Skip to main content

Story: Ports and harbours

Cranes on Wellington wharves

Image
Cranes on Wellington wharves

As ships got larger the main ports improved their cargo-handling facilities, adding hydraulic and electric cranes to their major wharves. This early 20th-century photograph shows a mixture of horse-drawn and rail wagons bringing sawn timber ready for loading.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PAColl-5932-47

by Joseph Zachariah

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

Gavin McLean, Ports and harbours – 19th- and 20th-century changes, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/6027/cranes-on-wellington-wharves (accessed 4 June 2026).

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