Showing Collections: 1 - 7 of 7
BROTHERSTON, Peter Alexander interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 50
Identifier: H0544
Overview
Peter's immediate environment, as a young child, was the granite, tree-covered mountains and clear waters of the Hollyford Valley. As a youth and into early adulthood it was the tussock country of the Te Anau Basin that he frequented. He was also among the early contract staff to carry out the initial task of levelling swathes of shrub and bush so that it could become productive agricultural soil. Leaving for a few years to live further south, Peter returned and worked for the Fiordland...
Dates:
2005
Found in:
Southland Oral History Project
CARRAN, Christopher (Chris) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 54
Identifier: H0574
Overview
Fifty years ago, while the politicians and planners made board table decisions about the future development of what was one of New Zealand's remotest regions, Chris Carran and his brothers were working on those changes from the ground up. As agricultural contractors, in the mid-1950s they were hired to clear the land and plough paddocks that would permanently alter the topography of former run country in the Te Anau Basin. From those inauspicious beginnings as a teenager, Chris returned to Te...
Dates:
2009
Found in:
Southland Oral History Project
COTTER, Paul John and MUNRO, Barry Russell interviewed by Seona Craig
Record Group — Box: 31
Identifier: H0232
Overview
This interview is part of the Awarua Radio Communications Museum collection. In this interview Paul and Barry recall and describe their experiences working for NZ Post Office as Radio Operators based at Awarua Radio, with some time each spent on the Chatham Islands and at Milford Sound. They also recall some of the emergency situations they were involved in e.g., distress calls from fisherman, steamships in distress and a call from a Frenchman sailing solo around the world. They describe the...
Dates:
2015
Found in:
Southland Oral History Project
KILLEEN, James Columbian interviewed by Madeline McGilvray
Record Group — Box: 62
Identifier: H0446
Overview
In this interview James gives details of his parents' backgrounds, the village in Galway, Ireland where he was born in 1906 and why he came to New Zealand. James describes leaving Galway in 1929 and his impressions of Invercargill on arriving in 1930. He describes working at the Fortification sawmill before labouring on buildings in Invercargill. He describes working on the Te Anau to Milford highway in very difficult working and living conditions. He notes that three hundred men worked on the...
Dates:
1999
Found in:
Southland Oral History Project
MOSS, David Thomas (Dave) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 53
Identifier: H0564
Overview
The tourism industry has been an essential contributor to the local economy of the Te Anau Basin since the formation of the Milford Track in the late 1800s. Following the opening of a vehicle route to Milford Sound in the 1950s, the number of visitors to the district has grown to the extent that an estimated 650,000 people a year spend at least a few hours at Milford. Dave Moss, has just retired from the local hospitality industry after about 35 years involvement. First, he was at Milford...
Dates:
2006
Found in:
Southland Oral History Project
NEILSEN, William David (Bill) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 50
Identifier: H0548
Overview
As he says during the recording, Bill's intention, on first being appointed General Manager of the THC Hotel in Te Anau in 1979, was to do the job for a couple of years and move on. Twenty-five years later he is still living in the town having played a prominent role in tourism in both Te Anau and Milford Sound. In this profile, Bill not only discusses tourism and the development of the hospitality industry in the region and across New Zealand, but he also provides an insight into the lives of...
Dates:
2005
Found in:
Southland Oral History Project
WILLETT, Raymond William Herbert (Ray) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 54
Identifier: H0575
Overview
More than fifty years ago Ray first set eyes on the Fiordland Mountains while doing a tour of his adopted homeland. As a child growing up in war-time London, he immigrated to New Zealand in 1953 on the cusp of his seventeenth birthday to work on a dairy farm in Northland. Captivated by that first visit to Te Anau and Milford Sound, Ray and his wife, Helen, have lived in the Te Anau area since 1961, with only a five-year separation from the Fiordland Mountains when they worked as managers of a...
Dates:
2009
Found in:
Southland Oral History Project
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