Forrester, Morag
Person
Interviewer for the Fiordland Museum Trust Oral History Project
Found in 61 Collections and/or Records:
MURDOCH, John Robert (Jock) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 47
Identifier: H0526
Overview
In this interview, Jock talks about his early life in Fairfax. His first job on leaving school was at a saw mill near Otautau. Jock worked at other mills as he became more experienced. When he was 19 Jock joined the army and spent about 18 months in Japan. From an early age Jock got involved with deer hunting and on his return from Japan he became a deer culler for the Department of Internal Affairs and worked for 5 years without a break. Jock married in 1960, He then became involved in a...
Dates:
2004
MURRELL, John Robert (Jack) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 51
Identifier: H0553
Overview
As Jack explains through the interview, his connection with Manapouri reaches back several generations. His great grandfather, (Old Bob) Robelt Murrell arrived at Bluff in 1863 and settled at Balloon Loop (by the Waiau River) two years later. The Murrell family is one of first explorers, farmers, tour guides and accommodation providers in the Te Anau Basin. In this profile, Jack is historian and raconteur. He also gives a personal account of growing up in an area that has undergone enormous...
Dates:
2004
NEILSEN, William David (Bill) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 50
Identifier: H0548
Overview
As he says during the recording, Bill's intention, on first being appointed General Manager of the THC Hotel in Te Anau in 1979, was to do the job for a couple of years and move on. Twenty-five years later he is still living in the town having played a prominent role in tourism in both Te Anau and Milford Sound. In this profile, Bill not only discusses tourism and the development of the hospitality industry in the region and across New Zealand, but he also provides an insight into the lives of...
Dates:
2005
RADFORD, Walter George interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 49
Identifier: H0537
Overview
George's introduction to Te Anau coincided with his involvement in the development of the Te Anau glow worm caves in 1948. The town was still village-sized when he and his wife Alma decided a year later to set up a small grocery shop amid the handful of cribs that existed between the manuka scrub on the lakefront. George has been a founding member of a few organisations in the town and instrumental in forming the Te Anau Volunteer Fire Brigade which in 2004 celebrated its 50th anniversary. In...
Dates:
2004
RITCHIE, Ian Andrew interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 50
Identifier: H0545
Overview
Ritchie Air Services was the first commercial passenger air operator to be established in Te Anau. It was October 1960 when Ian's wife Dell was put behind a desk with a book of tickets while her husband took their first Te Anau passengers on a scenic flight around the Basin. The business, started in Gore, shifted its operating base to the resort town the following year where Ian, Dell and family changed the way visitors and residents could view the mountain and lake scenety of Fiordland. In...
Dates:
2004
ROBBIE, Valerie Joan (Val) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 51
Identifier: H0555
Overview
Holidays in Te Anau were a regular event for Val from a very young age. As a result, she is one of a handful of people with memories of summers on a section of land just a stone's throw from Lake Te Anau which was bordered by scrub and manuka and indented by makeshift wharves and boatsheds. By the late 1930s, the family had gone upmarket after being allowed to build a 'crib' on the same section. The dwelling, which was extended and upgraded over the years, was soon one of a motley collection of...
Dates:
2005
ROBERTS, Thomas Andrew (Tom) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 51
Identifier: H0554
Overview
The Roberts family connections with Te Anau span almost one hundred years as it was Tom's grandfather, Captain Thomas Roberts, who first laid roots in what was a remote settlement in 1906. As skipper for the government steamer, Tawera, there is already printed documentation about Captain Roberts and his years spent in Te Anau. This interview, therefore only touches lightly on Tom's ancestors. The focus is more on the achievements made by Tom and his brother, Ted Roberts, in the local building...
Dates:
2005
SCHOFIELD, Clarence Murray interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 49
Identifier: H0541
Overview
Murray, now in his eighties, was selected as a participant in this oral history project because of his work with the Fiordland National Park in its earlier stages as well as his experience as a fisherman on the Fiordland coast. There are several other topics lightly touched upon in the interview, some of them highlighting the many changes that occurred in New Zealand society through the second half of the 20th century.
Dates:
2004
SCOON, Alister Lydon (Allie) interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 54
Identifier: H0577
Overview
Leaving school as soon as he was able, Allie began his builders apprenticeship with the same Dunedin firm, McLellan Construction that employed his father. It was a move which saw Allie forge a long-term career in the building trade that led to his overseeing some major projects in the Te Anau Basin in the early 1970s, including a complete redevelopment of the fire-damaged Te Anau Hotel and an early version of eco-tourism design at Takaro Lodge on the edge of the Fiordland National Park.
This...
Dates:
2008
SHAW, Hunter John Douglas interviewed by Morag Forrester
Record Group — Box: 52
Identifier: H0556
Overview
Hunter's first encounter with the forests and lakes of Fiordland occurred when his parents shifted south from Auckland bringing him and his younger brother with them. From an early age the allure of the bush stayed with him and by his late teens he knew it was where he wanted to live and work. For the next twenty-five years, Hunter became a professional deer hunter setting up his own base in the Back Valley of Manapouri. Taking knowledge from older bushmen and hunters, he rebuilt former cattle...
Dates:
2005
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