Heritage et AL

The Manukau Harbour is the second largest in Aotearoa. Loved and enjoyed by many, Te Manukanuka o Houturoa has always been a source for food gathering and has long provided the means for navigating the expansive coastline. Photographs from the Auckland Libraries heritage collections form the basis of this exhibition which is on now at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in Titirangi, Auckland. Ref: John Thomas Diamond, The shoreline on the Cornwallis Peninsula with John Diamond rod fishing, 1957. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, JTD-08E-00513-2 This exhibition will travel around the edges of the Manukau Harbour as if spread by Te Hau a Uru, the wind that blows from the west, from Titirangi to Waiuku. 7-28 September 2017: Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Titirangi. 30 September-14 October 2017: Nathan Homestead, Manurewa. 17 October-4 November 2017: Waiuku Library, Waiuku. Ref: James Richardson, Stereograph of the Nihotupu Creek, 14 April 1923. Auckland L...

This week marks Vaiaso o te Gana Tuvalu, or Tuvalu Language Week , for 2015. This year’s theme is "Tau gana ko tou iloga/ Language is your identity”. This provides an excellent opportunity to focus on some images relating to Tuvalu in our heritage collections from  Local History Online . Ref: Pacifica Arts Centre, Tuvalu traditional dance performance, 14 November 2013, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, PAC-PLAF-2013-D-096. The Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs has compiled a list of events for the week and ask that you follow their Facebook page for updates during the week. Ref: Pacifica Arts Centre, Mama Teuke at the Pacifica Living Arts Festival, 1 November 2005, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, PAC-PLAF-2005-D-002.

Currently on in the exhibition space on Level 2 of the Waitakere Central Library is an exhibition highlighting some of the stories of West Auckland contained in our collection of oral history recordings.   If you are interested in exploring any of these stories in more depth these and other recordings can be listened to in the J T Diamond Reading Room at the West Auckland Research Centre .  Ref: Picnic in Henderson, 1932, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries.

Today on Heritage et AL we are featuring the T.A. Bishop Collection of stereographs that are held at the West Auckland Research Centre. This collection consists of 767 stereograph cards from the early decades of last century. These images provide a valuable record of the lives of early settlers of West Auckland in general and specifically in Titirangi. For instance, the Bishops attended the openings of the Upper Nihotupu Dam   and also the Titirangi Soldiers Memorial Church. Ref: James D. Richardson, Opening of the Nihotupu Dam, 14 April 1923, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, TAB-P-0254. Ref: James D. Richardson, Opening of Titirangi Soldiers Memorial Church, 18 May 1924, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, TAB-P-0350.

We often don’t give a second thought to the stories behind the names of our roads, schools, creeks and more, but delving into the history of Massey I have unearthed some interesting facts and anecdotes. The suburb itself was named in 1915 after one of New Zealand’s most significant politicians, the then Prime Minister William Ferguson Massey (1856-1925).  Prior to that, the sparsely populated area was known as Lawsonville, after settler John Lawson who had an orchard by the creek that also bears his name. Elizabeth Freeman (nee Gregory), who was born in Lawsonville in 1898, described it as, “wilderness, supporting a few cottages…a windswept, low [manukau] scrub desolate area, the ground being exceptionally poor”. Lawson’s Creek was home to a number of gum diggers who built simple whare on its banks. Read an 1889 New Zealand Herald article reporting the fate that befell one such man. Ref: J.T. Diamond, Waterfall at head of Lawson’s inlet, December 1962, West Auck...

Kia ora, Talofa lava, Kia Orana, Malo e lelei, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Bula vinaka, Namaste, Malo ni, Halo ola keta, Mauri, Fakatalofa atu and warm Pacific greetings. As many previous posts in this blog and our History Pin site have shown Auckland Libraries is very active documenting Pacific history. Ref: Auckland Council. Artwork by Fatu Feu'u at the Pacifica Living Arts Festival 2014. 11 November 2014. West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries. PAC-PLAF-2014-D-261. A key role in documenting history is contemporary collecting. We have an active and targeted collecting program around Pacific events like the Pacifica Living Arts Festival . If you attended you would have seen our librarians walking around, taking photographs and talking to people. This content then gets added to Local History Online , which is a combined collection of local history indexes to images, community newspapers and oral histories. We are in the process of adding audio visual content as ...

Sheep, the cornerstone of the agricultural industry in New Zealand since the 1850s and a very important part of the economy. Sheep have shaped the farming environment throughout the country and spawned many a joke. Where would we be without New Zealand lamb and merino clothing? When refrigeration on ships became available in 1882, meat was able to be shipped around the world, including to Britain, and the industry flourished. The population peaked in 1982 at 70 million but has steadily reduced over the years as other industries have come to the fore such as dairy farming and the timber industry. With around 40 million sheep, that is still a whopping 10 sheep per person. Over half the sheep in New Zealand are Romney, which is an English breed used for both meat and wool. What to find out more?  Te Ara has a great section on sheep farming and its importance . Now you are all set to wander through the sheep of yesteryear, drawn from the heritage collections at Auckland Librar...

The Housing NZ flats at 115-139 Grey Avenue (known as the Upper Greys Ave flats) are going to undergo a much needed makeover. The land behind the flats, which is currently being used as a car park, will  be sold off. The other state housing flats nearby at 95-113 Grey Ave (known as the Lower Greys Ave Flats) were upgraded 5 years ago and will also remain in state hands.   Ref: Greys Ave showing the two Housing NZ flats, Auckland Council GIS Viewer, March 2014 Prior to the building of both of these blocks of flats, the area around Greys Avenue or Grey Street as it was known them, was home to a Chinese community. It was regarded by some (including the government) as a ‘slum' and  in 1941, the Labour government, with financial backing from the council, started to clear the area, which  made way for the building of both sets of flats. Ref: 580-2234, architectural model of the multi-storey state flats in Greys Ave 1956-1957, Sir George Grey Special Collections ...

Marge Harre, as featured in book ' 'Roadhouse Days: an account of a family, a house and a restaurant' by Drew Harré and David Harré (2009) and covered in blog posts on the 4 and 9 December, is part of a network of families in West Auckland, linking the Gardner and Clark families. These connections are explained in the ' The Clark Family History: the descendants of Josiah Clark & Ann (nee Rose) Clark of Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England' by Athol Miller (1989) , which adds further background to Marge’s story. (Rice) Owen Clark I (1816-1896), Marge’s great grandfather, immigrated to New Zealand from England in 1841. In 1854 he bought some land in Hobsonville and “[i]n 1862 he established the field tile industry [used for drainage in agriculture], which under his guidance and that of his son R O Clark II and grandsons Thomas Edwin, and latterly under his great grandsons Malcolm and Thomas Edwin II, was to grown into the firm known as Ceramco" (p.20, ...

Many people would not think of dams as being heritage assets, but there a number of historic but still operational dams in the Auckland region. Ref: JTD-07B-03192, Huia Dam, 1941, West Auckland Research Centre The Waitakere Ranges Water Supply System draws water from the ranges in West Auckland including the Huia, Nihotupu and Waitakere streams. During the 20th century, five large dams were constructed. These created the a series of reservoirs and associated tramways, piping, tunnels and filter stations. The main dams which are still in use include: the Waitakere Dam (1910), Upper Nihotupu Dam (1923), Upper Huia Dam (1929), Lower Nihotupu Dam (1948) and the Lower Huia Dam (1971).

A Historypin Pin of the Day image showing Henry Thomas and his children seated on and standing beside a cow, recently caught my eye. The image is originally from the Wairarapa Spydus Archive and was pinned by the DairyNZ Time Capsule Project . The project is a nationwide initiative for NZ Year 5-8 students. The project aim is to create an online time capsule of the NZ Dairy Industry. Ref: Historypin 'Pin of the Day', 18.01.2013, Ref: 01-103/3.MD1111, Henry Thomas and family, Greytown New Zealand, 1900, Source: Wairarapa Spydus Archive, Pinned by: DairyNZ Time Capsule Project Auckland Libraries holds collections of  heritage photographs depicting cows and the dairy industry, including a similar image of a child sitting on a cow (see below). Many of these images can be accessed through Auckland Libraries' online heritage databases: Heritage Images , Footprints and Local History Online . Images depict locations from around the Auckland Region and further afield,...

Photo credit: Melvin Vaniman c1902, Chelsea Archives It's big, it's orange , it's preposterous. You see it out of the corner of your eye as you drive up the Harbour Bridge, unless you're concentrating on the road of course.. It's the Chelsea Sugar Refinery in Birkenhead.