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- WCC, City Engineer's Department's Contracts
- WCC, City Engineer's Department Maps and Plans
- Greater Wellington Regional Council's Water management records
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WCC, City Engineer's Department files
Descriptive Data
Archives Identifier00009Date Range1890-2008DescriptionThe filing system was created and used by the City Engineer’s Department and its successor agencies over a 75 year period. Functions and activities performed by the Department that are reflected in the filing system include works, construction and maintenance; cleansing and waste collection/disposal; housing and subdivision development; subdivision control; building control and inspection; regulatory activities such as issuing of health and boarding house licences; design; town planning; traffic engineering and vehicle fleet management.
Documents on file include, but are not restricted to, complaints from the public, applications, inspection notes, reports, plans, photographs, procedures, contracts, notices, resolutions, agreements, conditions, estimates, briefings, receipts and invoices. Correspondents include ratepayers, contractors, developers, Council officials and staff such as the Town Clerk (to whom the department reported), central government officials, officials from other local bodies, manufacturers and suppliers.
A full list of the subseries’ subjects follows:
1/- Abattoirs
2/- Accidents
3/- Quarries
4/- Beaches and Baths
5/- Town Planning/Acts, Regulations, Bylaws
6/- Building
7/- Crematoriums
8/- Health/Food and Liquor Licensing
8/- Traffic (Note: when the health/food licensing function was shifted to the Environment Division this subseries was re-purposed for traffic)
9/- Licensing of Boarding Houses
10/- Contracts
11/- Conveniences
12/- Drainage
14/- Smoke and Flume Nuisance
16/- Estimates
17/- Exemptions – Land
18/- Trees
19/- Footpaths
21/- Insurance
22/- Land [Council-owned]
23/- Equipment and Plant
24/- Libraries
25/- Gorse
26/- Lighting
27/- Loans
28/- Awards
29/- Public Health
30/- Paving/Resurfacing
31/- Parks and Reserves
33/- Staff Appointments
34/- Statistics
35/- Streetworks (also known as Condition of road files)
36/- Subdivisions (Subdivision control was controlled until 1968, when it passed to the Town Planning Department; the City Engineers Department remained involved in the process)
37/- Housing
38/- Transportation
39/- Vehicles
40/- Water Supply
41/- Slips
42/- Substations
43/- Refuse Collection
44/- Tram and Bus Routes
45/- Premises (also known as Condition of premises)
46/- Stormwater
48/- Petrol/Oil Installations
49/- Signs and Clocks (Note: there are no files concerning clocks)
50/- Miscellaneous (Note: there are subject divisions within this subseries e.g. 50/241/- Tips)
51/- Hoardings
52/- Water in Wellington (Note: concerns forestry in the Akatarawa watershed and the Wellington Regional Water Board)
55/- Airport
56/- War and Emergency Services
57/- Scenarios (Note: concerns publicity)
58/- Town Planning
59/- Associations (i.e. membership of and attendance at meetings of)
60/- Civil Defence
61/- Wellington Airport, Terminal Area
63/- Private Ways
64/- Temporary Milliscreening Plant (Includes sewage treatment in relation to Clearwater Project)
65/- Trade Waste
66/- Architects’ project files
70/- Water Resources (Wellington Regional Water Board)
The City Engineer's filing system largely parallels the Town Clerk's system of filing (Series 00001) and there is often duplicated information between the two as a result of the two Departments working together. However, no one set of files contains all the relevant papers.
In May 1994 a new Council-wide filing and classification system was introduced and the majority of the filing system ceased to be used. The 8/-, 12/-, 19/-, 35/-, 40/- and 46/- subseries continued to be used by the Infrastructure Directorate and its successor agencies through to the 2000s. These files were stored at City Records in the Civic Administration Building or at Online Security offsite storage and were transferred to Wellington City Archives in 2010.
The majority of the files were retained in the custody of the City Engineer’s Department and its various successor agencies until the early 1990s. Some files were held at what was referred to as the ‘store,’ which would have been either the Torrens Terrace or Tory Street works depots. From the early 1990s files were progressively transferred from the Town Hall basement to storage at the Council’s Barker Street store. They were subsequently transferred to Wellington City Archives in 1995.
The 55/- subseries passed to Wellington International Airport Ltd. (WIAL) when it became a commercial enterprise in 1990. Most of the 55/- files were transferred to Wellington City Archives from the airport in March 2000 and the remainder in June 2010.
Certain subseries are more complete than others. In most cases the reasons for gaps in the subseries are unknown although there are some subseries where information was incorporated into subsequent filing systems: 8/- Health/Food and Liquor Licences - many files were retained, and renumbered into a new sequence by the Environment Division when it took over the licensing function. These files are part of series 00037 – Environment Division 7/- Health files. 66/- Architects project files - gaps in the sequence may be due to the setting-up of the corresponding WCC Corporate Classification subseries 1105- Five subseries had post-2000 material removed and retained at City Records for incorporation into the WCC Corporate Classification System: 8/- Traffic, 12/- Drainage, 19/- Footpaths, 35/- Streetworks, 46/- Stormwater.Quantity (Linear Metres)587MediumFileSystem of ArrangementMultiple number subject-based filing system with 66 subseries. Some files have associated plans, photographs and published material.Collection TypeWellington City Council
Documents on file include, but are not restricted to, complaints from the public, applications, inspection notes, reports, plans, photographs, procedures, contracts, notices, resolutions, agreements, conditions, estimates, briefings, receipts and invoices. Correspondents include ratepayers, contractors, developers, Council officials and staff such as the Town Clerk (to whom the department reported), central government officials, officials from other local bodies, manufacturers and suppliers.
A full list of the subseries’ subjects follows:
1/- Abattoirs
2/- Accidents
3/- Quarries
4/- Beaches and Baths
5/- Town Planning/Acts, Regulations, Bylaws
6/- Building
7/- Crematoriums
8/- Health/Food and Liquor Licensing
8/- Traffic (Note: when the health/food licensing function was shifted to the Environment Division this subseries was re-purposed for traffic)
9/- Licensing of Boarding Houses
10/- Contracts
11/- Conveniences
12/- Drainage
14/- Smoke and Flume Nuisance
16/- Estimates
17/- Exemptions – Land
18/- Trees
19/- Footpaths
21/- Insurance
22/- Land [Council-owned]
23/- Equipment and Plant
24/- Libraries
25/- Gorse
26/- Lighting
27/- Loans
28/- Awards
29/- Public Health
30/- Paving/Resurfacing
31/- Parks and Reserves
33/- Staff Appointments
34/- Statistics
35/- Streetworks (also known as Condition of road files)
36/- Subdivisions (Subdivision control was controlled until 1968, when it passed to the Town Planning Department; the City Engineers Department remained involved in the process)
37/- Housing
38/- Transportation
39/- Vehicles
40/- Water Supply
41/- Slips
42/- Substations
43/- Refuse Collection
44/- Tram and Bus Routes
45/- Premises (also known as Condition of premises)
46/- Stormwater
48/- Petrol/Oil Installations
49/- Signs and Clocks (Note: there are no files concerning clocks)
50/- Miscellaneous (Note: there are subject divisions within this subseries e.g. 50/241/- Tips)
51/- Hoardings
52/- Water in Wellington (Note: concerns forestry in the Akatarawa watershed and the Wellington Regional Water Board)
55/- Airport
56/- War and Emergency Services
57/- Scenarios (Note: concerns publicity)
58/- Town Planning
59/- Associations (i.e. membership of and attendance at meetings of)
60/- Civil Defence
61/- Wellington Airport, Terminal Area
63/- Private Ways
64/- Temporary Milliscreening Plant (Includes sewage treatment in relation to Clearwater Project)
65/- Trade Waste
66/- Architects’ project files
70/- Water Resources (Wellington Regional Water Board)
The City Engineer's filing system largely parallels the Town Clerk's system of filing (Series 00001) and there is often duplicated information between the two as a result of the two Departments working together. However, no one set of files contains all the relevant papers.
In May 1994 a new Council-wide filing and classification system was introduced and the majority of the filing system ceased to be used. The 8/-, 12/-, 19/-, 35/-, 40/- and 46/- subseries continued to be used by the Infrastructure Directorate and its successor agencies through to the 2000s. These files were stored at City Records in the Civic Administration Building or at Online Security offsite storage and were transferred to Wellington City Archives in 2010.
The majority of the files were retained in the custody of the City Engineer’s Department and its various successor agencies until the early 1990s. Some files were held at what was referred to as the ‘store,’ which would have been either the Torrens Terrace or Tory Street works depots. From the early 1990s files were progressively transferred from the Town Hall basement to storage at the Council’s Barker Street store. They were subsequently transferred to Wellington City Archives in 1995.
The 55/- subseries passed to Wellington International Airport Ltd. (WIAL) when it became a commercial enterprise in 1990. Most of the 55/- files were transferred to Wellington City Archives from the airport in March 2000 and the remainder in June 2010.
Certain subseries are more complete than others. In most cases the reasons for gaps in the subseries are unknown although there are some subseries where information was incorporated into subsequent filing systems: 8/- Health/Food and Liquor Licences - many files were retained, and renumbered into a new sequence by the Environment Division when it took over the licensing function. These files are part of series 00037 – Environment Division 7/- Health files. 66/- Architects project files - gaps in the sequence may be due to the setting-up of the corresponding WCC Corporate Classification subseries 1105- Five subseries had post-2000 material removed and retained at City Records for incorporation into the WCC Corporate Classification System: 8/- Traffic, 12/- Drainage, 19/- Footpaths, 35/- Streetworks, 46/- Stormwater.Quantity (Linear Metres)587MediumFileSystem of ArrangementMultiple number subject-based filing system with 66 subseries. Some files have associated plans, photographs and published material.Collection TypeWellington City Council
Access Information
Restriction StatusOpen
Related Agencies
Controlling or Creating AgencyCity Engineer's DepartmentRelationship Date Range1923-1972
Related Series
Related SeriesWCC, City Engineer's Department's ContractsWCC, City Engineer's Department Maps and PlansGreater Wellington Regional Council's Water management recordsPredecessor SeriesWCC, Town Clerk's Department early correspondenceWCC, Building Inspector and Building Superintendent's letter books of outwards correspondenceSuccessor SeriesWCC, Town Planning Department's filesWCC, Public Health Department Health Licence files (7/-)
WCC, City Engineer's Department files. Archives Online, accessed 14/08/2026, https://archivesonline.wcc.govt.nz/nodes/view/1526