The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a transport and technology museum located in
Western Springs, Auckland, New Zealand. It is located close to the
Western Springs Stadium
Western Springs Stadium is a stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Built within a natural amphitheatre, it is primarily used for rugby union matches during the winter and for speedway racing during the summer. It is also occasionally used for large ...
,
Auckland Zoo
Auckland Zoo () is a zoo, zoological garden in Auckland, New Zealand, situated next to Western Springs Park not far from Auckland's Auckland CBD, central business district. It is run by Auckland Council with the Zoological Society of Auckland as ...
and the
Western Springs Park. The museum has large collections of civilian and military aircraft and other land transport vehicles. An ongoing programme is in place to restore and conserve items in the collections. This work is largely managed by volunteers but, since the passing of the Museum of Transport and Technology Act in 2000, has been supported by full-time professional museum staff. New public programmes and facilities now promote the collections.
MOTAT was established in 1960 by a combination of groups including the Old Time Transport Preservation League, which was formed in 1957 and preserved trams and railway locomotives. MOTAT was formally opened in 1964.
MOTAT – Great North Road
MOTAT was built around the site of a
beam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead Beam (structure), beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used b ...
pump house, which originally provided Auckland's water supply, a system similar to the
Crofton Pumping Station and
Markfield Beam Engine.
The Auckland Council engaged the services of
William Errington, to design and construct the Pumphouse and Boiler house to provide the first pressurised water supply to Auckland. Adjacent swampland was excavated creating a dammed lake, which is filled by three
natural springs. This area is now the Western Springs Lake and parkland. The engine is a
Double Woolf Compound built by John Key and Sons of
Kirkcaldy
Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...
in Scotland, who also built the long scrapped Lancashire boilers that originally provided the steam.
The Western Springs Water Works officially opened in a small ceremony on 10 July 1877. The pumphouse was superseded by Auckland's extensive dam system and reticulation in 1935.
Restoration and earthquake strengthening of the building was completed in 2002 and overhaul of the long dormant Beam Engine commenced at the start of 2005.
On 11 October 2007 the engine moved under pneumatic pressure for the first time in 79 years and was finally tested under steam during the evening of 29 November the same year.
The Beam engine was re-commissioned in a special public opening on 19 April 2008.
A range of other early steam engines are kept in running order including a 1910
Tangye steam engine, an impressive 1911 triple-expansion engine built by Campbell Calderwood from
Paisley, Scotland, which was formerly from the ill-fated Sydney Ferry ''
Greycliffe'' which sank on 3 November 1927 after being hit by the much larger
Union Steam Ship Company's
Royal Mail Steamship ''Tahiti'' with the loss of 40 lives. The engine ended its commercial life in the
Tīrau
Tīrau is a small town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand, 50 kilometres southeast of Hamilton. The town has a population of 804 (2018 census). In the Māori language, "Tīrau" means "place of many cabbage trees."
Tīrau ...
dairy factory. Steam for the Beam Engine and other artifacts provided by a 1957
Daniel Adamson steam boiler, which was formerly used at Frankham's Mill,
Te Puna
Te Puna is a rural community near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located on State Highway 2, north of Bethlehem and south of Katikati.
The local Te Puna Quarry has been redeveloped by volunteers int ...
.
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. There is also a 'colonial village' of early shops and houses, including a
fencible cottage and a
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
shop.
The MOTAT printery demonstrates type making, type setting and printing on a variety of different manual and mechanical printing presses operated by Volunteers printing giveaways and small publications. A volunteer bindery group also demonstrate their talents and hold classes.
In the 1970s visitors to MOTAT were entertained by the MOTAT Chorus, a group of barbershop singers who later became the Auckland City of Sails Chorus.
The 'Pioneers of Aviation' Pavilion holds memorabilia of early aviators. The displays include miscellaneous parts from
Richard Pearse
Richard William Pearse (3 December 1877 – 29 July 1953) was a New Zealand farmer and inventor who performed pioneering aviation experiments. Witnesses interviewed many years afterwards describe observing Pearse flying and landing a powered h ...
's experimental aircraft, (together with research supporting the claim that he made uncontrolled hops/flights prior to the
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
), a replica of the craft which was flown and his third aircraft (an attempt at a
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can takeoff and landing, take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust- ...
tilt rotor craft). The pavilion also holds relics from the
Walsh Brothers' flights and school, and a library and archive of transport resources named in memory of the Walsh Brothers available to all MOTAT visitors and via the MOTAT website for virtual visitors. Also celebrated is
Charles Kingsford Smith
Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith (9 February 18978 November 1935), nicknamed Smithy, was an Australian aviation pioneer. He piloted the first transpacific flight and the first flight between Australia and New Zealand.
Kingsford Smith was ...
's
trans-Tasman
Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, ''trans-Tasman commerce'' refers to commerce betwee ...
flight in the
Southern Cross
CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...
,
Jean Batten
Jane Gardner Batten (15 September 1909 – 22 November 1982), commonly known as Jean Batten, was a New Zealand Aircraft pilot, aviator who made several record-breaking flights – including the first solo flight from England to New Zealand i ...
's England–New Zealand flight and later record breaking efforts (her
Percival Gull is exhibited at
Auckland Airport
Auckland Airport is an international airport serving Auckland, the most populous city of New Zealand. It is the largest and busiest airport in the country, with over 18.7 million passengers served in the year ended December 2024. The airpor ...
). The larger civil aviation exhibits continue over at MOTAT 2 with displays relating to the
Pan American Airways
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...
and
Imperial Airways
Imperial Airways was an early British commercial long-range airline, operating from 1924 to 1939 and principally serving the British Empire routes to South Africa, India, Australia and the Far East, including Malaya and Hong Kong. Passengers ...
flying boats of the late 1930s and
TEAL
alt=American teal duck (male), Green-winged teal (male)
Teal is a greenish-blue color. Its name comes from that of a bird—the Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca'')—which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used ...
flying boats of the 40s and 50s. The engine from Jean Batten's Percival Gull is displayed at MOTAT 2.
The Road transport collection rotationally displays in excess of 100 cars, trucks, motorbikes and emergency vehicles. Some of the iconic vehicles in the collection include one of the first
Trekka utility vehicles, New Zealand's only homegrown production vehicle built between 1966 and 1973, based on Czechoslovakian
Škoda engines and chassis. Other vehicles include a 1960s
Cooper Climax race car, an early American
Brush Motor Car Company runabout, an International horseless carriage, an
Austin Motor Company
The Austin Motor Company Limited was a British manufacturer of motor vehicles, founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin, Herbert Austin in Longbridge. In 1952 it was merged with Morris Motors, Morris Motors Limited in the new holdi ...
beer tanker (the first in New Zealand) and a wide number of other vehicles. Also in the collection is one of the
Ferguson Company tractors which
Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineering, mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa people, Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the Timeline of M ...
used to lay supply depots for the
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition
The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was the first expedition to reach the South ...
, and with which he beat British explorer Dr
Vivian Fuchs
Sir Vivian Ernest Fuchs ( ; 11 February 1908 – 11 November 1999) was an English scientist-explorer and expedition organizer. He led the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition which reached the South Pole overland in 1958.
Biography
Fuch ...
Sno-Cats to the
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the point in the Southern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True South Pole to distinguish ...
on 3 January 1958.
MOTAT also houses a small collection of Police vehicles, including former New Zealand Transport Department, later
New Zealand Ministry of Transport (M.O.T.) patrol cars and patrol motorbikes, the road policing duties of which were combined into the
New Zealand Police in the early 1990s. The NZ Police Collection of 40 plus vehicles were housed at MOTAT for a number of years until 2011.
Trams are displayed at MOTAT 1 and operate daily between MOTAT 1's Great North Road Site, via Western Springs Park and Auckland Zoo to MOTAT 2. The extended line was opened by then-Prime Minister
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...
on Friday 27 April 2007.
MOTAT Aviation Hall – 98 Motions Road

MOTAT Aviation Hall's NZ$15 million extended aviation pavilion housing the "Sir Keith Park Memorial Aviation Collection" opened Friday 9 September 2011.
Also known in the past as the 'Sir Keith Park Memorial Airfield', named after
Keith Park
Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Rodney Park, (15 June 1892 – 6 February 1975) was a New Zealand-born officer of the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the Second World War, his leadership of the RAF's No. 11 Group RAF, No. 11 Group was pivotal to t ...
, the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...
and
Battle of Malta
The Battle of Malta took place on 8 July 1283 in the entrance to the Grand Harbour, the principal harbour of Malta, as part of the War of the Sicilian Vespers. An Aragonese fleet of galleys, commanded by Roger of Lauria, attacked and defeate ...
hero, MOTAT's aviation collection is on a separate site, neighbouring the
Waitematā Harbour
The Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. The harbour forms the northern and eastern coasts of the Auckland isthmus and is crossed by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It is matched on the southern side of the city ...
and Auckland Zoo. It contains memorials to
Fleet Air Arm
The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...
and
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...
pilots, radar and other aviation related material, as well as workshops for work on other vehicles, but the main feature is the collection of New Zealand's civil and some
Royal New Zealand Air Force
The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF; ) is the aerial warfare, aerial military service, service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed initially in 1923 as a branch of the New Zealand Army, being known as the New Zealand Perm ...
aircraft. A
Grumman TBF-1 Avenger NZ2527 1943 torpedo bomber was completed in December 2013, it is a RNZAF Pacific combat veteran and representative of Avengers operated by the RN Fleet Air Arm. In November 2011 a
Douglas A4K Skyhawk jetfighter was permanently loaned to MOTAT followed by a
de Havilland Devon and
Aermacchi MB-339 jet trainer in 2012. A
BAC Strikemaster may join the collection from the
RNZAF.
There is also a military section which restores and demonstrates a selection of Second World War military trucks, light tracked vehicles and tanks of Allied forces. The military section has regular open days when the Military Reenactment Society displays and demonstrates the vehicles and uniforms.
[Official Museum Website](_blank)
MOTAT Aviation Hall also has an operational railway with 1 km of track, stations and a selection of former New Zealand Government Railways, light industrial locomotives, wagons and carriages.
On 9 September 2011 a new and larger display hangar was opened at the MOTAT Aviation Hall.
The existing blister hangar was moved and restored as part of the same project. With the construction of the new hangar it was now possible to display the restored De Havilland Mosquito and Lockheed Hudson. Short S25 Sunderland Mk V and Short S45A Solent Mk 4 were in moved inside as their overhauls and external painting was completed. Aircraft including the NAC DC3 Dakota can be seen inside the maintenance Blister Hangar.
Collections
MOTAT features several major collections of transport vehicles:
* Aircraft collection – houses one of New Zealand's largest collections of civil and military aircraft, all with genuine New Zealand aviation pedigrees. These range from relics from Richard Pearse
Richard William Pearse (3 December 1877 – 29 July 1953) was a New Zealand farmer and inventor who performed pioneering aviation experiments. Witnesses interviewed many years afterwards describe observing Pearse flying and landing a powered h ...
's first 1903 aircraft and an interpretive replica, as well as a large part of his original third vertical takeoff aircraft. 1930s de Havilland Fox Moth
The DH.83 Fox Moth is a small biplane passenger aircraft from the 1930s powered by a single de Havilland Gipsy Major I inline inverted engine, manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company.
The aircraft was designed late in 1931 as a low- ...
, Tiger Moth and Dragon Rapide, 1940s Short Solent double-decked flying boat, from New Zealand's first International Airline TEAL
alt=American teal duck (male), Green-winged teal (male)
Teal is a greenish-blue color. Its name comes from that of a bird—the Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca'')—which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used ...
, a Short Sunderland
The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat Maritime patrol aircraft, patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of ...
marine patrol flying boat, de Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its airframe was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or " ...
wooden fighter bomber, a restored 1940s Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to ...
bomber, Douglas Dakota through to a de Havilland Vampire
The de Havilland DH100 Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteo ...
1950s jet fighter and most recently former RNZAF Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk is a single-seat subsonic carrier-capable light attack aircraft designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company, and later, McDonnell Douglas. It was originally designated A4D und ...
and Aermacchi MB-339CB advanced jet trainers. The aviation site of MOTAT located in Meola Road is also known as the Keith Park Memorial Airfield. A replica Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...
is on a plinth in the markings OK-1 of New Zealander and RAF Air Chief Marshal
Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...
Keith Park
Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Rodney Park, (15 June 1892 – 6 February 1975) was a New Zealand-born officer of the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the Second World War, his leadership of the RAF's No. 11 Group RAF, No. 11 Group was pivotal to t ...
memorial at the entrance.
* Railway locomotives and collection – includes seven steam locomotives from a pioneering 1874 NZR F class to the iconic NZR K class steam locomotive, smaller branch line, industrial and logging tank locomotives. Also six diesel, petrol and petrol electric locomotives, including the DA class which was built to replace the K class from the 1950s through the 1960s and became the most prolific mainline locomotive in New Zealand. This is operational and able to be viewed on Live Days which occur every third Sunday of the month.
* Railway carriages – the collection also includes stations, carriages, wagons and other rolling stock.
* Tram collection – the collection includes over 20 electric, steam and cable trams, many of which are operational, with support equipment and vehicles from former New Zealand tramway systems of Auckland, Wellington, Wanganui and the Mornington Cable tram system in Dunedin. Auckland's horse-drawn tramway opened in 1884 and was replaced by the electric tram system in 1902, closing in 1956. The final closure of an original street tramway was in Wellington in 1964. An 1883 Dunedin Cable Car trailer is the sole South Island tramway exhibit and there are additional trams from Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Street furniture
Street furniture is a collective term for objects and pieces of equipment installed along streets and roads for various purposes. It includes bench (furniture), benches, traffic barriers, bollards, post boxes, phone boxes, streetlamps, traffic ...
used on the Auckland Tramways can be seen on the Western Springs Tramway including traction pole skirts and cast iron pillar boxes dating from the 1900s, concrete safety zones, platform information signs, Cincinnati Recording Clocks, Queen Street Dispatchers Cabin all dating from the 1920s and some used into the trolleybus era. The museum is one of five operational Museum and Heritage Tramways in New Zealand.
* Petrol / diesel bus collection – contains a significant collection of historic buses from the Auckland region, including a 1924 White Motor Company
White Motor Company (later renamed White Motor Corporation and commonly known as White) was an American car, truck, bus and agricultural tractor manufacturer from 1900 until 1980. The company also produced bicycles, roller skates, automatic la ...
4-cylinder side-valve petrol engine, wooden-bodied 23 seat omnibus, through a 1954 Bedford SB, petrol engine, 35-seat lightweight wooden-body bus specifically built for Grafton Bridge services, through to a 1978 M.A.N SL200 No.1603 retired in the 2010s.
* Trolleybus collection – this collection contains a representative cross-section of trolleybuses which operated in Auckland between 1938 and 1980. First used on a 1 km department store-operated route in central Auckland from 1938, the trolleybus system later duplicated and then replaced the aging tram system between 1949 and 1956. The trolleybuses were in turn replaced by diesel buses in 1980.
Tram service
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 Gt. 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. In 2006–07 the tram line was further extended by a distance of 636 metres, 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 inches gauges, the rail welded and set in mass concrete.
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.[Tramway & Tramcars](_blank)
(from the official museum website)
See also
* MOTAT collections
References
External links
MOTAT – Museum of Transport and Technology
(official website)
The MOTAT Society – Supporting Society of MOTAT
MOTAT Online Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Museum of Transport And Technology
Aerospace museums in New Zealand
Automobile museums in New Zealand
Heritage railways in New Zealand
Heritage streetcar systems
Museums in Auckland
Railway museums in New Zealand
Science museums in New Zealand
Technology museums
Tramways with double-decker trams
1960 establishments in New Zealand
Museums established in 1960
Physical museums with virtual catalogues and exhibits