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Small Beginnings | Palmerston North Lines Reunion Small BeginningsThe GridHeritage collection started by accident. When the NZ Electricity Corporation was formed in 1987, the old NZ Electricity Christchurch District office was closed along with the facilities at Addington and Islington. The Staff at Christchurch were keen to make sure that their history and assets were not lost, so looked for a safe place to store them. The South Island Control Centre at Islington had storage space, and the Manager Tony Silke had a passion for history. Ex NZED gear was given to Tony, some of which was put on display in the Control Centre. During the Islington building upgrade, an historic display was set up in the foyer. Tony moved to Wellington and a small group of interested people came together to look after the collection, which by now had begun quietly growing. A Massey Museum Studies paper was the basis for the formation of Electricity Transmission Heritage of New Zealand which became an incorporated society of around 30 people. The collection continued to grow. In April 2003 Massey University students moved the bulk of the artefacts to Transpower storage in Bunnythorpe and started a collection database. The collection continues to be photographed and catalogued using professional museum software PastPerfect. Transpower continues to provide storage space for our equipment. 
Palmerston North Lines Reunion
Around 330 people from all over New Zealand who had been involved with the construction and maintenance of the high voltage transmission system gathered for what was to be a great weekend of fun and games, and more importantly to remember those who had worked in the industry. They donated photographs, memorabilia and interesting items of clothing. The reunion was full on from Friday evening until the closing Church Service conducted by Pat Toi on the Sunday morning. The Reunion Dinner on Saturday night started with a Welcome from Pat Toi. Peter Dunn provided a look back over the early days of line construction and maintenance, and Kevin Mackey spoke from an engineering perspective. A major theme of the reunion was the importance of capturing and recording the lives of the linemen and their families who contributed so much to New Zealand. GridHeritage had its first major public outing. Staff and students of the Massey University School of Maori Studies helped to organise a very professional display, with line equipment, some early film clips plus a hoard of interesting memorabilia from our collection. A PowerPoint slideshow graphically demonstrated the building of the NZ transmission system. People were invited to place pins on maps of NZ to show the location of the many line camps that were built to house staff while lines were being constructed. While a few hardy people managed to fit in a round of golf, most of the weekend was devoted to socialising.
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The Palmerston North Lines Reunion in November 2002 was possibly the most significant social event in the history of New Zealand electricity transmission. Many linemen and ex-linemen realised that the only time they all got together was at funerals for their deceased mates. They decided to change this by having a reunion, so John Larking set up a working committee and approached Transpower for funding.