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GUARDIANS OF THE LIGHT
The Bill Laxon Maritime Library Foundation, in collaboration with the Chisholm Whitney Family Charitable Trust assisted with the funding of a video project undertaken by Howard Taylor Productions and Helen Beaglehole.
The days when lighthouse keepers sat up all night to keep the lights going are over. In this documentary the men and women who lived on the isolated islands and craggy cliffs of New Zealand's manned light stations talk about a lifestyle that ended last century.
The DVD can be ordered from the NZ National Maritime Museum, Auckland at a cost of $35 plus P&P.
Contact the museum at 09 373 0800 or email bookings@nzmaritime.org |
This book is published by the Nautical Association of Australia Inc.
It is available in NZ from Boat Books Ltd
The Bill Laxon Maritime Library Foundation was pleased to support the launch of this book at a function in Auckland on 26 February 2009.
The book was reviewed in Heritage Matters Magazine edition 19.
Ian Farquhar, one of the authors who completed the book,
addresses the audience at the book launch
Lorna Laxon, Bill's widow, launches the book in Auckland, using a souvenir bell from the WANGANELLA, donated by Ms Lesley Taylor.
The bell was passed to the NZ National Maritime Museum
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HUDDART PARKER A Famous Australasian Shipping Company 1876-1961
While writing a history of Huddart Parker, Auckland maritime historian Bill Laxon regrettably became ill and died.
His draft script was taken over and completed by three of his friends – Howard Dick, Ian Farquhar and Tom Stevens.
The 248 page book is the first definitive history of this important Melbourne-based shipowner. Huddart Parker was not only a famous Australian interstate shipping company but also the only one to maintain a passenger line to New Zealand. Its coastal liners Westralia and Zealandia, trans-Tasman liners Ulimaroa and Wanganella and Bass Strait ferries Nairana and Taroona were all household names.
The company also operated a fleet of interstate cargo ships, tugs at Melbourne and Port Adelaide, and excursion steamers on Port Phillip Bay. Besides shipping, it owned large coal mines, had shareholdings in many other companies, and was a pioneer investor in domestic aviation.
This book records the history from the arrival of the founders during the gold rush of the 1850s, through the establishment of the company in 1876 to its takeover and withdrawal from shipping in 1961. There are appendices on the Bay excursion trade, James Huddart’s Canadian Australian Royal Mail Line, personalia, shore offices, tugs, collieries and the company’s venture into aviation, as well as a detailed fleet list and comprehensive index.
It is a soft-cover publication (250 x 176 cm) of 248 pages with 135 illustrations of virtually all the cargo and passenger ships, Bay steamers and tugs.
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