Searching the Online Register

The Register currently contains over 5500 entries. The Register Online includes the entries for all registered historic places and historic areas. Each entry includes general identification and registration information. Many of the entries also include images and text about the place or area - in some instances there are very detailed reports! The Register Online doesn’t include entries for registered wahi tapu or wahi tapu areas, current proposals, registrations under investigation, interim registrations, heritage covenants and heritage orders.

The Trust adds new register entries after each meeting of the NZHPT Board and updates the records and photographs of registered places and areas regularly - if you can’t find what you are looking for today, look again when you next visit or contact the Registrar

Rarangi Taonga: the Register of Historic Places, Historic Areas, Wahi Tapu and Wahi Tapu Areas is the national schedule of New Zealand’s treasured heritage places. It is established under the Historic Places Act 1993, and compiled by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Pouhere Taonga. Registration means that a place or area is included on the Register.

The Four Parts of the Register

The Register is divided into four parts:

• Historic Places include bridges, memorials, pa, archaeological sites, buildings, mining sites, cemeteries, gardens, shipwrecks, and many other types of places.
• Historic Areas are groups of related historic places such as a geographical area with a number of properties or sites, or a cultural landscape. Emphasis is on the significance of the group.
• Wahi Tapu are places sacred to Maori in the traditional, spriritual, religious, ritual or mythological sense.
• Wahi Tapu Areas are groups of wahi tapu.

Historic places are further divided into two categories: Category I status is given to places of ‘special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value’; Category II status to places of ‘historical or cultural heritage significance or value’.

Places may be significant because they possess aesthetic, archaeological, architectural, cultural, historical, scientific, social, spiritual, technological or traditional significance or value.

(For information about the legal requirements and nature of the Register see the Historic Places Act 1993.)

What can I see on this site?

This site is a work in progress. The Trust has begun the major task of making the Register and some associated records available electronically. What you see now, is the first stage of this work.

There are currently there are about 5469 entries on the Register. Of these, there are 5251 historic places, 111 historic areas, 49 wahi tapu areas and 58 wahi tapu. The Register Online includes the entries for all registered historic places and historic areas. Each entry includes general identification and registration information. Many of the entries also include images and text about the place or area - in some instances there are very detailed reports! The Register Online doesn’t include entries for registered wahi tapu or wahi tapu areas, current proposals, registrations under investigation, interim registrations, heritage covenants and heritage orders.

The Trust will be adding new register entries, records and photographs every three months - so if you can’t find what you are looking for today, look again when you next visit.

To search the Register, click here

How can I find a full list of everything on the Register?

For the full Register, as well as information on current proposals, registrations under investigation, interim registrations, heritage covenants and heritage orders you can view hard copies of the Register at your local office of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust or your local city or district council office.

If this is inconvenient, or if you review the Register regularly, you may wish to purchase a copy of the Register. A full copy of the Register is available at a cost of $300 + GST per year and it is provided in electronic and hard copy form. The price includes four updates for the year, which are issued after each major registration meeting of the NZHPT Board and Maori Heritage Council.

If you have any queries or wish to purchase a copy of the Register, please contact the Registrar.

Can I visit registered places?

There are many heritage places you can visit owned by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and other public organisations. You can find out more about these places here.

However, most registered places are privately owned. Registration of a place and inclusion of information about these places on this site does not convey permission to enter. Please do not enter people’s property without permission; respect their privacy.

Why register places?

The Trust’s Register is designed to inform property owners and the public about New Zealand’s heritage places and to assist protection of these places under the Resource Management Act 1991. Registration is an identification and recognition tool and does not in itself prevent places being altered or sold. However, Councils are required to have regard to the Register when developing Regional and District Plans, and Councils are required to notify the Trust as an affected party to resource consent applications that affect registered places. Councils are required to notify the Trust as an affected party to resource consent applications that affect registered places. Councils must also notify the Trust when issuing project information memoranda (PIMS) or building consents where no PIM has been sought.
This means that the Trust is involved in the decision-making process when developments affecting heritage sites are being considered.

Councils must also notify an applicant of the presence of a registered place when issuing a Project Information Memorandum (PIM) or a Land Information Memoranda (LIM). A LIM is often sought by potential purchasers of a property. The LIM should show if a property is registered by the Trust. This means that the applicant will know whether or not a registered site is present before beginning development work.

How do I get places, areas and wahi tapu registered?

Anyone can apply to have a place or area considered for registration. You do not have to own the property, or have any other formal relationship with it.

You will, however, need to complete a nomination form, which is available from your nearest Trust Office. Trust staff will be pleased to advise on the process of registration.

What do I do if I want to modify a registered place?

Contact the Trust to discuss any work you are planning to a registered place. The Trust permits change to the use and function of places, and will help you look at ways this can be achieved with the minimum impact, while avoiding costly mistakes!

It is especially important to contact the Trust if you are planning work that has the potential to affect an archaeological site. Archaeological sites are places associated with human activity that occurred before 1900. All archaeological sites, whether registered or not, are protected under the Historic Places Act. It is an offence under the Act to damage, modify or destroy a site without an Authority from the Trust.

Commitment to Accuracy

The Trust is committed to ensuring the accuracy of the Register and associated reports; information on this site is correct to the best of the Trust’s knowledge. However, if you find information you believe may not be correct, or there is additional information you wish to share with the Trust, please let us know.

Copyright

Unless otherwise stated, all text and images are copyright to the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and can not be reproduced without the Trust’s permission. Images belonging to other institutions and individuals are displayed with their permission. Please contact them directly if you wish to use their images.

A copy of this brochure may be obtained from Trust offices.
or download a pdf (829kb)

War Memorial Hall, Wanganui

Treaty House, Waitangi

Colonial Company Shot Tower, Mt Eden, Auckland

Arts Centre, Christchurch

Young Australian Mine Waterwheel, Carrick Range, Central Otago