Register upgrade project gets exciting boost

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Media Release
28 May 2001

Goran Olsson from Ericsson with the winners of the ERICA awards. On the right, is David Reynolds, Auckland Area Coordinator for the Historic PlacesTrust.

The Trust's project to place the national register of Historic Places, Historic Areas, Wahi Tapu and Wahi Tapu Areas onto the internet has been given a boost through the help of international telecommunications company, Ericsson.

The company has recently awarded the Historic Places Trust $10,000 of web development expertise to help it add information about each of New Zealand's 6,000 registered sites to the Trust's internet site.

The Register is currently used by groups such as school children, local councils, planners and architects, university students, overseas visitors and the general public, as well as the Trust's 30,000 members. At present, however, information from the register can only be accessed at Trust offices.

The development of an Internet site to house the register database will greatly increase the Trust's ability to communicate information about New Zealand's heritage to these users. Once the project is completed, users will be able to search the site for historic places built at a particular time, or by a certain architect, or in a specific place, or any number of other ways. It will also hold information about New Zealand's amazing archaeological heritage.

The Trust is very excited about the project, and grateful for the assistance of Ericsson for its contribution to this part of the project. Ericsson gave out three awards in New Zealand this year; the other awards were given to Kidsline, a service of Lifeline for 9 to 13 year olds, and Kids' Edible Gardens, which aims to teach children to grow organic gardens.

For more information contact:
Elizabeth Cox
Heritage Policy Analyst
phone: 04 470-8059
email: ecox@historic.org.nz