NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Mystery over disaster photos

By Anne Marie McDonald
Whanganui Chronicle·
21 Dec, 2013 05:06 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Christmas Eve marks the 60th anniversary of the Tangiwai disaster, New Zealand's worst rail tragedy.

More than 150 people were killed when the bridge over the Whangaehu River at Tangiwai was washed away by a lahar from Ruapehu's crater lake, sending the Wellington to Auckland express train into the river.

Just weeks before the anniversary a set of negatives showing images from Tangiwai, taken by an unknown photographer, were found at the Wanganui Chronicle offices. Photographer

Bevan Conley

and reporter

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Anne-Marie McDonald

talk about their search for the origins of these haunting images.

Bevan:

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

I found the negatives in a pile of junk in the Wanganui Chronicle's archives room. Anne-Marie and I had been sorting through the photo and clipping files before the Chronicle moved buildings, hoping to rescue the most important archives before they ended up in the skip bin. If I hadn't found them they would have been thrown out.

The negatives were in an old-fashioned envelope, and I only picked them up because I liked the look of the envelope. They were large single-format negatives in excellent condition, but the images weren't good quality.

As soon as I looked at them I was sure they were from Tangiwai - you could see the river and the mangled train carriages. There were people walking through the wreckage but they didn't look like rescuers. There's thick silt and mud everywhere.

The pictures must have been taken at least a week after the event, as you can see in one of them that the rail bridge has been re-built.

Discover more

New Zealand

Drainpipe could have saved 151 lives

19 Dec 04:30 PM

I thought they were probably off-cuts from a set of negatives, and the better photos had been published in either the Wanganui Chronicle or the Wanganui Herald.

A little while later I took them to MaxiLab and they told me they were most likely original negatives.

They seemed too important to not do something with. So I showed them to Anne-Marie and she was interested in them and decided to start doing some research on them.

We gave the negatives, along with all the other Wanganui Chronicle negatives, to the Whanganui Regional Museum. I'm pleased the negatives have found a safe home - but actually I'm pleased all of the Wanganui Chronicle's negatives and clippings are safely stored. They could have been thrown out and a lot of Wanganui's history would have been lost.

Anne-Marie:

When Bevan showed me the set of negatives, I knew immediately what they were. I'd been interested in the Tangiwai disaster ever since I covered the 2007 lahar for the Wanganui Chronicle, and got the opportunity to talk to people in the Whangaehu Valley who had recovered bodies from the river in 1953. So I wanted to find out more about the origins of these photos.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Sandi Black from the Whanganui Regional Museum and Gillian Tasker from the Alexander Library were interested in our find, although they couldn't provide us with much information about the negatives. Sandi noticed the only really identifying feature - the name Quinn written on the back of the envelope. Who was Quinn - the photographer? A Google search of "Quinn" and "Tangiwai" came up blank.

Gillian offered to let me look through the microfiche archives of the Alexander Library. A fantastic resource, it contains screen versions of the Wanganui Chronicle and the now-defunct Wanganui Herald. I searched every issue of both newspapers from December 26, 1953 to the end of February, 1954. Gillian also looked through several books the library has on Tangiwai but we couldn't find the photos, or a reference to the name Quinn.

I had assumed the photos were from a newspaper but when I sent them to Stanley Fraser, an historian from Ohakune, he suggested otherwise.

Stanley told us that the site had held a lot of fascination for people after the crash and it became something of a tourist attraction. He thought it was likely the photos had been taken by a local with a "box brownie" camera and that, for whatever reason, the negatives had been given to the Wanganui Chronicle.

The images are, to my eye, really haunting. I've gone back to look at them again and again. The immense force of the lahar that left a train in tangled pieces on a riverbed, with the loss of 151 lives, is there for all to see. There's also a disparity between the people walking so casually through this scene of horrific devastation.

Unfortunately, we still don't know the full story of these negatives. I'm hoping that this article will jog someone's memory, and they'll be able to reveal who Quinn was and who took these historic images that so nearly ended up in a skip.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Man arrested after wrong-way SH1 chase, multiple cars damaged

New Zealand

Coroner's report sheds light on mystery of baby found at Auckland plant

Premium
Letters to the Editor

Letters: A new model for our power market is needed


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Man arrested after wrong-way SH1 chase, multiple cars damaged
New Zealand

Man arrested after wrong-way SH1 chase, multiple cars damaged

Fleeing car hit several vehicles before police boxed it against a barrier.

15 Jul 06:31 PM
Coroner's report sheds light on mystery of baby found at Auckland plant
New Zealand

Coroner's report sheds light on mystery of baby found at Auckland plant

15 Jul 06:18 PM
Premium
Premium
Letters: A new model for our power market is needed
Letters to the Editor

Letters: A new model for our power market is needed

15 Jul 06:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP