Ashburton Railway Station: designed by Troup

An early image of the Ashburton railway station entrance. The Ashburton Railway station was once a social hub of the town: a place where goods and people moved from one place to another. There were two earlier stations - the first was built in 1874, when it took 72 minutes to get from Christchurch to...

Looking back at the 90s

There is something unique about photographs from the nineties – through them we peer into a world that still feels and looks very much like the present at first glance, until the illusion is shattered when you take a closer look.

The Soaring Southern Cross

An article from the Ashburton Guardian, 26th of January 1928, mentions one attempt to fly across the Tasman by a Lieutenant Moncrieff and Captain G. Hood, who “met an unknown fate in the attempt to fly over the Tasman Sea.” Not long after this incident, on the 11th of September that year a very special Fokker Trimotor dubbed ‘Southern Cross’ made the first Trans-Tasman flight with legendary pilot Charles Kingsford Smith at the helm.

Twin squares through time

At the Ashburton Museum we are always eyes-deep in interesting photographs. Amongst the more than six million images that the Ashburton Museum team care for, we have a pretty decent set of photographs of the two squares that show their transformation through the decades.

Expect the unexpected

When managing a collection of photographs six million strong, you soon learn to expect the unexpected. In the time that I have worked with the collections at Ashburton Museum, I have come across a number of unique and interesting images which hold some novelty or significance beyond historical.

The Namesake of Our Valetta

While the team at Ashburton Museum were working on Ashburton: Feels Like Home, our 2019 Spring exhibition, we became even more interested than usual in all the things that make this district feel special and familiar. Home is a big theme, and it was especially interesting trying to tease out the myriad sights, ideas, experiences...

Models that Feel Like Home

One exhibition we put on in 2019 at Ashburton Museum proved to be close to the heart of many locals. It was titled ‘Ashburton: Feels Like Home’ and included all kinds of quirky and iconic items and images that are a reminder of why this place is special to so many people. Among the exhibition...

End of the Line

When I was a very young child living in Ireland, I had an ungodly obsession with trains. I loved everything about them – there was just some elusive appeal that drew me to anything that slid on rails and went “choo-choo”. I loved my Thomas the Tank Engine toys so much that I used to...

Charles Hopetoun Tindall was a well-known photographer working from a studio in East Street, Ashburton. His work has been featured many times in these blog posts, including many many portraits of Ashburton locals. This week, brought to you by the letter B, the images on this page show that it was not only people that...

This week we’ll be celebrating Waitangi Day with a public holiday. It’s a holiday special to New Zealand and a chance to reflect on what it means to come from our beautiful country of Aotearoa. Many people will have heard and know basic greetings in Maori. Being able to introduce yourself in te reo is...