Names Shortlisted for Tunnel Boring Machine
Georgina, Margaret and Whina.
These are the three possible names of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) that will burrow under Auckland to complete the dig of the City Rail Link tunnels.
The names were shortlisted from thousands of suggestions by the public as part of a competition to name the $13 million TBM. The competition rules were simple: it must be named after a ground-breaking Kiwi woman.
TBMs are traditionally named after women to honour St Barbara the patron saint of tunnelers and people working underground.
Margaret was suggested because of Dr Margaret Bradshaw - an extraordinary woman who broke new ground in the field of Antarctic research. She was the first woman to lead a deep field science expedition at a time when men dominated the field. She discovered Devonian fish fossils in the Antarctic Cook Mountains. The Devonian period spanned 60 million years from around 419 million years ago and is sometimes called the “Age of Fishes” because of the diverse and abundant sea creatures that swam the seas.
Georgina honours Georgina Beyer – a truly ground-breaking activist in human rights. She became the world’s first openly transgender Mayor as the Mayor for Carterton and was later elected to Parliament as the world’s first openly transgender Member of Parliament, being the MP for Wairarapa. She has helped champion acceptance of gender differences in society and is a true leader not only in the rights of the LGBT+ community but also in human rights.
Whina was nominated to celebrate Dame Whina Cooper. Throughout her life, Dame Whina worked tirelessly for the rights of Māori. She played an active role in setting up Māori land development schemes in the Hokianga before moving to Auckland where she fought to improve living conditions for Māori and helped establish the Māori Women’s Welfare League. Dame Whina lead the 1975 land march from Te Hāpua in the Far North to Parliament. The march highlighted unfair New Zealand land laws and sparked law reforms and better protection of Māori land rights.
In this most trying and unprecedented of times, we have seen many examples of people in New Zealand coming together and demonstrating solidarity, compassion and leadership. It is therefore timely that we highlight a few examples of some amazing New Zealanders who illustrate just why we can be proud to call this country home.
All New Zealanders can now vote for their favourite name online at digCRL.co.nz.