Our Devonport Library experience

The day we had all been waiting for! It was Wednesday 6 March. Excitement filled the bus as we arrived at Devonport to learn about how early European settlers lived in the 1800’s and 1900’s.

On arrival at the library we were welcomed by the two librarians June and Fiona. We were really looking forward to learning about the history of Devonport.

Do you know the book “The House that Jack Built’ by Gavin Bishop and the book ‘After the War’ by Bob Kerr? June read us the book about Jack and Fiona showed us the book about after the war using a data projector. That really showed the change in the way we can look at books today.

We noticed lots of changes in the way people lived from the 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

We also learnt lots of interesting things about the history of Devonport. We even learnt how the buses were not like our buses and the early settlers in Devonport didn’t have cars at first. Instead they travelled by bike, horse and carriage or they walked.

We also learnt that Devonport was not the same in pre European times. There was a Maori village on North Head and Torpedo Bay. In the village, called a kainga, they lived in small huts called whare and they cooked their food in an outdoor shelter.

Did you know that some of the old buildings in Devonport were burnt in a tragic fire?