It’s been one week since the earthquake which hit Canterbury devastated much of the city of Christchurch and its suburbs, killing more than 150 people.

Across the country on Tuesday, at 12.51 pm, exactly a week after the quake, people observed two minute’s silence in respect to those who lost their lives in the disaster.

Hundreds of volunteers have arrived in the city to help with the search and rescue work, and also start to clean up the tonnes of debris left by falling buildings and liquefaction.

Federated Farmers is taking the lead in organising much of the cleanup work in the suburbs of Christchurch flooded with silt, sand and water.

The Feds are calling for anyone with equipment or time to help with the work, with a special request for wheelbarrows.

Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury President Michael Morrow says so far the volunteer spirit has been overwhelming.

"We’re playing it by ear.

"We, along with all the other groups of volunteers have been working in town and a lot of the residents themselves.

"It’s quite inspiring to see what people that are living without power, water and looking after their kids and haven’t got a job to go to at the moment."

Michael Morrow says he’s not sure how long the initial cleanup will take, but they’re there for the long haul.

"The job is quite daunting, people standing there thinking 'where do we start?'

"So it’s been satisfying to get them off to a head start and give them a hand.

"There are a lot of volunteer groups in the city, not just the farmers joining us.

"We’ve had some army boys working alongside us, a lot of people from outside of town who weren’t as badly affected have joined in - we've had massive support."

The city council says it hopes to have more than 90 percent of the roughly 200 thousand tonnes of debris moved by the end of the week.

Anyone keen to help out can call the Federated Farmers hotline which is 0800 FARMING or 0800 327 646.