This information is invaluable in researching changes to the landscape over time. The archive contains more than a million images covering every centimeter of New Zealand including offshore islands. In this series of images, Papamoa beach is shown across more than four decades. The first photograph, taken in 1943, shows the beach in near untouched state, with no visible buildings and extensive sand cover. The next photograph, taken in 1956, shows nearly a dozen buildings that have sprung up in the preceding thirteen years.
Access is by rough track.
By 1974, only one or two vacant lots are visible in the photograph. The roads have been paved, and the beach is well restricted by the dwellings. In the bottom photograph which was taken in 1986, further subdivision has taken place and the road extended. Foliage is now well established as a result of the homeowners efforts to define their boundaries against the seashore.