Story: Flax and flax working

Flax mill

Flax mill

This is a typical small flax mill, south of Castlepoint in Wairarapa, in the early 1900s. The sheds house the flax-stripping and scutching machinery. Outside are bundles of flax leaves, waiting to be processed. Hanks of recently stripped flax fibre are drying on racks. Washed fibre is laid out to bleach in the paddock to the right of the mill.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: G- 65161-1/2
Photograph by George Moore

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page:

Nancy Swarbrick, 'Flax and flax working - The flax fibre industry: 1860s–1930s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/10408/flax-mill (accessed 26 April 2024)

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 24 Sep 2007