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Historian’s latest book traces Lyttelton’s historyPublished by the Communications and Development Department
29 November 2004
Putting together an illustrated history on Canterbury’s main port was a project tinged with nostalgia for Associate Professor Geoffrey Rice.
The author of Lyttelton: Port and Town, a new book released this month by Canterbury University Press, says Lyttelton has always been one of his favourite places.
The history professor has a long association with the port which began as a child when he would board the inter-island ferry each Christmas to visit his grandparents in the North Island. Later in his student days he worked as a “seagull” — the scornful term wharfies used for students who worked as casual labourers — on the wharves and in the woolstore during his summer vacations.
“Lyttelton in those days was a dreadfully smoky place but also a busy, lively and interesting place… I’m afflicted with nostalgia when I go back nowadays, knowing how much it has changed over the past 50 years.”
The illustrated history follows the same format as Dr Rice’s successful publication Christchurch Changing (1999), which has had two reprints.
Lyttelton: Port and Town traces the story of Lyttelton from its days as the “Pilgrim Port” of the 1850s to its days as a bustling seaport during times of thriving exports, a departure point for Antarctic explorations and troopships heading to war, to the dramatic changes and often tense relationship between port and town of the 1980s and 1990s.
The book contains many previously unpublished images from the Lyttelton Museum and the archives of the former Lyttelton Harbour Board.
Lyttelton: Port and Town will be officially launched at the Lyttelton Port Company building on Tuesday 7 December at 6pm.
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