Retrolens website

A new website showcasing historic aerial imagery highlights how much Canterbury has changed.

Environment Canterbury has led, with key partners Waikato Regional Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Hawkes Bay Regional Council, the creation of the Retrolens website (http://retrolens.nz/) – which provides free access to hundreds of thousands of historic digitised images of New Zealand from the 1930s to the 1990s.

ECan’s director of finance and corporate services Miles McConway said regional councils and local government recognised the need for people, outside of councils, to access these images so it made sense for a website to be developed nationally.

“Historical imagery is incredibly important for a variety of reasons, including showing changes in land use, identifying where dangerous chemicals were used, showing coastline changes, and archaeology and cultural research.”

McConway said the site was a great resource for future planning and making sound economic and environmental decisions.

“These images were particularly important for identifying past land use in the Christchurch Hazardous Activities and Industries List project and will be used in the earthquake response to Kaikoura,” McConway said. “If you’re interested in history, you can also check out what your property looked like decades ago and you can download a copy of the image for your own purpose.”

These images are sourced from a parallel project undertaken in conjunction with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and other regional and local councils to digitise the Crown’s national archive of historic aerial photos in order to preserve them.

The total cost of the national digitisation project, managed by LINZ and due for completion in 2021, is estimated at $5 million.

The funding partners for the national digitisation project with LINZ (Land Information New Zealand) are: Auckland Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Environment Canterbury, Gisborne Regional Council, Hawkes Bay Regional Council, Environment Southland, Tasman District Council and Waikato Local Authority Shared Services.

© Scoop Media