Golden years of Frank Golder: The 80-year-old drone, laser and infrared expert

Frank Golder doesn’t feel 80 years old as he operates his drone, lasers and infrared surveying technology.

The Napier City Council senior engineering surveyor turned 80 on December 1, a lifetime of work already behind him, and plenty left ahead of him.

Golder said he started working as a land surveyor at the age of 16, when he worked in a three-person team, carving the totara marker pegs himself.

“You are only as old as you feel and I don’t feel anything like that,” he said.

His work had taken him to Hong Kong and Australia, but he had always found his way back to Hawke’s Bay.

“Every day is different. When I first started work I thought there was no way I could be in an office”.

Frank Golder has been surveying since 1962. Photo / Warren Buckland

Golder has been involved with some huge projects including airports, a new town for 700,000 people, various roads, high rises and subdivisions.

The most interesting job he did was a three-month stint on Manus Island, where the Australian Government was building a refugee camp in Papua New Guinea for people arriving in Australia on boats.

“They promised us we would get a cruise ship trip into the harbour, well the cruise ship ended up being converted to 40-year-old fishing trawlers”.

He had to have a curfew because of the danger and said it was an interesting developing-world experience.

Land surveying went through a rapid change in the 90s and Golder kept up with the technological advancements which he said has made it easier.

Frank Golder tried retirement in 2015 but only lasted three months before he was back at work again. Photo / Warren Buckland

He once used theodolites and steel bands, now he works with infrared, satellites, GPS, and lasers.

“If you had said to someone in 40, 50 years there would be 22 satellites in the sky, and you would be getting accuracy to 10mm, they would have said what have you been on,” he said.

The advancement in technology used to survey land means that jobs no longer require a team of three people and he can do jobs on his own.

“It made it a lot quicker. When I first started we would go out and do days and days in the field doing typographical work for the subdivision and then you would come back and with a protractor and a ruler you’d plot all the points that you have done. It would take days.”

“Now you come back, download it into a software package and it’s all done for you in 10 minutes,” he said.

Golder “tried retirement” in 2015 but only lasted three months before he was back at work again and he has been there ever since.

He said they haven’t found another way to hit a peg into the ground, so he will be around for a while longer.

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.