They've just always been there, a backdrop for photographs or a totem of human resilience, standing up to the South Pacific's fury. But the St Clair piles weren't built to be an art installation, or a symbol. They were built more than 100 years ago to stop an all too familiar issue - erosion. In the first of a two-part series, and as what could be their final summer approaches, Otago Daily Times reporter Craig Borley delves into the archives to look at the life and times and final stand of St Clair's piles.
