Waitakere Local History

Local history service provides and collects information about the history of Waitakere and West Auckland.

The collections are held at the Waitakere Central Library and are available in the J. T. Diamond Reading Room. Access to the collection is restricted. All items are for use in the reading room only and may not be borrowed.

Local history resources

The collection includes:

• Books
• Archives
• Manuscripts
• Maps and plans
• Memorabilia and ephemera
• Local Newspapers including the Western Leader
• Photographs
• Research files
• Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives from 1860
• Oral Histories

 Please contact us.

Western Leader

Waitakere Library and Information Services pride itself to be the only place in New Zealand to hold all copies of the Western Leader since its inception (1967). The Local History Collection also holds the complete run of West Weekly and The Aucklander West edition.

West Auckland local history goes virtual - Local History Online is now live at: www.localhistoryonline.org.nz providing indexing access to 1000s of local newspapers. Local History Online is a joint project between Waitakere, North Shore and Rodney Libraries (ROWANS).

Local History Online will ultimately provide access to the existing digital and electronic local history collections of Waitakere, North Shore and Rodney Libraries. At the moment access is to the indexes for the local newspapers. The Waitakere Newspaper Index covers the Western Leader, West Weekly and Aucklander, West ed. from 2002. Customers can read the full text of the newspapers in the J.T. Diamond Reading Room,  Waitakere Central Library, or interloan their request.

You can also access online the full stories of the most recent Western Leader by visiting: Western Leader Online

Finally, The Reference Department has holdings of the Western Leader on microfilm.

For further information on the Western Leader, please see its parent company (Fairfax) website:

For any Local History inquiries please email the localhistory@waitakerelibs.govt.nz

J.T. Diamond Reading Room

Location & Opening hours

The J.T. Diamond Reading Room is a place for in-depth study of the West Auckland region and is located in the Waitakere Central Library, Henderson. The room was named in recognition of Jack Diamond's contribution to West Auckland history.

John Thomas (Jack) Diamond M.B.E. extensively researched, documented, collected and wrote about West Auckland history. In 2001, Jack's archive was donated to Waitakere Libraries. The collection primarily covers the timber, brick and pottery industries, the history and archaeology of the Waitakere Ranges and Maori history. It includes original research, published and collected works and photographs. A finding aid as well as reference assistance for the collection is available from the Reading Room information desk.

Location & opening hours

Level 2
3 Ratanui Street
Waitakere Central library
Henderson

Famous west Aucklanders

New Zealand Wetland Birds and their world by Geoff Moon

Geoff Moon (1915 - 2009)

Geoff Moon - Art Laureate of Waitakere City, leading New Zealand natural history author and world-renowned wildlife photographer - has died. Geoff was born in China in 1915 and lived in England before moving to New Zealand in 1947. A veterinary surgeon by profession, Geoff's research on New Zealand bird life is internationally recognized.

In 1994 Geoff was awarded the OBE for his services to the veterinary profession and photography. His book New Zealand Birds  won the 1983 New Zealand Book Awards: Special Award for Photography; and New Zealand Birds in Focus: a Photographer's Journey  was short listed for the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

New Zealand Wetland Birds and Their World  is Geoff's most recent work and has just been published. Find a complete list of books by Geoff Moon held by Waitakere Libraries here:

View a photograph of Geoff Moon erecting a folding bird watching hide.

Further information about Geoff Moon:

• 'Watch the birdie' by Steve Braunias. Sunday Star-Times March 2005. Available on the Eresource : Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre
• Natural world of Geoff Moon'. Forest and Bird November 2005 p.30-33. Available in the Reference Department, Waitakere Central Library
• Moonlighting' by Margot Butcher. North and South February 1999 p.66-73. Available in the Reference Department, Waitakere Central Library

View a list of arts laureates, including Geoff Moon below:

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Waitakere Arts Laureates (Size 1481K)

Preserving Your Family heritage

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Preserving Your Family's Heritage (Size 200K)
How to preserve your family photographs, letters, diaries and other historical documents.

Please contact us

Donations

On behalf of Waitakere Library and information Services we would like to thank you for your donation.

Donations may be dropped off at any branch of Waitakere Library and Information Services.

If this material/item is to be added to the Library Local History Collection the donor will be contacted by a library staff member and asked to complete a formal deed of gift. Ditto, if you have given a special item/s such as photographs, or personal papers, you will be contacted by a local history staff member.

Note that you need to have authority to donate this material/item to Waitakere City Libraries & Information Services.

The Donor Form below needs to be signed and states that the material gifted to us may not be added to our collection. Donated books and magazines may be added to the collections at any of our various branches, passed to other institutions or sold on our behalf and the money raised may be used by charity or returned to the library as revenue, or discarded in accordance with library policy. All items are assessed by our Collections Management Team who are not obligated to include donations into the permanent collection.

If a donor wishes to discuss matters concerning their donation please contact the Collection & Service Development Manager & Team Leader.

Donations, whether added to the collection, donated or sold, all support our library service and we thank you for your contribution.

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Donation form (Size 44K)