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…
A colourful account of Maori and early European life before the arrival of the first four ships. Jimmy Robinson, who lived as a ‘Pakeha Maori’ at Akaroa and helped raise the British fla…
“To tell you is a great task, for I can assure you it is a most awful country,” wrote James Boot from Christchurch, New Zealand in letter to his parents in Nottingham, England in June, …
The tide at New Brighton could go out a long way and the sand was hard, making motor and bicycle racing on New Brighton beach a popular past time that would draw the crowds. Many cycling and motor …
A Tale of Convicts, Ship Wrecks, Strange Family Relations, and a £500 Bequest. Before the Canterbury Settlement was inaugurated, a young Australian lad landed at Port Cooper in the company of his f…
The Anglican church of St. Michael and All the Angels, at 84 Oxford Terrace, stands on the site of the first church the Canterbury Association’s settlers built in 1851. Perhaps there a…
New Zealand’s largest and most iconic booksellers, publishers and printing company was Whitcombe & Tombs of Christchurch. It was established in 1882 by Mr. George Hawkes Whitcombe, a seem…
“The most historic bridge in Christchurch” The iconic stone arch which spans over Cashel Street bridge – linking Cambridge with Oxford Terrace is “a visible symbol” wh…
By Fabian Bell The Avon is a lovely river. Of course I know that many people will say that it is no better than a ditch, &c. I pity their want of taste. Of course the stream is narrow and does …
It is midday on the busy intersection of Manchester, High and Lichfield Streets when this photograph was taken from the corner of Bedford Row c. 1904. The street is full of activity as shoppers mak…
Earthquakes in Christchurch are not unusual events, we’ve been beset with them since European settlement began – and no doubt long before. What is most disturbing of all is that our Eur…
The town of Lyttelton on Saturday morning (15 August) was thrown into a state of great excitement owing to a most extraordinary rise and fall of the water in the harbour…
Our city is a repository for the social and historical narrative of our past Each street, wall, facade, interior is an integral part of the people who walked passed them, shopped in them, worked in…
Up until February 22nd, 2011, the city of Christchurch was a unique, historic and cultural living and breathing entity. Inherited from a long list of valuable contributors dating back to its incept…
Following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes a detailed campaign of door to door assessments was conducted in a variety of areas of Christchurch to establish the earthquake performance of residential dwellings having masonry veneer as an external cladding attached to a lightweight timber framing system. Specifically, care was taken to include regions of Christchurch which experienced different levels of earthquake shaking in order to allow comparison between the performance of different systems and different shaking intensities. At the time of the inspections the buildings in the Christchurch region had been repeatedly subjected to large earthquakes, presenting an opportunity for insight into the seismic performance of masonry veneer cladding. In total just under 1100 residential dwellings were inspected throughout the wider Christchurch area, of which 24% were constructed using the older nail-on veneer tie system (prior to 1996) and 76% were constructed using screw fixed ties to comply with the new 1996 standards revision (post-1996), with 30% of all inspected houses being of two storey construction. Of the inspected dwellings 27% had some evidence of liquefaction, ground settlement or lateral spreading. Data such as damage level, damage type, crack widths, level of repair required and other parameters were collected during the survey. A description of the data collection processes and a snapshot of the analysis results are presented within. http://15ibmac.com/home/
In 2010 and 2011, Aotearoa New Zealand was hit by a number of major disasters involving loss of human life and severe disruption to social, ecological and economic wellbeing. The Pike River mine explosions were closely followed by a sequence of major earthquakes in Christchurch, seismic events that have permanently altered the lives of thousands of people in our third largest city, the closure of the central business district and the effective abandonment of whole residential areas. In early October 2011, the ship, Rena, grounded on a reef off the port of Tauranga and threatened a major oil spill throughout the Bay of Plenty, where local communities with spiritual and cultural connections to the land depend on sea food as well as thrive on tourism. The Council for Social Work Education Aotearoa New Zealand (CSWEANZ), representing all the Schools of Social Work in New Zealand, held a ‘Disaster Curriculum’ day in November 2011, at which social workers and Civil Defence leaders involved in the Christchurch earthquakes, the Rena Disaster, Fiji floods and the Boxing Day tsunami presented their narrative experience of disaster response and recovery. Workshops discussed and identified core elements that participants considered vital to a social work curriculum that would enable social work graduates in a range of community and cultural settings to respond in safe, creative and informed ways. We present our core ideas for a social work disaster curriculum and consider a wide range of educational content based on existing knowledge bases and new content within a disaster framework. http://www.swsd-stockholm-2012.org/
Following the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011 a number of researchers were sent to Christchurch, New Zealand to document the damage to masonry buildings as part of “Project Masonry”. Coordinated by the Universities of Auckland and Adelaide, researchers came from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Portugal and the US. The types of masonry investigated were unreinforced clay brick masonry, unreinforced stone masonry, reinforced concrete masonry, residential masonry veneer and churches; masonry infill was not part of this study. This paper focuses on the progress of the unreinforced masonry (URM) component of Project Masonry. To date the research team has completed raw data collection on over 600 URM buildings in the Christchurch area. The results from this study will be extremely relevant to Australian cities since URM buildings in New Zealand are similar to those in Australia.
Shirley Community Centre, Shirley Road, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-10-Around-Shirley-May-2012 DSC_02866.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Latimer Square, Christchurch File reference: CCL-2012-04-06-LatimerSquare-April-2012-DSC_0879.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Latimer Square, Christchurch File reference: CCL-2012-04-06-LatimerSquare-April-2012-DSC_0884.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Latimer Square, Christchurch File reference: CCL-2012-04-06-LatimerSquare-April-2012-DSC_0862.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
NewsTalkZB Building,Latimer Square, Christchurch File reference: CCL-2012-04-06-LatimerSquare-April-2012-DSC_0867.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Avonhead Park Cemetery Interment Site. Central plinth. Inscription reads: "Etched in our City’s memory, never to be forgotten. The City of Christchurch" in Spanish. File reference: CCL-2012-02-27-AvonheadParkCemeteryIntermentSite-February-2012 DSC_026.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Avonhead Park Cemetery Interment Site. Central plinth. Inscription reads: "Etched in our City’s memory, never to be forgotten. The City of Christchurch". File reference: CCL-2012-02-27-AvonheadParkCemeteryIntermentSite-February-2012 DSC_027.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Container Love: shipping container decorated with knitted and crocheted squares. Sumner, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-12-Around-Sumner-May-2012 DSC_026.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
St Stephens Anglican Church, Shirley Road, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-10-Around-Shirley-May-2012 DSC_02857.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Shirley Community Centre, Shirley Road, Christchurch. File reference: CCL-2012-05-10-Around-Shirley-May-2012 DSC_02862.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Latimer Square, Christchurch File reference: CCL-2012-04-06-LatimerSquare-April-2012-DSC_0858.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Latimer Hotel, Latimer Square, Christchurch File reference: CCL-2012-04-06-LatimerSquare-April-2012-DSC_0855.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.
Latimer Square, Christchurch File reference: CCL-2012-04-06-LatimerSquare-April-2012-DSC_0886.JPG From the collection of Christchurch City Libraries.