Go to home page - New Zealand History online

What happened that day?

Pages tagged with: wellington

The Royal couple are standing in the back of a specially converted jeep as it drives past thousands of children gathered in Athletic Park. As their car passes the children they all swarm en masse to the other side of the field to get another look as the jeep turns a corner.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the ferry Wahine. With 52 lives lost, this was New Zealand's worst modern maritime disaster. The Wahine’s demise on 10 April 1968 also heralded a new era in local TV news as pictures of the disaster were beamed into Kiwi living rooms. 
On 29 July the Springboks defeated Taranaki in New Plymouth. The real action that day occurred on Molesworth Street, outside Parliament in Wellington.
From tea-rooms to coffee houses, Wellington cafes have long added life and variety to the city's urban culture
Ena Ryan talks about wartime Wellington of the 1940s during the time when US troops were in town.
From 1920–1950, 'coffee', to most Wellingtonians, meant 'coffee essence', liquid coffee and chicory served in hot milk.
The events that led to the drowning of 51 people in the Wahine disaster of 10 April 1968
Woman and children at the VE Day celebrations, Perretts Corner, Wellington, 1945
In the late 1950s and through the 1960s coffee bars sprang up all over Wellington city, with names like La Scala, the Picasso, Sans Souci Coffee Shoppe, Tete a Tete, and the International Coffee Lounge run by Wellington celebrity Carmen.
The invasion began in Auckland on 12 June 1942 when five transport ships carrying soldiers of the US army (or 'doughboys' as they were called) sailed into the harbour. Two days later marines (or 'leathernecks') landed in Wellington.
Young people singing in the streets of Wellington, VJ Day, 1945
Although Wellington's first restaurants opened in the nineteenth century, the mid 1930s saw the emergence of a different type of establishment, the milk bar, which in many ways was the forerunner to the modern cafe.
An unidentified seaman celebrates VJ Day with a cigarette and beer in Wellington, 1945
Ships lie idle in Wellington Harbour during the waterfront industry dispute of 1951.
A menu from the French Maid Coffee House The interior of the French Maid Coffee House, 1940s By Nancy Swarbrick The rise of coffee houses in the 1940s, 50s and 60s was not a phenomenon confined to Wellington, or indeed to New Zealand.
Seven thousand screaming fans waited as The Beatles touched down at Wellington airport on 21 June 1964. As the band stepped off the plane, the fans' shrieks drowned out the noise of the jet engines.
Folk musicians at the Monde Marie coffee house by Wayne Taitoko Entertainment generally and music in particular have always been a part of the Wellington cafe scene.
From the mid to late 1940s an affinity for coffee, and the places that dispensed it, spread through Wellington and continued into the 1960s.
Members of Campaign Against Nuclear Warships (CANWAR) stand aboard the yacht Phoenix in Wellington Harbour while awaiting the arrival of the USS Longbeach in 1976.
New Zealand in the 1940s and 1950s has been described as a drab and uniform place. From the late 1950s, however, a café culture was established throughout the country
Sources on Wellington cafe culture
Painting of Port Nicholson by Charles Heaphy c.1840.
The Oriental Bay Tea Kiosk, 1914
Passengers board the luxurious all-sleeper Silver Star at Wellington Station in 1974. Unfortunately, the service did not survive the decade.
This map of Wellington Harbour is adapted from the original that appeared in the police inquiry report. It shows the location of the Wahine sinking and some key points in the rescue operation.
Val Wilson outside the Dixon Street Flats in Wellington. In 1992 Val received a government Woman Alone Benefit of $134 per week, out of which she paid $49 per week in rent. With the introduction of full market rents, this was to increase to $140 per week by 1995.
The Miramar Tea Rooms, c. 1910
The Aquitania is pictured in Wellington Harbour in 1940, which is when this Cunard White Star liner first visited New Zealand to load troops for the Middle East
The marines parade through the streets of Wellington on Poppy Day, 16 April 1943
Interior of the milk bar at Vance Vivian's Corner, Cuba Street
Collapsed life-rafts from the Wahine are hauled up by police and others on the eastern shore of the harbour, 10 April 1968.
A view of Newtown, Wellington, where troops camped before departing for South Africa
On arrival in Wellington the marines are greeted at the bottom of the gangway by New Zealand soldiers
The Otari–Wilton's Bush Scenic Reserve was established in March 1906.
Photograph of a painting of Robert Holt Carpenter sitting with a book in his hand.
Book shops also helped fill the void. Booklovers in Wellington made a beeline for the 'Old Identity Book Shop' on Molesworth Street in Thorndon, run by the eccentric Robert Holt Carpenter.
The memorial to Paddy the Wanderer (dog) against the New Zealand Academy of the Arts building on the Wellington waterfront.

Patrons of the Wellington Working Men's Club and Literary Institute, 1977

Electors queue to vote at the Wellington Town Hall on 26 November 1960.
A vast crowd outside the Evening Post office in Willis Street, Wellington, on the night of the 1931 general election.
Seen here at Wellington in 1951, the ferries Rangatira and the Hinemoa were near-sisters, serving together until the mid-1960s.
Biography of this Te Ati Awa leader and legislative council member
Big-city railway stations, such as Wellington's, were powerful symbols of civic pride and prosperity.
Union march at the intersection of Cuba and Dixon streets, Wellington, taken 2 May 1951 during the waterfront dispute
Tommy Wells addresses waterside workers at Parliament during the waterfront lockout.
A lifeboat from the Wahine lands passengers and crew on Seatoun Beach, Wellington, after the ship capsized on 10 April 1968.
The Wahine ferry lists heavily as it sinks in Wellington Harbour on 10 April 1968.
This map of Wellington shows the location of the homes of some of the 40 Wellington College old boys who were killed on the battlefields of Belgium.
Film showing New Zealand troops departing from Wellington in 1914.
1908 Dominion Day celebrations at the Basin Reserve, Wellington
This silent clip shows Labour candidate David McLaren addressing electors in Post Office Square, Wellington, in 1911.
Hear an interview with John Lennon.
Beatles fans scream during one of the concerts at the Wellington Town Hall.
The Beatles stand on the balcony of the St George Hotel, Wellington, shortly after their arrival in New Zealand on 21 June 1964.
The Beatles shortly after arriving in Wellington on 21 June 1964
Government House Wellington was built in 1910. It replaced an earlier building near the site of the Beehive
Harry Seresin's Coffee Gallery at Parsons Bookshop, Massey House, Lambton Quay, c. 1957
Camp Central Park in Brooklyn, Wellington
The Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club was used in August 1942 to prepare barges for the landings at Guadalcanal
This image of Martin Square in Wellington is indicative of the poor condition of much inner-city rental housing after the Second World War.
The reconstruction of the buildings in the early 1870s is visible here.
This painting of the Provincial Council Chambers is by L.B. Temple.
Marines stop for a breather near Oriental Bay after a route march around Wellington
Eleanor Roosevelt signs the visitors' book at the Red Cross Cecil Club in Wellington
Marines ordering sodas and sundaes at the American Red Cross's Cecil Club in Wellington
A huge volume of material awaiting storage and shipment on the Wellington wharves in August 1942
The American Red Cross provided extensive facilities for the Americans on 'liberty passes' in town. Here marines line up to enter the Red Cross's Cecil Club in Wellington
Couples dancing at the Cecil Club in Wellington
A dance band plays at the Majestic Cabaret in Wellington
Virtually indistinguishable from private dwellings built in the early 20th century, these two-storey semi-detached houses in Coromandel Street, Newtown, Wellington, were constructed as part of the Liberal government's workers' dwellings scheme.
Marines march throughout the streets of Wellington in a formal parade
The Cecil Club in Wellington was one of the organisations that offered home hospitality for American servicemen
Marines iron their clothes at the American Red Cross's Cecil Club in Wellington
An American sailor and a marine with friends at Oriental Bay
Couples dancing at the Majestic Cabaret in Wellington during the Second World War
For a short time, the state experimented with high-rise flats for the single and elderly.