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Kelly Tarlton
BiographyKelvin Ewart (Kelly) Tarlton was born at Te Kopuru in Northland. His father, an engineer, had grown up on D'Urville Island in Cook Strait and was a resourceful man and an early mentor for Kelly. The family moved to Auckland when Kelly was 12, then on to Christchurch where he developed interests in photography and mountaineering. After watching The Silent World, a Jaques Cousteau film, Kelly decided to try diving. This became an important focus of his life, leading to him choosing to leave his job as a telecommunications technician and become a professional diver in 1966. He was an early member of the Christchurch and Whangarei Underwater Clubs. He enjoyed the challenge of diving on shipwrecks around New Zealand and further afield. In the 1960s he recovered gold and silver from the Elingamite which had sunk off the Three Kings Islands in 1902. In 1974, he located an 18-foot anchor off Doubtless Bay from de Surville's vessel St John Baptiste. Also in 1974, Kelly and a team of divers dived on Tasmania, the steamer which sank off Mahia Peninsula in 1897 carrying jewellery belonging to the Rothschild family.
In 1975 he opened his shipwreck museum at Waitangi onboard Tui, an old sugar barge, where he displayed his many collections.
Kelly became interested in opening a large aquarium where people could view marine animals close up in safety. In 1985, Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World opened in re-purposed sewage and stormwater tanks on Auckland's shoreline at Orakei. At the time it was four times larger than any other aquarium in the world and a major feat of engineering.
Kelly Tarlton died in the early hours the day after he had welcomed the 100,000th visitor to the complex, just seven weeks after it had opened. He was 47 years of age.
He was known and valued as a conservationist, adventurer, salvage expert and innovator, but also as a family man with boundless energy and love of life.
Date of Birth31 October 1937Place of BirthTe Kopuru, KaiparaDate of Death17 March 1985Place of DeathAucklandOccupationExplorerPhotographerSalvage expertUnderwater archeologistDiver
In 1975 he opened his shipwreck museum at Waitangi onboard Tui, an old sugar barge, where he displayed his many collections.
Kelly became interested in opening a large aquarium where people could view marine animals close up in safety. In 1985, Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World opened in re-purposed sewage and stormwater tanks on Auckland's shoreline at Orakei. At the time it was four times larger than any other aquarium in the world and a major feat of engineering.
Kelly Tarlton died in the early hours the day after he had welcomed the 100,000th visitor to the complex, just seven weeks after it had opened. He was 47 years of age.
He was known and valued as a conservationist, adventurer, salvage expert and innovator, but also as a family man with boundless energy and love of life.
Date of Birth31 October 1937Place of BirthTe Kopuru, KaiparaDate of Death17 March 1985Place of DeathAucklandOccupationExplorerPhotographerSalvage expertUnderwater archeologistDiverScrapbook
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Whānau
MotherElsie TarltonFatherEwert Fritz TarltonPartnerRosemary TarltonDate Married27 March 1965Place of MarriageOkaihau, Northland
FatherEwert Fritz TarltonPartnerRosemary TarltonDate Married27 March 1965Place of MarriageOkaihau, NorthlandRelates to
OrganisationsKelly Tarlton's Underwater WorldWhangarei Underwater Club
Whangarei Underwater ClubKelly Tarlton. Northland Room Digital Collections, accessed 21/06/2025, https://whangarei.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/5074
