Larry Wordsworth

Larry Wordsworth 1988.

(Larry Wordsworth image courtesy The Pathfinders)

Larry Wallace Wordsworth was born in New Zealand on 23 July 1933.  In 1956 he was registered as a surveyor by the Board of Surveyors New Zealand after serving articles under surveyor Thomas Tripp Andrews of T Tripp Andrews and Partner of Auckland.

Soon after qualifying as a land surveyor in Auckland, Larry travelled to the Kingdom of Tonga to start work on an official cadastral survey.  Larry travelled with Bruce Alexander another young New Zealand surveyor who had recently qualified in Christchurch.  Together the two surveyors commenced work under contract to the Government of Tonga on an official Cadastral Survey of the Kingdom.  The official cadastre was to help fulfil a constitutional requirement for every Tongan man to be allocated an area of arable land sufficient to support his family.  Between 22 April 1957 and 31 October 1958 the two New Zealand surveyors embraced the Tongan way of life and were welcomed into villages and homes around the islands.

On 13 April 1959 Larry was registered as a surveyor by the Board of Surveyors of New South Wales.  On 15 September 1961 Larry was registered mining surveyor in New South Wales and on 21 February 1968 he was registered as a specially licensed surveyor by the Surveyors Board of the Australian Capital Territory.

In 1959 Larry Wordsworth moved to Australia and commenced work with the New South Wales Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission in May 1959.  Between June 1960 and May 1961 Larry worked for private practises in Sydney.  Larry then settled in the town of Young in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales.  On 6 June 1961 Larry opened the survey practise of LW Wordsworth and Associates based at the Town Hall in Young.  Later he opened branch offices in Cowra, New Guinea and Darwin.  Larry Wordsworth was also an orchardist in the Young district with interests in fruit for the cherry, prune, olive and grape markets.

In July 1989, Larry became a director of the newly formed company of Wordsworth & Chapman Pty Ltd.  Larry retired in June 1991 and continues to live in Young.