Auckland Libraries Research

Remember December 1984? DD Smash, Herbs, and the Mockers were giving a free concert at Aotea Square to mark the end of the school year. It was organised by TripleM 89FM radio as "Thank God It's Over." Ten thousand gathered for the event, which ended up going down in music history as the Queen Street Riot. It happened soon after DD Smash took the stage, with stores looted, windows smashed, and police coming under scrutiny for their methods of dealing with it. Dave Dobbyn was charged with behaviour likely to cause violence against people or property but the charges were dismissed against him after a three day trial. Ultimately, a Commission of Inquiry concluded there were multiple contributing factors including unemployment and the rift between police and youth exacerbated by the Springbok tour a few years earlier. Read more about this event on our Heritage et Al blog.
https://heritageetal.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-1984-queen-street-riot.html

DD Smash concert, Aotea Square, 1984
Photographer: Bruce Jarvis
Image reference: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1704-3290-04

📖📍Asked and Answered #16
Asked and Answered posts are inspired by research queries submitted to Auckland Libraries.

Lopdell House photographs by Titirangi photographer Bernard Schofield.

Today we’d like to highlight a set of photographs of Lopdell House in Titirangi from 1975, by Titirangi photographer Bernard Schofield. They capture moments in time fifty-one years ago.

Lopdell House first opened as the Hotel Titirangi in 1930. Since then, it has operated as a residential school for the deaf, and then later a residential training centre for teachers from 1960-1982.

The collection has been digitised in early 2026 and is currently undergoing indexing by Research staff. They are not available online yet but soon will be.

If you’d like to see more photographs of Lopdell House, check out this link to photographs in our Kura database: https://bit.ly/4uSMobJ

You can also see a listing of publications in our library catalogue about Lopdell House here https://bit.ly/4fbVdZN . These books are not available to borrow, but can be viewed by appointment on the second floor of Waitākere Central Library (Henderson). Please click here: https://bit.ly/4dtP747 to access the Research booking form.

There are also several publications available about the broader subject of the history of Titirangi: https://bit.ly/4uP3OG3 . Some of these are available to borrow.

Bernard Scofield’s set of 1975 photographs cover a range of subjects, so watch this space for further postings.

Two photographs selected from the 1975 collection are shown below: