Lyn Johnston

In 1912, Alfred Oldham wrote an account of his life which included some wonderful anecdotes illustrating the lives of our early settlers. Alfred was born...

Thomas Inger was one of many wanting to emigrate to New Zealand. William Brame, the Albertland movement founder, was keen to have him. In his letters,...

Driving down country roads, we often see random clumps of arum lilies and, in summer, fence lines covered with the lovely old pink rose, Dorothy...

Among museum archives is a small notebook with the following entry: Joseph Isherwood Buckton and his Wife & 3 children left home May the 26th...

Blacksmith and wheelwright Joseph Treadwell, his wife Elizabeth and two sons, Joseph Jnr and Walter, sailed to New Zealand aboard the clipper ship, Invererne, and...

As one baby in particular has been in the news lately, I thought it appropriate to recall what childbearing was like for pioneer women. During...

In 1931, Arthur Savage wrote to Harold Marsh about having a gramophone-lantern recital in the local church hall. Arthur lived in Pukekawa and was giving...

By Lyn Johnston, Albertland Museum Temperance means avoiding alcoholic drink and temperance societies first appeared in the early 1800s. Social reformers saw alcohol as the...

A 1960s newspaper clipping recalls the time when country people could buy everything they needed locally. Beginning, ‘Hello there, girls. With lightning and thunder traversing...

The first Port Albert church was built on a site near Market Street (now Bennett Street) in 1864. In the 1880s, a new church was...