Our heritage

Our story starts with our founders, John Harrison and Charles Grierson, who met on the immigrant ship Sam Mendel sailing from London to New Zealand, destined to make their way in a new land.

  • 1877 - John Harrison and Charles Grierson sail into the Waitemata Harbour, striking up a friendship during the trip before going their separate ways upon docking – Charles to farm and John to practice architecture

  • Late 1870s - John Harrison retrained as a surveyor after struggling to find work as an architect due to the economic depression

  • 1885 – John Harrison set up his surveying practice in Auckland

  • 1890s – John Harrison opened large tracts of Crown and native lands for development and was eventually known as a trail-blazing pioneer responsible for some of New Zealand’s first and major urban and rural subdivisions

  • 1912 - John Harrison met back up with Charles Grierson to form Harrison and Grierson, which was considered the largest survey practice in Auckland at the time

  • Early 1900s – Surveyed the first, large resident subdivision in Auckland known as Jervois Estate. With horse and scoop, the developers shifted 750,000 cubic yards of clay to create 300 building sites served by two miles of roading on over 40 acres of broken country to the west of the inner city

  • Early 1920s – Harrison and Grierson carried out the development of the Mission Bay Estate for the Melanesian Mission Trust Board – the beginning of Auckland’s eastern suburbs. The Kohimarama subdivision for the St John’s College Trust Board was next, followed by another church leasehold subdivision

  • 1935 – With the election of the first Labour Government came the establishment of the State Housing scheme. HG was given the task of surveying one of the first State Housing subdivisions in Auckland at the Harp of Erin, where the tram line stopped past Green Lane

  • 1935 – 1940 - The lean years eased, and the Church of England developed a further 250 lots at Kohimarama

  • 1945 - NZ Forest Products development involved Harrison and Grierson in more than a forest survey. HG was responsible for designing and laying out the burgeoning new town of Tokoroa and the new mill at Kinleith

  • 1950s – Charles Grierson had become a dominant figure in the affairs of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors and the Survey Board, including as President of the Institute and a sponsor of the Surveyors Act 1938, a milestone in the development of the surveying profession

  • 1950s - the establishment of the initial grid for the construction of the Tasman Mill, followed closely bythe setting out of Stage one of the new town of Kawerau

  • 1960s - Starting with the New Zealand Steel mill at Glenbrook and Auckland Harbour Board's Downtown Development in the late, the firm was increasingly called on for accurate measurement control for building and construction works.

  • 1960s - Our surveyors developed horizontal and vertical control techniques when surveying restricted sites in downtown Auckland for high-rise buildings, including Queen Street One, the Sheraton Hotel, Quay Towers and the Great Northern Centre.

  • Early 1970s - The Development of the micro-chip brought the greatest change to surveying since the invention of the steel measuring band. The computer and electronic calculator revolutionised computations and recording. At the same time, electronic distance measuring equipment became available with the development of the total station, making logbooks, hand calculators, chains, link sticks, field books, and plummets obsolete

  • 1983 - 1987 – We were involved in gas pipeline work from Taranaki and Waikato through to Rotorua

  • 1992 - 1995 – Our surveyors were the first in New Zealand to use GPS receivers to monitor the position of the ‘tower jump form’ for the Sky Tower

  • 2005 – We began work on the Britomart Train station in central Auckland and continue to do so today

  • 2005-2025 – We continue to be involved in multiple nation-building projects throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. From Hobsonville Point, Commercial Bay, Red Hills Green, expansion of Pokeno and Hingaia Peninsula, Rangiuru Business Park, Titanium Park, Aotea Block in Porirua and many other urban growth areas in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch

  • 2018 – 2025 - Part of the LEAD Alliance supporting Kāinga Ora to redevelop the Crown housing estate land in Auckland

  • 2022-2025 – Part of the Te Aranga Alliance supporting Kāinga Ora to redevelop the Crown housing estate land in eastern Porirua

John Harrison was eventually known as a trail-blazing pioneer responsible for some of New Zealand’s first and major urban and rural subdivisions.