West Auckland Power Lines Project

Overview

Having now lived in West Auckland for the last 25 years or so, I’ve become accustomed to high tension power lines being a feature of the landscape, but I hadn’t realised the full extent of their impact until I started photographing West Auckland in detail. For 2023-24 I decided to track some of the power lines from their entering West Auckland (via Blockhouse Bay) from Onehunga and Mangere, through New Lynn, Waterview, Te Atatu, Lincoln, and Massey before they depart towards Huapai. If I did it again, I’d reshoot and reedit some of the photos, but I think I’ve captured some of the presence of the power lines. I’ve added some more details about that at the blog post below.

Westie power lines and the suburban landscape

January 6, 2024 | Author: Stephen Garner | Categories: General, Photography, Technology

One of the dominant features of West Auckland are the series of high tension power lines that run from pylon to pylon across the suburbs – across rivers and creeks,

Map

The map below shows the paths of the high tension power lines from where they enter West Auckland from Onehunga/Otahuhu, Mangere and Ellerslie, through West Auckland, and then heading northwest towards Huapai from Massey and Red Hills. [Data from public LINZ and Vector datasets]

If the map doesn’t load (an empty box), then click on this link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1kUHZYnDMD39Qy2SnjVq54Buznlf1zys&usp=sharing