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Story: Ports and harbours

The Wellington Harbour Board's new container crane

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The Wellington Harbour Board's new container crane

Enormous gantry cranes dominated port skylines from the 1970s. In 1975 Wellington’s second crane, a Vickers Hoskings/Paceco single lift telescopic spreader crane, was being completed. Towering almost 75 metres above the wharf, it could lift 46 tonnes, better than the three and five tonnes of most conventional wharf cranes.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1975/4141/11

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

Gavin McLean, Ports and harbours – The modern era, 1960 onwards, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/6056/the-wellington-harbour-boards-new-container-crane (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Gavin McLean, published 2 March 2009, updated 30 July 2015.