Miramar local history event: Wonderland
Join us for this fabulous event about the life and times of Wonderland, Miramar’s very own "historical world-beating amusement park”.
Event Details
When: Thursday 11 September, 6pm
Where: Motu-kairangi Miramar Library
Featuring: Tracy Farr, Phillipa Werry, and Gábor Tóth.
This is a free event.
Wonderland was Wellington’s first ever amusement park and has a fascinating and interesting back story which our panellists will explore. Based in Miramar, it opened in 1907 and was located near the present-day Wētā Cave. At the time it was one of the biggest amusement parks in the Southern Hemisphere. Its various attractions were originally to be found at the New Zealand International Exhibition of 1906-1907 and were brought to Wellington after the exhibition closed.
This very special event will be an unmissable treat for local history buffs, as well as a fabulous journey into Wellington’s and especially Miramar’s past. Featuring two of Aotearoa’s finest and most acclaimed historical novelists, as well as our own Local History Librarian, this is one not to be missed!
Wonderland Amusement Park, ca 1907. Wellington City Recollect, Ref: 50010-952
Meet our Panel
Tracy Farr photo copyright Ebony Lamb
Tracy Farr
Tracy Farr's debut novel The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt was longlisted for Australia’s Miles Franklin Literary Award, shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award and Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. Wonderland is her third novel and is set in and during the time of Miramar’s Wonderland.
Philippa Werry
Multi-award winning historical fiction writer Philippa Werry’s most recent book, Iris and me, about the travels of Robin Hyde, won the Young Adult Fiction Award at the NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Her numerous other works include award winning fiction, non-fiction, picture books, plays and poetry, with a special emphasis on children and young adults, and a particularly strong focus on Aotearoa New Zealand stories and history.
Gábor Tóth photo by Tess Mehonoshen
Gábor Tóth
To complete our illustrious panel we have Wellington City Libraries' own Local History Librarian. Gábor is both our local and New Zealand history specialist, and also looks after special collections at Wellington City Libraries, such as rare books, manuscripts, photographs and Wellington City Recollect - an online database of heritage photos, books, maps and related ephemera reflecting the Capital's past.
Please note we expect this event to be very popular, and seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
We wish to extend our thanks to The Cuba Press for helping make this event happen.
Below is a small selection of Tracy and Phillipa's fabulous books available to borrow from our collection:
The Cuba Press
From our catalogue
Wonderland / Farr, Tracy
"Te Motu Kairangi Miramar Peninsula, Wellington 1912. Doctor Matti Loverock spends her days and nights bringing babies into the world, which means her daughters – seven-year-old triplets Ada, Oona and Hanna – have grown up at Wonderland, the once-thriving amusement park owned by their father, Charlie. Then a grieving woman arrives to stay from the other side of the world, in pain and incognito, fleeing scandal. She ignites the triplets' curiosity and brings work for Matti, diverting them all from what is really happening at Wonderland. In a bold reimagining, Marie Curie – famous for her work on radioactivity – comes to Aotearoa and discovers both solace and wonder." (Publisher's website)
Iris and me / Werry, Philippa, 1958-
"So begins the story of Iris Wilkinson, who wrote poetry, novels and journalism under the pen name Robin Hyde. In January 1938 she left New Zealand for England. On the way, intrigued by glimpses of China, she ventured inland despite the war raging there, becoming one of the first women war correspondents, a feat that was all the more remarkable because she struggled with mental health and suffered a disability that meant she had a lifelong limp. Her story is narrated by a loyal but mysterious companion who asks the reader to guess their secret. 'Iris and Me' is an imaginative account of the adventures of one of Aotearoa's most significant writers, presented in a form that Hyde herself would have loved, the verse novel." (Catalogue)
The life and loves of Lena Gaunt : a novel / Farr, Tracy
"This is the story of Lena Gaunt: musician, octogenarian, junkie. A childhood in Malacca and lonely boarding school days in Perth. A fabulous affair in Sydney with the artist Beatrix Carmichael. A glittering career in post-war Europe. Lena Gaunt's life will be made and broken by those she loves. Through it all her relatioship with music and that extraordinary instrument, the theremin, endures." (Catalogue)
Lighthouse family : coastal New Zealand, 1941-42 / Werry, Philippa, 1958-
"For Frances and her family, living on a lighthouse, the war is both far away and scarily close. There are rumours of submarines in the Pacific. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, taken Singapore and bombed Darwin, so what's to stop them invading New Zealand next? But soon Frances, the only girl on the island, will have more to worry about than the threat of a Japanese invasion." (Catalogue)
The hope fault : a novel in three parts / Farr, Tracy
"Iris's family - her ex-husband with his new wife and baby; her son, and her best friend's daughter - gather to pack up their holiday house. They are there for one last time, one last weekend, and one last party - but in the course of this weekend, their connections will be affirmed, and their frailties and secrets revealed - to the reader at least, if not to each other. The Hope Fault is a novel about extended family- about steps and exes and fairy godmothers; about parents and partners who are missing, and the people who replace them." (Catalogue)