victory in the battle to retain the quaint, historic town’s gold-rush era charm.

After a long, 45-year association with the town, visiting regularly from his Southland roots, Mark and wife Mary have just moved south to Winton, closer to family.

It was therefore fitting that last month (April) he was awarded this year’s Arrowtown Autumn Festival ‘Unsung Hero’ Award, unwittingly lured to The Fork and Tap under false pretenses to receive it.

While he downplays his contribution, locals say Hosie spent hundreds of hours and plenty of money throwing his all into the fight to protect Arrowtown from the proposed urban intensification plan, which he says would’ve ruined its unique character. “It was a big fight. They wanted to put 12m-high buildings in Arrowtown,” he says. The proposed changes were first mooted in late 2023 and it “felt really good” to find out they’d won in February this year.

“It defied logic. At first, I thought they were having me on. It’s such a special little place.”

A fitter-welder engineer for 45 years, Mark and others erected 12-metre-high scaffolding in the town to demonstrate what could potentially occur and convened ‘Friends of Arrowtown Village’, building up a database to communicate with locals. They set up a donations page raising $40,000 for that fight, Mark and the group raising $80,000 in total for the various battles to protect Arrowtown’s character. He says they wouldn’t have succeeded without the donation of tremendous pro bono services from the likes of Todd Walker Law, Blakeley, Wallace Associates, Assembly Architects, and help from Arrowtown’s Promotion and Business and Village Associations. “They’re the real Unsung Heroes.”

As a former SIT Council member and Otago Southland Employers Association representative, Mark brought extensive governance and management experience to the fight. “So many people didn’t realise they could even have a say,” he says.

Mark’s never been afraid to take on the big boys. One of seven kids, his devout Catholic mum wanted him to become a priest. Instead, he left Invercargill’s Marist College at 15 starting a fitter-welder apprenticeship, clocking the 8000 hours in a record three years instead of four.

By 21 he was a foreman left in charge of 26 much older men. “They tested me a bit,” he grins. But Mark, as a teen, had worked with bikies and hard guys. “They were all fine, but they didn’t cut you any slack. Even though I was the boy I was always expected to front up and do the work of a much older man.”

Mark, who bought his first Invercargill house at 19, worked his way up through various engineering firms, then to the Southland Hospital Board. When he and his first wife were expecting a child, Mark opted for bigger money, working for Bill Walker’s E-Type Engineering at the Tiwai Point Aluminum Smelter.

“Bill was a real character. The first day he dropped me off at a job and said, ‘I’ll be back soon to show you what to do’. I waited two hours,” he grins.

Mark worked for Bill for 30 years, made manager in 1983, aged 28, overseeing anything from 25 to 60 staff. “I learned quickly I wasn’t just required to make engineering decisions. The older guys would come to me for advice on everything from finance, and purchasing a car or home, to medical and relationship advice,” he grins.

Bill would have a go at most things. “Sometimes you’d have to rein him back in.” The 1987 sharemarket crash made for tough times and tough banks, Mark, who later became CEO, sometimes sent to help smooth the path.

E-Type built the first Skyline Luge cart – Bill’s pet project designed with Barry Thomas, Mark sent to Rotorua to test the first cart for Skyline in the 1980s.

“One day Bill said, ‘We’re going up Bluff Hill’. I had no idea why, then Barry Thomas pulled up in his Jag wearing a suit and Bill put him in the cart and sent him down Bluff Hill!” Mark grins. “I never thought we’d see Barry again.”

The bikers made an impact, and Mark became heavily involved in motorbike racing and the Southland Motorcycle Club. At just 23, Mark and a mate represented the South Island in a big series with the North Island. Mark won two Quarter Mile New Zealand titles on grass, also competing in beach racing, hill climbs and road racing. He even raced speedway sidecars, building the first frame from scratch.

Now a patron of the Oreti Park Speedway Club he’s sat on southern committees, refereed and been a sidecar representative.
Soccer was his other passion, competing all over Southland and Otago for 25 years for Invercargill City.

A keen diver with a commercial certificate, at 22 Mark and a mate built boats, competing with Stabicraft, which later bought their company, after Mark had sold his share.

Mark doesn’t like “half-finished jobs”, so once he’s tidied up some loose ends in the Arrowtown fight, he’s looking forward to “playing” on his motorbikes, enjoying the grandkids and boating from the family crib in Cosy Nook.

Arrowtown will miss the man who gets the job done.