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Story: Irish

Building railways, Hokitika

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Building railways, Hokitika

As in other new worlds, there was a good proportion of Irish among New Zealand’s railway workers. These navvies are working on railways on the West Coast in 1908.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Joseph Quinn Collection

Reference: 1/2-179289; G

by James Ring and L. A. Inkster

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

Jock Phillips, Irish – Settlement, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/58/building-railways-hokitika (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Jock Phillips, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 August 2024.