1981 Springbok Tour Live

"I can see nothing but trouble coming from this": live-tweeting the 1981 Springbok Tour of NZ, starting 6 July. (Project: @wcl_library and @WCC_Archives.)

[Wellington City Archives @WCC_Archives]

This includes council meeting minutes, posters and pamphlets, and over 1500 pages of letters, telegrams, petitions, and other correspondence to the Mayor and @WgtnCC

https://t.co/zXR3OoHTFS

[Wellington City Archives @WCC_Archives]

A year ago today we finished @TweetTheTour a historical live-tweeting of the 1981 Springbok Tour in collaboration with @wcl_library 🏉 Today we have made all the material we used (and much we didn't) available to view on Archives Online.

#Archives #TōTātouPōneke #OurWellington

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

🚨BREAKING: Springboks' flight has departed Auckland Airport, bound for the US. Protesters cheering outside terminal.

Errol Tobias: "We shouldn���t have gone to NZ. If that tour did do something good, it showed SA exactly what the world thought of apartheid."

📸Photos John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

🎙️INTERVIEW: NZRFU Chairman Ces Blazey

Blazey: "All the major rugby playing countries agree that sporting contacts between the various countries involved should be maintained. The next scheduled tour for a NZ team to go to South Africa is 1985."

📸https://t.co/YGu01j4pYO @NLNZ

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Demonstrators returning to Fowlds Park. 270 protesters and 32 police have received medical treatment.

@TheDesmondTutu: "This was an immense shot in the arm for us. You can't compute its value in saying the world has not forgotten us, we are not all alone."

📸John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

🏉FULL TIME: EDEN PARK

@AllBlacks: 25
@Springboks: 22

Graeme Barrow: "It was difficult to begrudge the All Blacks their win. They had worked more constructively & had done more of the attacking. But for the Springboks it must have been bitter."

📸(1977) https://t.co/vFiwelZzRQ

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

⚠️ALERT: Red Squad attacking AAA clown troupe —

Pekka Paavonpera: "They were vicious, raining blows all over them. The girl, she was on the ground & they just kept going. I ran over and yelled out, 'Stop it, for fuck's sake, stop it.'"

📸Allan Cumming https://t.co/WIUpGmi28x

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

⚠️ALERT: MEDICS

📻"Ambulances have been in here picking up protesters who are injured — quite a few of them have serious injuries. One chap I saw looks like he's got a fractured skull."

📻"In front of me a young man is rather seriously injured."

📸Photos: John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Onslow Rd

Protesters have overturned a car after reportedly seeing a PR-24 baton and radio inside. Windows have been smashed, door ripped off, anti-tour slogans spray-painted on the sides.

📸Photo: John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: AUCKLAND

📸Photo: John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

🎙️TIGILAU NESS (PATU):

"I'm running next to the leader of the KCs. He turned around & I knew what he was saying: 'You fucking got us into this, now get us out.' Okay. Turn around. That was my first instance of counter-attack."

📸John Mercer Cameraworks
https://t.co/WQaTdIf49I

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Patu Squad & police clash on Walters Rd:

Reporter: "I've never seen anything more horrific in my life. There are people lying on the street, blood everywhere."

Tigilau Ness: "We got beaten pretty bad. There were a lot of people on the ground."

📸Photos: John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📺We interrupt @TweetTheTour to bring you an announcement from the BCNZ:

Television coverage of today's match has been disrupted in S. Canterbury, Dunedin & South Africa due to protester actions at multiple sites.

We apologise for the inconvenience.

📸https://t.co/6CDAO5YfVI

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

🏉KICK-OFF:

The third and deciding test between the @AllBlacks & @Springboks is underway.

📻"Looking at the match today, there’s no sure way of predicting the outcome. Both previous tests have been completely different."

📸(1977) https://t.co/f5aXsZufpy @ArchivesNZ

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Overhead

Cessna approaching Eden Park at 300 feet, entering restricted airspace. Pamphlets released over rugby crowd: "STOP THE BLOODY TOUR."

Geoff Chapple: "Thousands of people punched the air with their fists. They clapped & cheered."

📸Photos: John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

⚠️ALERT: AIRCRAFT

Cessna sighted crossing harbour towards Eden Park. Pilot confirmed as Marx Jones out of @NorthShoreAero.

📻Jones: "This is Radio Anti-Apartheid. Please inform the police & rugby union they’ve got ten minutes to stop the third test."

📸Photo: John Miller

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Auckland Airport

@RadioHaurakiNZ: "There’s been action at the airport – about 30 anti-tour protesters have been arrested trying to run out onto the taxiway."

Among them: poet Allen Curnow.

📸Matthew McKee https://t.co/e5O7cJnoOr
@PoetryArchive @AUPBooks

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Harbour Bridge

@RadioHaurakiNZ: "That was The Screaming Meemees & their single, 'See Me Go'. The latest now: protesters have stalled vehicles in both north & south bound lanes of the Harbour Bridge."

📸https://t.co/bXJX0QY7un @Auckland_Libs

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Sandringham Rd

Protesters have successfully established blockades around Eden Park. Brawls erupting as rugby supporters attempt to break through — Patu Squad on the move.

📻Reporter: "Certainly looks like something's about to happen."

📸https://t.co/nIHWvzUFJb @NLNZ

[1981 Springbok Tour Live @TweetTheTour]

📡LIVE: Morningside

Squads leaving Fowlds Park. Report of plan to block rugby spectators' access to Eden Park.

🗣️John Minto: "There were 6 places where we had to blockade, so each squad took 2 of those."

📸Photo: John Mercer Cameraworks
https://t.co/xNMBhpReW3 @aucklandmuseum