Archives lift lid on Fletcher business history

Chairman Angus Fletcher and Dorothy Neilson from the Fletcher Trust Archive, stand next to the Archivists Table which has a large flatscreen TV showing history embedded in it. Photo / Steven McNicholl

"Experimental possum farming! I find that venture rather fascinating," says a bemused Dorothy Neilson, archivist at the Fletcher Challenge Archives in Penrose, Auckland.

She is referring to a set of records held in the largest of three secure, fire-proof temperature and light-controlled strong rooms in the midst of the country's largest corporate archives.

The possum scheme was, she says, hatched by Dalgety New Zealand in the 1930s, after protection for the animals was removed.

Although it now seems improbable, Dalgety NZ had the monopoly as the commercial selling agent in what was then called the opossum fur sector, and investigations were made into farming possums at Wainui Forest east of Lake Taupo.

"Wrightson Dalgety was the major auction house for the opossum fur trade," Neilson says.

But the records show why the scheme was doomed.

By 1987, Fletcher Challenge News reported that farming opossum had proved to be uneconomic.

The possum story is just one of the many which can be found in the archives, which document the many businesses the Fletcher empire has been in during its century in business.

The archives are in private security-accessed offices on the first floor of Wright Stephenson House, on Great South Rd.

Neilson attributes their continuing existence to experts' involvement.

"It was set up in 1987 with the assistance of Archives New Zealand, so right from the start professionals were involved.

"Digitisation is huge in archives now so the archive has its own website with lists of what's here.

"The main users are other companies, a lot of authors, academics, genealogists," she says.

Diversity and eclecticism make the archives unique, encompassing material from department stores, shopping malls, stock and station agencies, fishing, logging and sawmills, sea vessels and scows, transport, civil engineering, construction and oil exploration, possums and plantation forestry.

The archives hold more than 1500 linear metres of paper documents, maps and plans, moving images, sound, photographic media, artefacts and publications. Members of the public, genealogists, authors, journalists, students and companies all use the historic resource.

Across the corridor from the strongrooms is an entire store room for volumes of books written about various Fletcher businesses.

Angus Fletcher, chairman of the Fletcher Trust, says that a large body of works published last year would probably not have been possible without the archives, and Neilson confirms authors spend days in the vaults.

Recent books include Fletchers A Centennial History of Fletcher Building by Paul Goldsmith (David Ling Publishing), $49.99, No Job Too Big by Jack Smith (Southern Publishers Group) $44.99 and Pride of Place A History of The Fletcher Construction Company by Peter Shaw (The Fletcher Construction Company Limited). The late Bruce Wallace also used the archives to research Clash of the Titans, about Sir Ron Trotter and Hugh Fletcher.

Jack Smith, a relative of the Fletcher family whose father also worked for the company, is publishing two further books on the history of Fletcher Construction and one is imminent.

The Fletcher Trust is recognised as a guardian of art, owning one of New Zealand's most significant collections.

But the archives are a lesser known part of the trust, a point Fletcher acknowledges but he emphasises the trust is self-funding, not reliant on Fletcher Building.

The archives' 100-year celebrations involved the trust commissioning Studio Alexander to design the Centennial Table, a retro-fitted piece of furniture embedded with a 70-inch LCD flat screen which shows a 15-minute film on Fletcher's history.

The original table was bought on Trade Me, rebuilt by Fletcher Interiors and has been on display for months in Fletcher House on Great South Rd.

It will soon be moved next door to Jack Smith House, home to Fletcher Construction, Neilson says.

Then, the table might move into the archives, although nothing has yet been decided.

The archives have primary source material on business from the mid-19th century up to 2001.

The companies represented in the collection include some of the most significant names in the country's business history, she says, and it is recognised as a significant heritage collection, with legal, financial, operational and information records documenting the development of the Fletcher Challenge group of companies - both in this country and abroad.

Neilson tells one story of how the business saved $30 million by referring back to a 1960s document and changing a deal.

"It happened two or three times, for various reasons," she recalls.

This is just one example of how we can learn from the past.

As Neilson concludes: "Archivists look forward, not back."

FOR THE RECORD

* The Fletcher Challenge Archives are located at Wright Stephenson House on Great South Rd.

* The archives are open Monday to Thursday 10am-4.30pm.

* Access is by appointment only. Telephone (09) 525 9321

* fclarchives.co.nz.