Where are you originally from?
I was born and bred in Gisborne and my family moved to the Manawatū when I was 15 years old. It was a tough time to move cities at that age, so a year and a half later I quit school and trained as a Pharmacy Technician in Feilding.
When did history become a passion?
After 10 years of working around the Manawatū, I decided to go to Massey University and study history. Why? I read a fiction book called Sunne in Splendour about Richard III and that sent me on a research journey. I loved figuring out the ‘true’ story and finding the evidence. It took a couple of years to decide it was ok to quit my job and study, but I loved every minute of it. At the time medieval history was my passion.
Tell us about your career after university.
After travelling and a couple of children, I worked at IPU College (then called IPC) in Summerhill, Palmerston North. I began in the library and then I trained to teach English as a second language to international students. Five years later, I moved over the hill to Massey University and worked as a tutor and marker for the BA degree programme.
Why local history?
An opportunity arose to write a summary of the military history of Palmerston North for the City Council. They took a chance on me even though I had not done a lot of local history. It was the first time that I was able to prove that I could write local/national history. That project is available on Manawatū Heritage.
From that research came journal articles for the Manawatū Journal of History and soon I found myself on the Editorial Board for the journal which has continued to today.
Local history became a passion for me. The history of Palmerston North is rich with a wide variety of stories. That suits me because I never had a specific aspect of history that I concentrated on; it is whatever strikes my interest at the time.
I have done histories of the military, women, medicine, pharmacy (of course) and most recently Ashhurst cemetery. Most of those are in the Manawatū Journal of History which means they were written in my ‘spare’ time.
One article I loved writing was exploring how Palmerston North responded to the Napier Earthquake evacuees in 1931. Much of the detail about how Palmerston North had responded had been lost to time. That article won an award for Local History which was amazing. A Zoom talk is available on Manawatū Heritage about the article from 2021.
My ability to study history has waxed and waned over the years due to children and other work. Covid led me back to working in the hospital pharmacy which greatly affected my ability to have ‘spare’ time. That is another story.
What do you do for fun?
One of my favourite things to do is to conduct tours of Terrace End Cemetery during History Week. I can introduce some of the fascinating people from Palmerston North’s history.
For the first few tours, I had the joy of working with Tina White who at the time wrote heritage articles for the Manawatū Standard. Her storytelling during our tours was fabulous.
For the last couple of years, Geraldine Reynolds of the local Genealogical Society joined me for our tours. We have found that the tours are popular, and they are always busy. Many current residents have ancestors in the cemetery, so we welcome their stories too.
Any projects in the pipeline?
My article about the establishment of Ashhurst Cemetery (along with loads of awesome articles) is in the latest Manawatū Journal of History which is now available in Bruce McKenzie Bookshop or for order through the Journal.
I am interested in investigating the use of Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School as a hospital during the Second World War. So that may be an article for next year.
