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Kōrero: Building materials

Making plaster board by hand, 1927

Image
Making plaster board by hand, 1927

Workers in the New Zealand Wallboards factory mix plaster by hand in 1927, the year that the company began to manufacture plaster wallboard. From 1931 it was known in New Zealand as Gibraltar board. Up until this time most internal walls in houses were rough planking covered with scrim, which was then wallpapered. From the 1930s plaster board began its rise as the preferred wall lining in New Zealand houses.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Fletcher Challenge Archives

Reference: 6021P/1

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Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Jeremy Salmond, Building materials – Timber, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/25098/making-plaster-board-by-hand-1927 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Jeremy Salmond, i tāngia i te 4 March 2010.