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Kōrero: Search and rescue

Carrying out Bill Bridge

Image
A large group of people with tramping packs walk in a river, some carrying a stretcher

L. D. (Bill) Bridge, of the Tararua Tramping Club, helped frame the first rules for mountain searches in 1933, and was the Federated Mountain Clubs’ nominee to the national search and rescue committee in 1949. In 1964 he volunteered to train police squads, a task at which he excelled. When he died suddenly during a search and rescue exercise in 1973, his body had to be carried out of the bush by men he had trained.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

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

Reference: EP/1973/4841/7A

by Merv Griffiths

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.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Nancy Swarbrick rāua ko Dan Clearwater, Search and rescue – History, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/13210/carrying-out-bill-bridge (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Nancy Swarbrick rāua ko Dan Clearwater, i tāngia i te 2 March 2009, reviewed and revised 27 July 2023 me te āwhina o Dan Clearwater.