My top 10
Image: One of Dryden Construction’s two Euclid 16TDTs photographed at the building of Wellington Airport in the mid-1950s. These austere-looking beasts are the reason that...
Category : Historical
The Golden Years
It is a great honour to present this issue to mark Contractor magazine’s golden anniversary. I wonder if the founders imagined this magazine would endure...
A short history of our cement industry
Image: Wilson Portland Cement Works, Warkworth, Rodney County [ca 1910]. Concrete has been a cornerstone of our construction industry for more than 150 years. Its...
Lest we forget
Image: “Selection” of Hungarian Jews on the ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, May/June 1944. Back on 26 January David Seymour spoke at an event hosted by...
The 1970s the go-ahead decade
Last month, I covered our golden economic era, the 1960s, and the first signs of the end of our economic golden age. The 1970s will...
A golden age for the association
Photo: The Federation’s relationship with ‘Kiwi’ Keith Holyoake and the Second National Government (1960-1972) that included Robert Muldoon was also clearly a golden age for...
1950s – the pursuit of industry representation
Caption: Back row from left: Trevor Culley (fifth president); Vic Draper (second president); John Feast (seventh president); Harold Parsons (fourth president); Noel Margan (third president);...
A history of the CCNZ: Part One
Caption: From the archives: On his retirement Ron Tarr and his wife are presented with a silver tea set in 1972 (from the Auckland Branch)...
Great projects in history: the St Lawrence Seaway
A near-contiguous waterway stretching halfway across the widest part of the continent massively accelerated North American development. Hugh de Lacy reflects. While other countries relied...
Looking back on an on-going project
As work progresses on extending the (current) New Plymouth Airport and building a new terminal, Neil Ritchie looks back on its chequered, 55-year-old history. Local...