Documenting 100 years of gas
Gas works and Caversham Railway Station, Dunedin. Photograph taken by Albert Percy Godber, in 1925.
A new book to be published next year aims to document 100 years of gas in Aotearoa New Zealand. The book is part of the centennial celebrations for the New Zealand Institution of Gas Engineers and the writers are keen for contributions to help tell the story.
The book will be an update of an earlier publication from the 75th anniversary in 2000. Father and son team David and Daniel Whitfield are working together on the project.
Originally from England, David Whitfield and his family emigrated in 1997 and has worked in the New Zealand gas sector ever since. David is currently Operations Manager at Morrinsville Plumbing, President of the Institution of Gas Engineers and President of Master Plumbers Waikato.
David’s son, Daniel Whitfield, works in communications and has a background in journalism – he’s working to make the book an easy-to-read and interesting history for a wide audience.
From the Dunedin Gaslight and Coke Company, through to the discovery of natural gas and how thousands of cars were converted to run on coal gas during WW2, the book is set to cover many interesting and innovative stories from across the years.
David believes there will be many more examples of the evolution of gas and the industry and is hoping colleagues in the gas sector will provide further examples for the book particularly from 2000 to now - and ideas about what the future could look like.
“I’m not sure what the future will holds for gas in New Zealand – but I do think the next big thing will be biogas.
“I returned last month from the GasNZ Australian Renewable Gas Tour and what we saw there were the vast possibilities for producing gas from waste. New Zealand has already transformed from coal gas to natural gas, the next step will be renewable gas of some kind, I am sure about that,” he said.
David and Dan are interested in hearing from those who might have information, records, stories about the industry, or old photographs that could contribute to the narrative over the last 100 years. Please feel free to contact Daniel at danwhitfieldnz@gmail.com