Dame Whina Cooper wins TBM naming competition

We are pleased to announce that City Rail Link’s Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) will share the name of one of New Zealand’s most inspirational leaders, Dame Whina Cooper - a woman who led an illustrious life fighting for social justice and land rights for Māori.
 
Dame Whina Cooper was born in 1895 in Panguru and died in 1994. She moved to Auckland in 1949, where she was elected as first president of the Māori Women's Welfare League in 1951.
 
She played a major role in improving Māori living conditions in urban areas and her efforts saw the league grow to have more than 4000 members and 300 branches in just five years. Her role in public life continued into the 1970s. In 1975, when she was 80 years old, Dame Whina Cooper led the land rights march from the Far North to Parliament. She was made a dame in 1981 and a member of the Order of New Zealand in 1991.
 
Tunnelling tradition dictates that a TBM cannot start work until it has been given a female name, as a sign of good luck and safety for the project ahead. The naming tradition can be traced back to the 1500s when miners and military engineers working with explosives prayed to Saint Barbara, their patron saint, for protection. 

The TBM is due to arrive in kitset sections from China in October. It will be reassembled at Mt Eden project site.

To find out more about the TBM naming competition, please click here.