More than 1000 photographs and records of the Ashburton District over the past 100 years and earlier will soon be online for people all around Aotearoa New Zealand and the world to discover.

The photographs and records are from the Ashburton Museum and Historical Society’s collection and Council’s historical archives. They will be available online after the collections website is launched on Sunday 5 May at 2pm.

Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum director Shirin Khosraviani said the launch was part of the Ashburton Museum and Historical Society’s bi-monthly meeting and the public were welcome to attend.

“The collection will be known as the Whakatere Heritage Collections Online and many more photos and records will be added over time. You’ll be able to access the collection through our museum website.

“The launch event will include tutorials on how to search our collections website effectively, and we’ll be hearing from those involved in the project. Cataloguing has come a long way at the Ashburton Museum since the days before computers and collection management software, and we’ll look forward to being able to make our online collections even more accessible in future.”

In most cases, images on the site are available for sharing and personal use as long as the Ashburton Museum and Historical Society is credited, as there are no known copyright restrictions. However, researchers will also be able to purchase high-resolution images for publication or other commercial purposes.

One of the photos in the new online collection is of the first pipe placed in the Rangitata Diversion Race at Surrey Hills on 19 October 1940 – it shows the Minister of Public Works at the time, Robert Semple, and key workers standing inside the big concrete pipe.

The photo is one of a series capturing the pipe placement and comes from the collection of the Ashburton Museum and Historical Society, which has a special partnership with the gallery and museum. The museum looks after the Society’s collection of photographs, archives and objects unique to Whakatere Ashburton.

Council’s historical archives include early road boards, Ashburton County Council and Borough Council eras and records including meeting minutes, property and cemetery records.

Ms Khosraviani said museum staff, interns and volunteers had been working hard to get the records and images ready for the website.

“We’ll keep adding more, but we’re launching it online now because we have reached 1000 records, which is a milestone. We’re looking forward to sharing the collections we care for with a wider audience who might not be able to visit us in person, or who might be inspired to do further research.”

See the Whakatere Heritage Collections Online from Sunday at ashburtonmuseum.co.nz.