City of Industry: An Exhibition Celebrating Upper Hutt’s Industrial Heritage

Dunlop factory workers, 1949, Upper Hutt Libraries Heritage Collection

Upper Hutt was late to industrialise in comparison to many other areas in the Wellington region. It soon made up for lost time, though, growing between 1948 and the end of the century to become one of New Zealand’s most significant industrial centres.

During these decades numerous factories dotted the district, producing everything from tyres, ladders and telephones to matches, buttons and lingerie, before changing economic circumstances brought this era to an abrupt end.