Oliver Druce oral history

Oliver Druce was interviewed by Caren Wilton on 15 December 2015 for the Upper Hutt in the 1960s oral history project.

Born in 1954, Oliver spent his childhood and teenage years in Pinehaven, and he remembers wandering freely among the area’s bush and creeks. He discusses the family’s garden of rare native plants (his father was noted botanist Tony Druce), and recalls that Upper Hutt was barely in his mental frame as a child. In the late 1960s Oliver attended Upper Hutt College; he remembers riding his bike everywhere, playing sport, and the wars over hair length (boys) and skirt length (girls). He also mentions a conservation protest over the proposed route of the motorway, and Vietnam War protests.

Click on the links below to listen to the interview (3 files), read the abstract (a time-coded guide to the interview) and see associated photos.