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Story: Modern mapping and surveying

Lugging survey equipment

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Lugging survey equipment

Two members of a survey team carry their equipment up a steep ridge to the Mt Matthews trig station in the Rimutaka Range, around 1913. The large box held by the man on the right weighed more than 36 kilograms. This photograph is from the collection of Hubert Girdlestone, a surveyor with the Department of Lands and Survey and an alpine climber. After his death in the First World War, two peaks were named after him, one on Mt Ruapehu and one in the Tararuas.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Hubert Girdlestone Collection

Reference: PA1-q-913-08-4

by Hubert Earle Girdlestone

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.

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How to cite this page

Melanie Lovell-Smith, Modern mapping and surveying – Geodetic triangulation, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/18900/lugging-survey-equipment (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Melanie Lovell-Smith, published 1 March 2009, updated 1 August 2018.