PAPA PĀNUI • NOTICEBOARD
Letters to the editor
‘clockwise from left’ and so on, I made the suggestion that they be numbered instead. This was promptly done and since then I, and I hope many others, have no problem at all! You and your team are doing a great job. Thank you. Juliet Pearson
COMMUNITY On a cold Monday morning in early August, Whitianga ferry captain Eric Mair lifts three buckets of paint from the Whitianga wharf and places them neatly under the seating in his ferry. A local tradesman hands him a roll of electrical tape and he tucks it alongside. Eric says the paint is not the most unusual cargo he’s transported in his 16 years of driving the vessel (he’s now retired but returns to do the occasional shift). There have been coffins (occupied) on their way to the cemetery at Ferry Landing, and raucous participants of hens’ parties or stag do’s. He also used to take a farm worker from Whitianga across the estuary to Ferry Landing every day for work. “That guy once brought back a wild pig he’d stuck. It had come down onto the farm he was working on. It left a right mess on the boat,” says Eric.
Black-and-white photos surrounding the ferry’s helm hint at the area’s history, but, says Eric, many who make the estuary crossing every year would have no idea of the importance of the old stone wharf on the other side. The ferry’s new owners, former America’s Cup yachtie Jeremy Lomas and his wife Louise, only realised the wharf’s history after they bought the ferry business in 2018. It turned out that Louise’s great-great-greatgrandfather Captain Ranulph Dacre established the original wharf at Ferry Landing in the 1830s. Back then it was the seat of the Coromandel’s kauri trade and gave rise to one of the earliest European settlements outside New Zealand’s Far North. “The wharf was in a pretty bad state a few years ago,” says Eric. “It was literally falling into the sea. It’s great they’ve saved it.”
Whitianga’s old stone wharf has been revived thanks to a wide-ranging community effort
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The stone wharf at Ferry Landing in Whitianga is the oldest civil engineering project in New Zealand that is still working and serving its original purpose.
2 Retired ferry captain Eric
Mair fills in the odd shift for the service, which provides a vital link between the Whitianga and Ferry Landing communities.
SAFE LANDING WORDS: NICOLA MARTIN • IMAGERY: VAUGHAN GRIGSBY
16 Summer 2019
Heritage New Zealand
The ‘Safe landing’ story of the old stone wharf at Ferry Landing, Whitianga, by Nicola Martin (Summer 2019) made interesting reading. Nicola captured well the many levels of willing community and local government involvement that saw the restoration of this Category 1 historic place completed. While this remarkably successful project was, indeed, a local effort involving Ngāti Hei, the wider community and the council, there are other essential roles that must also be recognised: archaeologist Louise Furey of CFG Heritage, Robin Byron of Heritage New Zealand (then known as the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) and Geometria, which provided the 3D scan of the structure that clearly identified the deterioration of the mortar. Louise’s Ferry Landing Stone Wharf Conservation Plan prepared for ThamesCoromandel District Council in 2011 provided a comprehensive history of the wharf and the developing timber industry in pre-treaty times. Her report was the professional base that underpinned the restoration work. The Category 1 status of the wharf required Heritage
4 Hōtoke • Winter 2020
Heritage New Zealand
It was the wharf’s history that captured retired engineer and Ferry Landing resident Bob Nicholls and spurred him on to create a local group to restore it. Bob was four when his father, John, bought some of the first sections on offer at Ferry Landing in the late 1940s. Bob retired there in 2008 and now lives just up on the hill from where he used watch the ferry coming and going before the pōhutukawa trees grew too tall. “It’s the oldest civil engineering project in New Zealand that’s still there and still serving its original purpose,” he says. “I’d always admired its history, but things were falling off it and it was degrading. I knew we had to save it.” Bob rallied a group of like-minded locals, including Toby Morcom and Alison Henry, to drive the project, and together they approached the ThamesCoromandel District Council (TCDC) and Engineering New Zealand. “Everyone agreed it needed to be saved, but projects like this cost money and getting funding was challenging at first,” says Bob. In December 2014 a $187,845 grant from the Lottery Environment and Heritage Fund enabled work to begin. As support for the restoration grew, the group managed to raise a total of $660,000 – the lion’s share coming from TCDC. “At the time there were some who questioned why we should spend the money, but you see people come over to Ferry Landing now and they engage with the space,” says Bob.
“They see the signs and the artwork, and it helps unveil the uniqueness and importance of this area and our place in the world.” Heritage New Zealand Senior Heritage Assessment Advisor Martin Jones says the Category 1 wharf is an important demonstration of the arrival of globalised trade in pre-colonial New Zealand. Built in about 1836, the wharf was designed by Sydney timber merchant Gordon Davies Browne on behalf of Captain Dacre, who had established a timber milling and ship building business in Mercury Bay, exporting kauri products to overseas markets and trading imported goods with local iwi Ngāti Hei. The original structure was built with the help of Ngāti Hei. While parts of the original 1830s stone wharf remain, it has also been added to over the years. In 1864 it was expanded to include the timber mill, which eventually outgrew the site and was moved to Whitianga. Over time a raised loading platform, goods shed, cattle race, stone steps for ferry access and timber derrick for lifting cargo from ships were all added. “It is believed to be the earliest stone wharf in New Zealand, so has high technological value in relation to that. But from a bigger picture perspective, it is a remnant of very early international commerce in New Zealand,” says Martin. He says the wharf is also significant as it was operating well before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. “The activity of this wharf was operating in a Māori world. Often these stories are told from a Pākehā
Summer 2019 17
New Zealand to be involved at all stages and the support provided by them was invaluable. Today the restored old wharf is a community asset that is used and enjoyed by thousands of locals and visitors every year. Alison Henry Whitianga Just a few lines to tell you how much I enjoy reading your high-quality magazine. The articles are well written (rare these days!) and illustrated and there is always something of interest for everyone. I read it from cover to cover and try to pass my copy on to an outlet where it will be seen by a wider audience, such as in a doctor’s waiting room. I particularly appreciate the mini-dictionaries reminding us of the translation of words from the Māori language. It’s so important that we don't gloss over these in ignorance, since they form an important part of our heritage. As a long-time member and supporter of Heritage New Zealand, I want to point out that some years ago, when I was having great difficulty in identifying the illustrations as they were being presented as
I am a keen reader of Heritage New Zealand magazine but was upset to see the massive stump of what was a healthy, mature, historic tree of Auckland in ‘Climb every mountain’ in the Autumn 2020 edition. It is surprising that Heritage New Zealand magazine would publish a photograph of such destruction. An added insult to intelligence is the tag ‘Heritage for Kids’, when our children depend on us to protect the planet and its life-giving force of trees, particularly now with climate change. Today the huge stump is now suffering the added disrespect of graffiti and my own children have witnessed the magnificent tree reduced to this sorry state. This stump was one of 153 mature healthy trees felled in March (this time last year) on Māngere Mountain, to the distress of residents who love and live with the maunga. Not only were trees lost but also their inhabitants, such as ruru, were no longer heard. Some cried at the destruction of the trees, and I found it too painful to visit the maunga afterwards. A year on, sedges and grasses were placed in bottomless plastic pots where trees were. The new plants needed the shade and root systems of mature trees to support their growth, rather than trying to survive on their own. They died in the heat. The introduction states “with the harsh heat of summer”. Precious shade has been lost, so does this imply we are less likely to walk on the maunga in the increasing heat of climate change? It is known that trees are more essential
than ever before for the health and wellbeing of our planet and people. It would be worthwhile for Heritage New Zealand magazine to visit Te Pane o Mataoho and other maunga of Auckland that are due to be cleared of exotic trees that have considerable heritage; some 70 to 100-plus years old. I hope you can provide an article on the magnificence of mature heritage trees that are increasingly under threat of destruction. Evie Mahoney Māngere Bridge Editor: Evie’s letter was one of a number we received relating to the picture that ran with our Heritage for Kids piece in the Autumn 2020 issue. We apologise for any upset – it is never our intention to offend as we carry out our kaupapa of sharing stories relating to New Zealand’s historic heritage. Please be assured we will continue to highlight stories of heritage trees and gardens where they are appropriate and relate to the important built heritage sites and places of sacred and ancestral significance we profile.
HERITAGE NEW ZEALAND POUHERE TAONGA DIRECTORY National Office PO Box 2629, Wellington 6140 Antrim House 63 Boulcott Street Wellington 6011 (04) 472 4341 (04) 499 0669 information@heritage.org.nz Go to www.heritage.org.nz for details of offices and historic places around New Zealand that are cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
Heritage New Zealand
