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Kōrero: Salt

Lake Grassmere before 1940

Lake Grassmere before 1940

Until the 1940s the Lake Grassmere lake bed was a large, flat expanse that was generally a dustbowl in summer and a muddy puddle in winter. During the Second World War it was used as a bombing range, and an aerodrome was also located there. The viaduct visible in this southward-looking view is the main trunk railway. The first salt-making ponds were created by bulldozing the clay of the lake bed into stopbanks.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Dominion Salt

Reference: Jensen Reid, Salt for New Zealand. Lake Grassmere: Dominion Salt Ltd., [1976?]

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Carl Walrond, Salt – Early industry at Lake Grassmere, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/4329/lake-grassmere-before-1940 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Carl Walrond, i tāngia i te 2 March 2009.

Comments

Hilton Palmer
14 March 2021
As a teenager I worked collecting shells from the new evaporation ponds , my dad was contracted to dominion salt to put timber fences and drains for rain water run, H B Palmer built 26 miles of fencing perfectly level The design engineer was Ray ball My Dad and myself built out of my meccano set a harvesting machine three years later out of Israel came our exact design and is still being used today, prior to this salt was harvested using tractors with prongs in the front the tractors where fitted with aircraft tyres ,this process ruined the pond floor . I have often felt the guys who built the new ponds have never been recognised, have significant knowledge of the reconstruction of the ponds ,roads ,sea water intake structure, stockpile conveyors ,deep storage and so on , my pay rate was one shilling and threpence an hour , if you would like to discuss further please email at your convenience, the build is about 55years ago Hilton palmer