Tiny British-made locomotive engines first began chugging between Ferrymead’s Wharf on the estuary and the city on December 1st, 1863. This was New Zealand’s first public railway line, …
Wendy Riley A relative newcomer to Christchurch, Wendy has deep-rooted connections to the city. Her ancestors, like many colonial New Zealanders, traced their origins to Scotland and England. After…
Conan Doyle’s fascination with the supernatural brought him to New Zealand in 1920, where he met a special terrier named ‘Darkie’ who he believed had mystical powers. In the podca…
The first part of the twentieth century was the heyday for the department store in New Zealand. The iconic department store, Hays, was a ‘household name’ in Christchurch from its incept…
The most beautiful quadrangles lead to the Botany and Physics Department and Observatory of the Canterbury College, University of New Zealand in 1919. In 1873 the Provincial Council passed the Cant…
“Of all the beautiful places in New Zealand – Christchurch is one of the prettiest. As the metropolis of the Canterbury province, the city has been built in the old Elizabethan style, …
A magazine article which outlines the observations of engineers working on SCIRT retaining wall and ground improvement projects.
Cathedral Square hosted one of New Zealand’s most significant historic events after the armistice was signed by the Western Allies and the Central Powers on 11th November 1918 in Paris, Franc…
Charismatic, athletic and intelligent, Jonathan Roberts came from a respectable family. A native of Cornwall, he immigrated to New Zealand with his family as a small child in 1862. After leaving sc…
An article from the Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand Volume 14, Number 1. The article is titled, "www.useless.com: crisis communications on shaky ground". It was written by Kris Vavasour.
A report created by BRANZ, the University of Auckland and Constructing Excellence New Zealand which was commissioned by the Productivity Partnership. It examines the use of KPIs by a number of rebuild organisations.
A PDF copy of the running sheet for the All Right? Campaign Launch. Presenters are from organisations including CDHB, Healthy Christchurch, Community and Public Health, Mental Health Foundation New Zealand and Gap Filler.
An abstract which describes the content of Kristen MacAskill's full PhD thesis.
A PDF copy of a page on the EQ Recovery Learning site which linked to a YouTube video. In 2015, Christchurch hosted the biggest international cricket tournament ever to be played in New Zealand - the ICC Cricket World Cup. Take a look behind the scenes and through the eyes of some of Canterbury's most passionate cricketers as cricket makes its epic return to the Hagley Oval.
A PDF copy of pages 314-315 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'The New Zealand Institute of Architects Exhibition Pavilion'. Photo: Soo Ryu, Jasmax and NZIA
It is the start of the second week of June 1919 and New Zealand’s Prime Minister, William Massey and the Minister of Finance, Sir Joseph Ward, are in Paris awaiting the signing of the Peace Treaty …
By a Pioneer of the Fifties Many years previous to, and some few years after the arrival of the first four ships, the coast of New Zealand was frequented by whalers, notably those of England, Ameri…
An article from the Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand Volume 14, Number 1. The article is titled, "Quake Aftermath: Christchurch journalists' collective trauma experience and the implications for their reporting". It was written by Sean Scanlon.
A paper written by Paul S Botha and Eric Scheepbouwer for the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2504, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2015, pp. 66-72.
An article from the Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand Volume 14, Number 1. The article is titled, "Social Media, Crisis Mapping and the Christchurch Earthquakes of 2011". It was written by Abi Beatson, Angi Buettner, and Tony Schirato.
A copy of the first issue of Doing Gender & Disaster, a journal produced by the Gender & Disaster Network. The issue examines the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) project, Women's Voices: Recording women's stories of the Canterbury earthquakes.
A PDF copy of a summary report of the research behind the All Right? wellbeing campaign for Canterbury. The report was created in April 2013, by Canterbury District Health Board, the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, and Healthy Christchurch.
The text of a Pecha Kucha talk titled, "A working week in the Recovery Centre". The talk was given by Moya Sherrif, CCCRC Intern, at the Museums Aotearoa Conference on 4 April 2014.
As part of the New Zealand Archaeology Week, Clara recently gave a talk entitled, Elixirs, Ointments and Tonics: Medicine in Nineteenth Century Christchurch. This talk was part of the event, Beneath Our Feet: Archaeological Stories of Place. The talks from … Continue reading →
It’s been a busy month for Underground Overground Archaeology as we’ve been actively involved in New Zealand Archaeology Week 2018 running displays, historical tours, and talks – all of them highly successful thanks to history and archaeology lovers across the … Continue reading →
It’s very easy to think of 19th century New Zealand as being a place isolated from the rest of the world. Yet as we research and investigate colonial Christchurch, we are constantly being reminded of the connections that existed between … Continue reading →
As a bit of preface for this blog, for anyone not reading it on or around the 20th of August, 2021, New Zealand is back into a full lockdown and the whole country has gone a bit silly. So, in … Continue reading →
“It must have been a happy household,” was the remark made by one of our team members when she saw the artefact assemblage we are discussing on today’s blog post. Whilst children’s artefacts are relatively common finds on New Zealand … Continue reading →
Some of the most common archaeological finds related to the European settlement of New Zealand during 19th century are usually from residential occupation. Features like rubbish pits, underfloor deposits, wells (brick and artesian), cesspits, soak pits, post holes and drainage … Continue reading →
We have published previously on the importance of buildings, be they residential or commercial, as an artefact in understanding 19th century culture in New Zealand. While it’s easy to overlook the humble cottage as a source of archaeological data, houses … Continue reading →