Sheep baa out at charity auction

Forty-four of Christchurch’s streetwise urban sheep have gone to pastures new.

The brightly coloured sheep were sold in two auctions during the New Zealand Agricultural Show and fetched almost $10,000.  That money is being donated to the Mental Health Foundation.

Mick Withers, the organiser of the Young Auctioneer Competition, carries one of the sheep to a winning bidder.

“The bidding for the sheep started at $20 and there was some competitive bidding – a lot of people wanted to take one home,’’ says Christchurch City Council Head of Strategic Policy Emma Davis.

“The young auctioneers who auctioned off the first eight sheep did a great job and we are really grateful to the New Zealand Agricultural Show for all their support. It is fantastic that through selling off the sheep we have been able to raise almost $10,000 for such a worthwhile cause,’’ Ms Davis says.

The sheep sculptures were originally installed at various locations around the central city in September 2014 as part of the Council’s Enliven Places Programme which was set up after the earthquakes to help create an attractive, fun, welcoming and interesting environment to encourage people back into the city.

They were the brainchild of French industrial designer Christophe Machet and were designed to serve as quirky traffic barriers.

The urban sheep became popular with locals and tourists but now the rebuild has progressed and streets re-opened, the fake flock has been decommissioned.

However, the sheep are not going to disappear completely from the central city. The Council plans to install four new sheep in High Street as sculptural seating so the legacy of the urban sheep will live on.