Museum of Transport and Technology

About

The Museum of Transport and Technology (more commonly known as MOTAT) is a transport and technology museum located in Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. Established in 1960 and formally opening in 1964 as a location for the preservation of trams and early New Zealand transportation technologies, the museum has large collections of civilian and military aircraft, other land transport vehicles, and includes exhibitions focusing on transportation, science and history. The museum features live exhibits which display working transportation, including the Western Springs tramway, which links the two main sites of the institution, MOTAT Great North Road and the MOTAT Aviation Hall on Motions Road. MOTAT is largely managed by volunteers, supported by full-time professional museum staff.

MOTAT's collections and exhibitions focus on New Zealand technologies and innovations, including transportation, aviation, and work, and involves engaging youth with STEM.

MOTAT is located in the suburb of Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. The area of Western Springs near MOTAT was traditionally known by Tāmaki Māori as Te Wai Ōrea, a place known for clear spring water, and a harvesting spot for eels. During the 1830s and 1840s, members of Ngāti Tahinga, Waiohua and Te Taoū of Ngāti Whātua lived in the area. In 1846, Scottish settler William Motion established Low and Motion's Four Mill, which operated until 1875. The land was then bought by the Auckland City Council, who established an artificial lake and built the Western Springs Pumping Station at the site, which sent water to reservoirs in Auckland from 1877. Pumping from the site was gradually phased out from 1907 during the establishment of water reservoirs in the Waitākere Ranges, and completely ceased in 1936.

MOTAT has two locations, both in Western Springs. The first is MOTAT Great North Road, located on the corner of Great North Road and Stadium Road, which is adjacent to Western Springs Reserve. The second is the MOTAT Aviation Hall, located at 98 Motions Road, adjacent to Motions Creek, Western Springs College and Meola Reef. The two locations are connected by the Western Springs Tramway, a tramway operated by MOTAT using heritage trams.

The MOTAT Great North Road site (also known as MOTAT 1) features exhibits include trams, trains, vintage traction engines, carriages, cars, buses, trolleybuses and trucks, particularly fire engines, electrical equipment, space flight exhibits including a Corporal rocket and general science exhibits. The location features the original pumping station, Te Puawānanga Science and Technology Centre, the Walsh Memorial Library, tram barns and workshops, the original Waitākere railway station, which houses model railway exhibitions, and the MOTAT print shop.

MOTAT's pioneer village, set between 1840 and 1890, features buildings transported from across the Auckland Region, including the original Wainui School house built in 1878, two Fencible cottages, the Chapel of the Good Shepherd (originally St. Saviour's Anglical Church in Blockhouse Bay ), and a working blacksmith (the only newly constructed building in the village, stocked with 19th century tools). Adjacent to the pioneer village is a 1920s shopping street.

The MOTAT Aviation Hall (also known as MOTAT 2 or MOTAT Motions Road) was opened in 1977, as the Sir Keith Park Memorial aviation pavilion. The site includes the aviation collection of MOTAT, including Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft, memorials to Fleet Air Arm and RAF Bomber Command pilots, and exhibits on World War II military trucks. The site is also home to MOTAT's rail workshops, which includes the Western Springs Railway, on which live engines have travelled between Waitītiko Station or Sir Keith Park Station since 1982.

Trams are operated daily between MOTAT, alongside the Western Springs Park and precinct, past Auckland Zoo to the MOTAT Aviation Hall and connect both Museum sites. Tramlines on sleepered track set under bitumen were laid within the museum boundaries with trams commencing operation on 16 December 1967. The Museum tramline was later extended beyond the Museum grounds along Great North Road and opened on 19 December 1980. A further extension along Motions Road to Auckland Zoo commenced services on 5 December 1981 using rail set in mass concrete. Between 2006 and 2007 the tram line was further extended by a distance of 636 m (2,087 ft), to the aviation hangar at MOTAT 2, the service commencing on 27 April 2007. The tramway is dual gauge, employing 4-foot and 4-foot 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches gauges, the rail welded and set in mass concrete.

A MOTAT to Zoo tram service operated by Melbourne W2 class tram #321, Auckland, 2006

The MOTAT Great North Road site (also known as MOTAT 1) features exhibits include trams, trains, vintage traction engines, carriages, cars, buses, trolleybuses and trucks, particularly fire engines, electrical equipment, space flight exhibits including a Corporal rocket and general science exhibits. The location features the original pumping station, Te Puawānanga Science and Technology Centre, the Walsh Memorial Library, tram barns and workshops, the original Waitākere railway station, which houses model railway exhibitions, and the MOTAT print shop.

MOTAT's pioneer village, set between 1840 and 1890, features buildings transported from across the Auckland Region, including the original Wainui School house built in 1878, two Fencible cottages, the Chapel of the Good Shepherd (originally St. Saviour's Anglical Church in Blockhouse Bay ), and a working blacksmith (the only newly constructed building in the village, stocked with 19th century tools). Adjacent to the pioneer village is a 1920s shopping street.

The MOTAT Aviation Hall (also known as MOTAT 2 or MOTAT Motions Road) was opened in 1977, as the Sir Keith Park Memorial aviation pavilion. The site includes the aviation collection of MOTAT, including Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft, memorials to Fleet Air Arm and RAF Bomber Command pilots, and exhibits on World War II military trucks. The site is also home to MOTAT's rail workshops, which includes the Western Springs Railway, on which live engines have travelled between Waitītiko Station or Sir Keith Park Station since 1982.

Trams are operated daily between MOTAT, alongside the Western Springs Park and precinct, past Auckland Zoo to the MOTAT Aviation Hall and connect both Museum sites. Tramlines on sleepered track set under bitumen were laid within the museum boundaries with trams commencing operation on 16 December 1967. The Museum tramline was later extended beyond the Museum grounds along Great North Road and opened on 19 December 1980. A further extension along Motions Road to Auckland Zoo commenced services on 5 December 1981 using rail set in mass concrete. Between 2006 and 2007 the tram line was further extended by a distance of 636 m (2,087 ft), to the aviation hangar at MOTAT 2, the service commencing on 27 April 2007. The tramway is dual gauge, employing 4-foot and 4-foot 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches gauges, the rail welded and set in mass concrete.

MOTAT's origins began with the Old Time Transport Preservation League, an organisation established in 1957 by tram enthusiast Graham Stewart and his cousin-in-law, Merv Sterling. Stewart approached the Auckland Transport Board in 1956, hoping to preserve one of the final trams operating in Auckland, the 'Queen Mary' (tram No. 253), which operated on the Onehunga line. After the closure of the line, the Auckland Transport Board presented the vehicle to Stewart, after finding no other organisations interested in caring for the tram.

In May 1957, Stewart transported the tram to a plot of land in Matakohe, Northland, owned by cousin-in-law, Merv Sterling, and together they established the Old Time Transport Preservation League, a society which operated the Old Time Transport Museum. In June 1957, Merv Sterling's uncle Richard Sterling, a former tram operator, purchased Tram No. 248, a vehicle which he had been the first motorman for when it began service in 1938. Planning to turn the tram into a play room for his children, Stewart convinced Merv to preserve the vehicle, and send it to the museum at Matakohe. The two trams were joined over the next two years by three trams from Wellington, an 1891 steam train engine from Whanganui, a Dunedin cable car and a de Havilland Tiger Moth, with the league also planning to establish a blacksmith shop.

As the museum was soon running out of space for vehicles, the Old Time Transport Preservation League began discussions with different local bodies to move the collection elsewhere. In 1960, the league asked the Whangarei Borough Council, who declined the offer. In the same year, the league was assisted by Frank Simpson, who, working together with the Royal Aeronautical Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Historical Society, successfully lobbying the Auckland City Council to establish a national transport, aeronautics and technology museum in Auckland. The former site of the Old Time Transport Museum became the Kauri Museum, which opened in 1962.

MOTAT was established on 6 July 1960, during a community meeting organised by Frank Simpson and chaired by mayor Dove-Myer Robinson, during which discussions were held to establish a museum preserving transport relics, pioneer artefacts and technological advances. A decision was made during the meeting to establish a transport museum at Western Springs, and aviator George Bolt, former chief engineer of Tasman Empire Airways, was announced as the first curator of the museum. Auckland City Council gifted land for the establishment of MOTAT in 1963. Outside of the land gifted by Auckland City Council and a $60,000 lotteries grant, the museum had minimal government financial support, leading chairman J. Horgan making an urgent appeal to funds to prime minister Keith Holyoake in 1963. Developing the Western Springs site was difficult, due to the land being unsuitable for buildings or housing rolling stock, needing significant development.

The Museum of Transport and Technology officially opened in October 1964, in a ceremony attended by Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu. MOTAT in its original form was primarily as an open-air museum, with the historic Western Springs Pumping Station being the only building located on the site at the time of opening. The possibility of two vintage NZR F class steam engines in Canterbury being taken to MOTAT led to protests from railway workers and enthusiasts in the South Island, leading to the formation of the Museum of Science & Industry, which later became Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch.

Within two years of opening, MOTAT had amassed approximately 4,000 volunteers, and received over 100,000 items primarily donated by Aucklanders. As the collections and volunteer base grew, volunteers were structured into different sections, each representing a different focus, including aviation and tramways. MOTAT's photographic and print studio was opened September 1966, and in 1967 the museum gained its first paid employees. In the same year, a gate charge was introduced due financial pressures, a practice that has been unheard-of in New Zealand at the time. On 16 December 1967, the MOTAT tramway was opened by Mayor of Auckland City Roy McElroy and Minister of Transport Peter Gordon. By 1969, over a million people had visited MOTAT.

From 1960, the Auckland Historical Society begun developing a colonial village at MOTAT, with the first Fencible cottage moved to the museum in early 1964. In 1966, the Lawler Sattleday Cottage was moved to MOTAT.