Manawatū Conversations - Oral History

Stuart Birks' oral history recordings as featured on the Manawatū People's Radio programme, "Manawatū Conversations."

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Radio in the 1950s - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 11th October 2022.  Listening to the radio in the 1950s. Aunt Daisy, Children’s Hour, Lone Ranger. Reception problems. 2ZA locally, Garners and shopping reporters. Song requests, hit parades. In the Ba...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          October 11, 2022

Relay for Life - Manawatu Conversations

A broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 1 January, 2019. Relay for Life, Rotary Club of Terrace End team participants describe their experience.

Part 1: 9th March, 2013. It is nearly midnight and Katrine Imrie and Gaewyn Grant in a tent on the R...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          January 1, 2019

Housing styles - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Access Manawatu on 29 May 2018, a group discussion of building styles and materials at various times in New Zealand. Topics include: ceiling heights, heating, ventilation, food safes, design errors, and threats (floods, earthquakes, l...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          May 29, 2018

Abbeyfield residents - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Access Manawatu, 5 June 2018, Abbeyfield residents talk about Abbeyfield, a residence offering “senior flatting”.

Summary: Part of a global system, started in England, 13 in New Zealand. Semi-independent living. Comparison to retire...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          June 5, 2018

Sue Stirling, Manawatu Striders - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 23rd July 2024. Part 2 of 3. Manawatu Striders is a running and walking group based in Palmerston North established in 1983. Sue has been a member since 2006. She has written a book Manawatu Striders, R...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          July 23, 2024


Helen King, Manawatu People's Radio - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 11th May 2021.  Work with MPR as funding manager. Purpose of Access Radio. Range of platforms. How to run a programme. Helen’s programmes. Changing technology. Recording during Covid-19 lockdown. Archi...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          May 11, 2021

Andrew Stephens, MenzSheds - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 9th July 2024. Men’s Sheds started in Australia funded by Australian government Known as Menzshed, started in Kapiti (Waikanae) in 2010 as a community organisation Men doing something with their hands. Frie...

Creator:      Iola Haggarty
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          July 9, 2024

Palmerston North floods - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 25th February 2020.  John Ward and others discuss the 1941 and 1953 Palmerston North floods. Hokowhitu School largely submerged. Guy Avenue flooding. WWII bomb shelter in the garden full of water. Blac...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          February 25, 2020

Peggy Pedersen, childhood - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 18th October 2022. First memories (1937), 4 years old walking about 2k for a bus. On a dairy farm, working when about 10 years old. Father left, mother repartnered. Relationship with separated father. Becam...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          October 18, 2022

Bev Quinn, hospice - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 23 October 2018.

Bev Quinn. Summary: What is Hospice? How got into hospice – other nursing training and experience, including UK and Zimbabwe, district nursing in Palmerston North. Setting up the PN Hospice. ...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          October 23, 2018

ANZAC Day memories - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 10th May 2022.  ANZAC Day 2022 and Covid. 2020 standing at our gates. Jack Register playing The Last Post. Significance for children in the past. Gallipoli. Technology and images from Ukraine. Attitude...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          May 10, 2022

Waitoetoe Park development - Manawatu Conversations

An episode of Manawatu Conversations, broadcast on Access Manawatu on 17 April, 2018, describing the development of Waitoetoe Park by Friends of Waitoetoe Park and others. It is located by the Manawatu River in the Dittmer Drive area and has since...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          April 17, 2018

Anne Cheer, childhood - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio on 17 July 2018,

Anne Cheer Part 1 of 2. Summary: In Palmerston North until 8, then Woodville until 16. Palmerston North Central Normal School. Comparison of her schooling and later teaching. Using slates. I...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          July 17, 2018

John Thornley, Manawatu Workers Education Association - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 5th May 2020.  Workers Education Association in NZ from 1915, but died away. UK origins. Revived in Palmerston North by Merv Hancock. John active mid-1980s to mid-1990s. Funding. Objectives, topics and...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          May 5, 2020

Group discussion, NZ in the 70s - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 11th March 2025. Andrew Stephens, Anne Weir, Mike Lawrence, Alison Mildon, Stuart Birks.   Fondue – dip bread on long forks into a bowl of melted cheese. Progressive dinners – each course at a dif...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          March 11, 2025

Owen Dolan, Catholic childhood - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 2 October 2018.

Owen Dolan, Part 1 of 2. Summary: To Hawera after mother died. Thought grandmother was his mother. Catholic community. School experience, at primary all the teachers were nuns. Protestant-Cath...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          October 2, 2018

PNRSA Youth Speech Competition - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 9th November 2021. PNRSA Youth Speech Competition, Tuesday 17th August 2021 on the theme of ANZAC Day. Introduction/description by Joe Hollander. Selected speakers are, in order:

Emily Connell (Freyberg HS) –...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          November 9, 2021

Barbara Bridewell, cochlear implants - Manawatu Conversations

Broqadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 16 October 2018.

Barbara Bridewell. Summary: Two cochlear implants. Hearing aids not effective. Nature of implants. Before and after the implants. Washing dishes instead of mixing at events. Discovering had ...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          October 16, 2018

John Perrin, adult life - Manawatu Conversations

Broqadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 10 July 2018. John Perrin (b.1934) Part 2 of 2.

Summary: Apprenticeship – joinery. Radiata pine. Terrace End railway station. Timber truck hit by train. Building inspections, residential then commercial. Li...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          July 10, 2018

Anne Cheer, adult life - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 24 July 2018.

Anne Cheer Part 2 of 2. Summary: Teachers College, Ardmore. April 1st pranks. Accommodation. Activities. Teaching. Rose to Assistant Principal. Pupils changing, less respect later. Changes with T...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          July 24, 2018

Bob Lawrence, early life - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 31 July 2018. Bob Lawrence.

Summary: Rugby player at school. Evacuated during World War Two. Guns firing across the English Channel. Dunkirk evacuation. War experience. University (17 when left school, so no...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          July 31, 2018

Frida Larsen part 1 - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Access Manawatu, 19 June 2018.

The first of two interviews with Frida Evelyn Larsen on being a war bride during World War II and then settling in New Zealand. Frida Larsen was born in 1920 in Carlisle in Cumbria, England. She was a ...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          June 19, 2018

Frida Larsen, part 2 - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Access Manawatu 26 June 2018.

The second of two interviews with Frida Evelyn at the Brightwater Home in Palmerston North. Interview is 23 minutes and 29 seconds long. The interview was recorded for a series of talks played on Access...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          June 24, 2018

Reg Bridewell on Bridewell's Bakery - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 8 January 2019.

Reg Bridewell. Summary: Grandfather came to NZ in 1929 and set up a bakery in Palmerston North. Bakeries had zones. Self-help shops. Home deliveries, horse and cart, then a van after the war. ...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          January 8, 2019

Andy Asquith, e-voting - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio 29 January 2019.

Andy Asquith. Summary: A move towards e-voting. From in-person to postal and now perhaps electronic. Method does not tackle key issue of turnout. Security of result. Disengagement. Knowledge ...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          January 29, 2019

Bikes in the past, Part 1 - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 23rd August 2022. Part 1 of 2.   David Beere’s childhood in a biking family. Biking all over, including down the Ngauranga Gorge. Cycle capes. Mudguards. Benefits of biking for children. Bike lock...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          August 23, 2022

Janis Muir, career paths - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 20th June 2023. Not a dietician. Not university, unlike classmates in late 1950s. At DSIR Nuclear Science Institute carbon-14 dating, ending as head of the lab aged 23. Many women in DSIR. Living in hostels...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          June 20, 2023

Arohanui Hospice Part 1 - Manawatu Conversations

Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 14th May 2024.   Part 1 of 2 A movement was started in mid 1980s to establish a hospice in Palmerston North.  Mary McKenna and Dr Garth Wallace were involved from the start and fund raising s...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          May 14, 2024

Arohanui Hospice Part 2 - Manawatu Conversations

 Broadcast on Manawatu People's Radio, 21st May 2024.   Part 2 of 2 It is sometimes difficult getting family together when they may be in other parts of the world. It is important to have an advanced care plan to state what you w...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Place:          Palmerston North
Date:          May 21, 2024

Gwen Brown, wartime childhood - Manawatu Conversations

Broadast on Manawatu People's Radio 25 September 2018.

Summary: Gwen Brown attending 12 schools, father a farmer so moved a lot. Intermediate school in Palmerston North, used as hospital in WWII, so classes in various locations around town. Coun...

Creator:      Stuart Birks
Date:          September 25, 2018