Published Resources Details

Conference Paper

Author
Thornton, G. G.
Title
The Construction Of The Napier-Gisborne Railway
In
First Australasian Conference on Engineering Heritage 1994: Old Ways in a New Land; Preprints of Papers
Imprint
Institution of Engineers, Australia, Barton, Australian Capital Territory, 1994, pp. 173-177
ISBN/ISSN
0858256223
Url
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.626290837143784
Abstract

This railway was built intermittently from 1911 to 1942 over 191 kilometres of hilly country. There are rivers in gorges requiring five steel viaducts more than 60m high, a reinforced concrete arch viaduct, and several tunnels. After construction had started from the north there was a major change of route to avoid country proving much more difficult than anticipated. Several natural disasters hindered progress. The catastrophic Hawkes Bay earthquake in 1931 and two calamitous floods in 1938 caused much damage to the line. The Depression of the early 30s produced a cessation of work and World War II seriously reduced the availability of staff, workmen and materials. This paper describes the engineering achievements including the spectacular 95m high Mohaka Viaduct.

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"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260