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Story: Roads

Road construction

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Road construction

For many years picks, shovels and muscle were the main tools for road works. Roads were often built up with rock that lay close to hand. If a bluff had to be blasted for the road to pass, the rubble was used in the road works. Road workers of this era smoked tobacco in clay pipes and wore bowyangs – string tied around their knees to keep their trousers clear of the mud.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, James McAllister Collection (PAColl-3054)

Reference: 1/2-021078; C

by James McAllister

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

Carl Walrond, Roads – Building roads, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/23302/road-construction (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 2 March 2010, updated 1 March 2016.