Skip to main content

Story: Indoor sports

Volleyball demonstration, 1949

Image
Volleyball demonstration, 1949

This energetic but inept volleyball game was played outdoors at the 1949 opening of the Naenae Community Centre in Lower Hutt. Teams were organised by the Physical Welfare branch of the Department of Internal Affairs in order to promote volleyball. Little-known in New Zealand at the time, it was described as 'very popular on the continent', that is, Europe.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, National Publicity Studios Collection

Reference: 1/2-033822-F; AAQT 6401 A15, 861

by William Wilson

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

Mark Derby, Indoor sports – Volleyball, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/41057/volleyball-demonstration-1949 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Mark Derby, published 7 March 2013, updated 1 June 2016.