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Story: Care and carers

Homes for older people: 1970s rest home

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Homes for older people: 1970s rest home

Residents sit in the lounge of a Wellington rest home in the 1970s. By this time, as the photo suggests, there were greater numbers of women than men in older age groups, and New Zealand had one of the highest rates of rest-home residency in the Western world.

Using this item

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

Reference: EP/1970/5470

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

Nancy Swarbrick, Care and carers – Care of elderly people, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/30444/homes-for-older-people-1970s-rest-home (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 30 March 2011.