Clik here to view.
Plane crash at Tākaka
Max Heath survived World War II as a fighter pilot, came home to Tākaka and not long after, was killed in a plane crash.1The 25-year-old warrant officer from Rototai Rd became New Zealand's first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Searching for Metapere
It is now more than 15 years since Kate Mitchell published an account of the search for a Māori tupuna in the family, who turned out to be Metapere Kawhe, the wife of John O’Brian/O’Brien. Since then,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bessie Te Wenerau Grace, educational leader
Bessie Te Wenerau Grace, 1889-1944, was the first Māori woman to receive a degree from a university. Bessie Grace. Image supplied by authorIn the first half of the 20th century, she also became an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Protest at Kiwi Station 1955
A group of Nelson women made quite a stir when they staged a protest against the closure of the Nelson Railway line at Kiwi Station in 1955. Kiwi Station, now transformed into a museum at TapaweraClick...
View ArticleClik here to view.
School Bugs
Regular users of the Nelson Railway line (closed since the 1950's) included Nelson secondary school students from Stoke, Richmond and the countryside. They were called “school bugs”, named for their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Theatre Royal Nelson
The Theatre Royal in Nelson is over 130 years old, making it one of the oldest wooden theatres in New Zealand. Before the theatre closed for renovations in 2005, around 22,000 visitors a year1 enjoyed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Founders Park
Founders Park: Nelson's Secret Village On March 1st, 1986, hundreds of Nelsonians gathered along Atawhai Drive to pay witness to the opening of Founders Park. Waiting outside the large red apple...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Betsy Walter/Betsy Eyre MBE JP
Nelson City Councillor 1956 - 1962 ; 1965 - 1976 Deputy Mayor 1959 - 1962, 1965 - 1971In 1956, twelve years after Laura Ingram was elected to the Motueka Borough Council, Betsy Walter (later Eyre)...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dental care in Nelson
First dentists in Nelson JW Tatton. (Copy Collection, Nelson Provincial Museum, C2643). Source NZETC. Click image to enlargeOne hundred and fifty years ago the first dentist arrived in Nelson by ship...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brook Valley Nelson
The Brook Valley has been integral to the development of Nelson since the early days of European colonisation. From 1868 it was the site of the Nelson water supply reservoir. Chromite was mined from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The first Sharland
When James Henry Sharland stepped off the John Masterman ship on the 8th February 18571 he had his son James Frederick Sharland and his partner Julia Lazarus at his side. They would have been greeted...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dun Mountain Railway (1862-1907)
The Dun Mountain Railway was officially opened amidst great fanfare on Monday 3 February, 1862. From the port, across the city, the horse-drawn tramway then climbed from Brook Street to a height of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Madge Wilson of No.52 Russell Street
While researching the history of Russell Street, for use on a historical interpretation panel for the Nelson City Council, I met Madge Wilson on 3 April 2017, at her home. This story is written from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nelson's Botanical Reserve
The Botanical Reserve was set aside by the New Zealand Company in 1858 for public use. The area comprises two distinct parts, the playing field on the corner of Milton and Hardy Streets and Botanical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Protecting Nelson Haven
Public pressure and commonsense saved Nelson HavenA large part of Nelson Haven might have been ‘a place of sprawling ribbon development’ on reclaimed land at Wakapuaka, if a group of Nelson people...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wangapeka Gold
Gold was known in the Wangapeka district from the late 1850s.1 However, although an award was paid in 1861 to prospectors for the discovery of gold in the area, the decision by administrators in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Guinness comes to the Top of the South
The renowned Irish Guinness family and their equally famous stout have a strong connection to the Nelson, Tasman, and Golden Bay regions, dating back to the 1850s. The links were discovered by Tauranga...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trooper Ralph Vincent James and his Monument
Collingwood lad, Trooper Ralph Vincent James 2483, died of enteric fever (typhoid fever) on 20 November 1900 at Zeerust Transvaal, South Africa while serving in the Boer War for the Fifth Contingent of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Salisbury Footbridge 1887-2010
Bridges come and bridges go, especially in Bainham, where the Aorere River in a raging flood can leave a trail of destruction. The upright wooden straining posts of the 1902 suspension bridge, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ralph Watson and the Everetts of Nelson
At Home and Away during World War I: A Tale of Two FamiliesAlbert Edward (Bert) Everett was born in Nelson in 1857 and was the fifth of ten children. He came from a prominent Nelson family with civic...
View Article