Category: History

Opoho – Historical Background Notes

Opoho – ‘Here my head is level with hills and sky’ – (Janet Frame)

[These historical notes were prepared by Ross for our wanderings around Opoho on 1 June 2022 on a tour led by Neil and Margreet Simpson and Wyn and Ross Davies. Only parts of it were recounted as we zoomed around, and some asked for a chance to read a bit more about what was talked about. What follows is the whole lot.]
Name of Opoho
Maori have been present in the area for 800-900 years. Two groups of Maori ovens have been found on the contours of the hill, said to have been used by people of the Ngatiwairua.
Poho is said to have been a Ngatiwairua chief in the 1700s, head of a family occupying a small kaika (village) by the outlet of the stream which flows down the hill into what was once Pelichet Bay (now Logan Park). O-poho simply means ‘Poho’s place’ and it came to be applied to the neighbouring stream – Opoho Creek.
Later it was adopted by one of the early English landowners for a subdivision on the middle slopes beside where the stream flowed (the Logan Park side), and gradually the name became applied to the whole suburb (on both sides of the ridge).
Opoho Odyssey Part 1 – Botanic Gardens Top Car Park to Knox College
Lovelock Avenue
Formerly Cemetery Road because of the Northern Cemetery halfway down. Renamed Lovelock Avenue in 1968, after Jack Lovelock who lived in Opoho while studying medicine at Otago University. It was the street he ran down every day going to university. Jack Lovelock kept running, and broke the world record for the mile in 1933. He went on to win the gold medal in the 1500 metres at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 (the first Kiwi to win an Olympic track event).
Signal Hill Road
The most enduring street name in Opoho is Signal Hill Road. It appears on all the maps. The top of Signal Hill provides a good view of the harbour and may have given the Maori a place to watch for hostile war canoes and signal from. With European settlement, the same hill was used to signal immigrant ships and perhaps to announce their approach to Dunedin residents. It remains one of the best-known landmarks in Dunedin.
Opoho Road and Trams
The original Opoho subdivision, called Estate of Opoho, to form Opoho Township was created by Captain Boyd in 1873. We’re going to wander some of the streets of this Opoho Township this morning, making our way down to Knox College for a tour at 11am. Opoho Road was the southern boundary of the Opoho Township, originally called District Road. It was the first access to the suburb from the Gardens although there was also a road to Dundas Street down Lovelock Avenue. Opoho Road was too steep where it meets Signal Hill Road for the trams, so a new loop was created through part of the Upper Gardens where the road now goes. It was the steepest line attempted by electric trams. The terminus was at the corner of Signal Hill Road and Blacks Road, and that was steep too. At least two trams ran away from the terminus when the brakes failed – with serious consequences. The tramline opened in 1924. Continue reading “Opoho – Historical Background Notes”

The stone-wall ruins on the McKessar Track

The stone-walled house was burnt out by a bushfire in 1914 after the McKessar family had left the district and the farm had been taken over by a neighbour.

George and Emma (Driver) McKessar had lived and farmed there. George was born in 1836 and Emma in 1853 and they had six children. Emma was a child of Richard and Elizabeth (Robertson) Driver. Richard was the first official pilot for Otago Harbour, and she had been born at the pilot house at Taiaroa Head. She died  at Purakanui at 47 in 1900 and George at 75 in 1912. – edited from research by Clive Crossman on various websites.

 

Cape Saunders Lighthouse

Cape Saunders Lighthouse and the grave of the two children.

“Cape Saunders on the Otago Peninsula, was named by Captain James Cook after Sir Charles Saunders, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the commander of the fleet which captured Quebec in 1759.

Early shipping into the town of Dunedin via Port Chalmers was hindered because of the lack of lighthouses marking the harbour on the peninsula so often ships arriving from England sailed past the harbour entrance and headed further north. It was not uncommon during the 1850s for ships to spend days searching for the harbour entrance and the Otago Provincial Council recognized the importance of lights so in 1863 appointed James Balfour as Provincial Marine Engineer. It was not before time as in 1860 only 60 vessels had arrived at the port but by 1863 this had increased to 983.

Balfour arrived from Scotland later in 1863 with both the lantern forTaiaroa Head and Cape Saunders (the lanterns from Scotland and lens from France respectably). He immediately set to work designing his first lighthouse for the council at Taiaroa Head and this light was lit on 2 January, 1865. The original light was red to distinguish itself from the proposed light at Cape Saunders.

Meanwhile the Otago Provincial Council had begun planning the lighthouse at Cape Saunders, buying land off the local Maori at a place called Kaimata in 1862 but a lack of funds halted the project.

So the Provincial Government erected a 12 foot white stone beacon on the Cape in 1868. But this proved to be totally inadequate for the job as ships often steamed pass the harbour entrance not having seen the beacon.

The Otago Daily Times was to report on January 13 1865, that the Cape Saunders Light apparatus was displayed at the first New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin.

After the Marine Board was formed in 1862, James Balfour was appointed Colonial Marine Engineer in 1866 when this board was changed to the Marine Department.

By now the light equipment for Cape Saunders was still idle so it was used at Nugget Point which was lit in 1870.

In 1875, the Marine Department led by John Blackett and Captain Johnson, decided to build a new light at nearby Matakitaki Point which had easier access and was not so exposed to fog. This 28 foot wooden tower similar in design to Akaroa was constructed in 1878 and the light was first lit on 1 January, 1880.

The first Head Keeper was James Nelson, who was transferred from The Brothers lighthouse.

Tragedy was to plague the lighthouse in it’s first few years. In December 1882 Mr. Nelson’s wife died suddenly. As the youngest child of the family was only 20 months old, the Marine Department granted the keepers request to transfer out of the Department into the Customs Department. But before he was transferred on March 19, 1883, the two year old daughter of the Assistant Keeper (Patrick Henaghan) and the youngest child of the Mr. Nelson died when the cow shed they were playing in caught fire. Later another child died of illness and six months later, the son of the new Head Keeper fell over the cliff and broke his wrist.

The wooden tower was replaced in 1954 by a steel latticework tower and a new mains powered electric beacon. However, this tower didn’t  last due to salt water corrosion and was replaced again in 1967 with the old lantern room from Kaipara Lighthouse.

The light was fully automated in April 1980.

In June of 2006, the lighthouse was again replaced, this time with a modern aluminum tower. The backup diesel generator was removed and new battery pack was installed to supply backup power if the mains power fails.

The old Kaipara Head lantern room has been sent back to Kaipara where it will be restored.

The lens and lighting equipment is displayed at the Port Chalmers Museum.

DIRECTIONS:

Situated on the Otago Peninsula. Currently a restricted area on private land.

A modern aluminum tower is now in use.

– Extracted from NEW ZEALAND LIGHTHOUSES, Cape Saunders (1880)  NZ Lighthouses Text and photographs. Copyright © 1999-2009  Mark Phillips. All rights reserved.

Town Belt Article

The Town Belt is a green belt which surrounds the centre of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. Covering a total of over 200 hectares (490 acres), it extends around three sides of the city’s centre at a distance from it of some 1-3 km (1-2 mi) in a broad 7 km (4 mi) crescent from the Oval at Kensington in the south through the suburbs of Mornington, City Rise, Belleknowes, Roslyn, Maori Hill, Prospect Park, Glenleith, Woodhaugh, The Gardens and Dunedin North and the slopes of Signal Hill. The fourth side of the central city is bounded by the Otago Harbour.

One of the world’s oldest green belts, the Town Belt was planned in Scotland at the time of the advent of the Otago settlement in 1848.[1] Residential areas outside the belt became separate boroughs, and were not amalgamated with Dunedin until much later. The town belt now forms a break between the city’s inner and outer suburbs. The belt was originally a combination of native bush and scrubland, but is now largely replanted forest and open parkland. Many species of plant can be found in the belt, including tree fuchsia, lemonwood, lancewood, manuka, and broadleaf, and the forested area is home to many species of birds, including some uncommon and endangered species such as the kereru, eastern rosella, bellbird, tomtit, tui, rifleman, morepork, and shining cuckoo, and kotare.

A long, narrow road, Queens Drive, winds along much of the length of the belt and provides easy access to it for Dunedinites. Queens Drive is linked to many of the city’s main streets, including Stuart Street and High Street. Numerous walkways lead through the bush and parks, and the belt is a popular recreation area for Dunedinites.

The Town Belt includes many open areas and parks, including the Kensington Oval, Dunedin Southern Cemetery, Montecillo Ground, Unity Park, Mornington Ground, Jubilee Park, Belleknowes Golf Course, Robin Hood Park, Littlebourne Ground, Prospect Park, Woodhaugh Gardens, the North Ground, Dunedin Botanic Gardens, Dunedin Northern Cemetery, Logan Park, and the University Oval.

Notable buildings and structures in the belt include Moana Pool, Olveston, Otago Boys’ High School, and the Beverly-Begg Observatory.

– From Wikipedia.

North Taieri (Wairongoa) Saline-Chalybeate Springs

NORTH TAIERI (WAIRONGOA) SALINE -CHALYBEATE SPRINGS.
A NEW DUNEDIN ATTRACTION.

By Murray Aston,

My rambles one day last week took me to a most delightful neighbourhood, and included a visit to the Wairongoa medicinal springs, a short account of which from my pen may be acceptable to readers of the Witness.

Some six months ago Mr Alexander Thomson, the well-known aerated water manufacturer of Dunedin, acquired by purchase 160 acres of land, taking the precaution to include the whole of the watershed so as to render any danger of contamination to the wells by undesirable neighbours an impossibility. The property is near the North Taieri township, and in the vicinity of Salisbury, the seat of Mr Donald Reid. It is distant some three and a-half miles from Wingatui or Mosgiel; but there is a flag station only a few minutes’ walk from it on the Central Otago railway. The wells are located in a gully of most romantic and picturesque loveliness. The waving toi-tois, the soft-hued ti-tri, the fern, now all changing in different shades of delightful colour, combined with tho blue distance of the mountain ranges, enchant and sooth the mind. Lizards of different species and colour darted across the path; small flocks of goldfinches, remarkable for the brilliancy of their plumage and erratic flight, momentarily arrested the attention, and huge butterflies lazily sunning themselves in their gorgeous attire lent an additional charm to the situation. A particularly clear and beautiful stream which runs through the property must not be forgotten, and trout are not an altogether unknown quantity therein. A few years ago the busy gold miner, I heard, was making good money on this same little creek, but his operations entailed serious inconvenience to the owners of the land, so he was stopped.

I found a large building for bottling waters nearly completed, with dwelling house, stabling, &c, and a fine new steam engine and boiler already on the premises. The principal (sic) well has been enclosed in a handsome red brick tower with white facings, on concrete base, the architecture being of the Tudor period with a particularly attractive castellated roof. Each spring, of which there are several, has been followed to its source in the bed-rock, which is white conglomerate of pure, crystalline formation, then concreted to the surface and bricked over. One well however has been left open for the use of visitors, of whom 30 or 40 at a time, many of them bicyclists are frequently gathered together, the proprietor relying on the well-known good sense of the public not to abuse the privilege by any unthinking act of larrikinism. The various springs contain different qualities and degrees of strength, but the water in each may, experts say, be described in scientific language as saline chalybeate. The early settlers, 30 years ago, were not slow in discovering the medicinal properties of the springs, and anaemic persons, dyspeptics, children with worms, rheumatics and people over-worked or suffering from the evil effects of dissipation are said to have derived great benefit from the Wairongoa waters. While I was at the place a man with a sack on his back approached me, and in the course of conversation stated that he had just walked out from Dunedin, 10 miles distant, for a supply of water. His sack held three large stone bottles, and having filled them it was his intention to walk back. He had been a dyspeptic, he said, and the doctors could do nothing for him; but a friend had advised him to try these waters and in one week he had derived benefit, and now, in three weeks, he was walking 20 miles in a day for the precious liquid.

It is the opinion of experts that the water travels a great distance— viz., from the Maungatoka mountain—the “Boulders Hill” of the settlers; and that it comes under enormous pressure is evidenced by the large volume of carbonic acid gas it contains which it is the intention of the proprietor to collect as it rises to the surface of the wells, store in gasometers, and utilise the supply for re-aerating the water; and a noteworthy factor in connection with the supply is that it never varies in quantity either in the driest or wettest season; and it is believed to be inexhaustible. Mr Thomson thinks that in a month from the present time he will be able to deliver supplies to those in need of it. He expects to do a large trade with the public through druggists and will supply them in syphons as well as in the ordinary bottles. The price, moreover, will be sufficiently low to bring the water within reach of persons of moderate means.

I need hardly add that I partook of water from the various springs, and I experienced great pleasure therefrom, as the effect was distinctly exhilarating to the system, and for hours afterwards I experienced a most agreeable flavour on my palate. I venture, therefore, to predict a brilliant future for the North Taieri district. Ere long a big hotel on the spot will become a necessity, and Dunedin should prove an attractive centre for tourists from all parts by reason of what I firmly believe to be its invaluable springs at Wairongoa.

– Extracted from Papers Past, Otago Daily Times, 6 April 1895, page 7.

Lake Mahinerangi and Waipori

Waipori Monday
Waipori Monday
Waipori/Mahinerangi
Waipori/Mahinerangi

Extracted from David Still:

THE WAIPORI GOLDFIELD: A Brief History

Gold discovered at Waipori

On 17th December 1861, [a certain] O’Hara and his mates reported a new gold field at Waipori. … and on the 20th December 1861 … about 400 miners working on the banks of the Lammerlaw Creek and its tributaries. Soon there were tents and some stores scattered all along the creek, and the entire population was calculated to be about 2,000.

The Township of Waipori

The place called the township was a wretched site, perched on the cone of two small hills, difficult of ascent and limited in area. Five miles further down at the junction of the Waipori River and Lammerlaw Creek there began to form another township on level ground near the old road and ford, and so the town (first known as Waipori Junction) was born.

The School

Mr. James Edward Wilson was appointed as teacher in 1866 and later under his real name of James Payne Baker. … In 1911, the school was reduced to one teacher from then on. …  and in 1925 Catherine O’Reilly.

 

Lake Mahinerangi is a small lake formed when a dam was built on the Waipori River for hydroelectric generation.

The Waipori hydro-electric scheme includes a network of four dams and power stations and produces a maximum output of 84 MW.
The lake itself, was named after Olive Mahinerangi Barnett, the daughter of William Barnett, mayor of Dunedin 1911-1912.

Lake Mahinerangi

The tributaries of the Waipori River are in the Lammerlaw Range. The river descends gradually until the Waipori Gorge, where it suddenly drops 222 metres in approximately 4,000 metres. Which makes the gorge an ideal site for a hydro-electric scheme.

Lake Mahinerangi was formed by a 20.4 metre high dam, with work beginning in 1927 and completed in 1931, with a powerhouse of 3,000 kW capacity. The new lake submerged the mining township of Waipori and mining interests had actively opposed the building of the dam as Waipori Flat was still being actively mined. In 1920, the Dunedin City Corporation Empowering Act was successfully pushed through Parliament to enable the use of the Waipori River as a hydro-electric reservoir.

The Mahinerangi Dam was increased to its final height of 33.5 metres in 1946. By 1955, two more generating stations had been built downstream from the original powerhouse. There have been further replacements and additions to generating capacity between the 1960s and 1980s.
Ref: http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC40XTJ_lake-mahinerangi-otago?guid=2a93463a-0c4d-40e0-a083-d45b514a7aa6

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Title: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited

Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1905, Christchurch

Part of: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
Waipori

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Waipori.

Waipori is a scattered mining district, and forms the eastern portion of the county of Tuapeka. The township is situated about the centre of the mining district, and is fourteen miles from Lawrence, and twenty-five to the west of Outram. It is connected with Lawrence by a coach service, which carries the mails. The township stands at an elevation of about 1300 feet above sea level. Quartz mining has been carried on at Waipori since the early days of settlement, and during recent years the most modern systems of dredging and hydraulic elevating have also been in vogue. The township has a post and telegraph office, a school, hotels, and stores.
Waipori In 1898.

Waipori In 1898.

The Waipori Post And Telegraph Office is at present carried on in the business premises of Mr. F. W. Knight. Mails are despatched and received thrice weekly. Telegraph messages are transmitted at the usual rates by telephone to Lawrence. There is a money order office, but no savings bank.

Mr. Fred William Knight , J.P., Postmaster and Telegraphist, at Waipori, was born at Shirley, in Hampshire, England, in 1856. When four years of age he came to Victoria with his parents by the ship “Essex.” In 1862 the family came to New Zealand in the steamer “Aldinga,” and went to Waitahuna, where Mr. William Knight, father of Mr. Knight, carried on business as a baker with much success. The family then went to Miller’s Flat, and in October, 1864, removed to Waipori, where Mr. page 692 Knight has resided ever since, and has been intimately connected with nearly all the public affairs of the district. For over twenty years he has been a member of the local school committee, and has been many times its chairman. In 1887, Mr. Knight became a member of the Waipori Lodge of Oddfellows, in which he attained the highest position, and has for about twenty years held the office of permanent secretary. He now usually represents the lodge at the district meetings. In February, 1884, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and in that capacity he acts as deputy-coroner for the district. Mr. Knight was one of the founders and first chairman of the present Miners’ Association. For several years he represented Waipori riding in the Tuapeka County Council. Besides being a Justice of the Peace, and postmaster and telegraphist, he now holds an appointment as clerk of the Wardon’s Court, and formerly he held the office of Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Mr. Knight was a member of the Waitahuna licensing committee, when that body existed, and he afterwards contested the Taieri licensing election and obtained over 600 votes, but was not successful. He was appointed a trustee of the Waipori cemetery in 1884, and still holds that office. Since 1882 he has carried on business at Waipori as a general storekeeper; he also has the sole bakery business of the district, and does a fair trade in butchering. Mr. Knight having lived in goldmining districts nearly all his life, takes great interest in everything pertaining to the mining industry. He has owned some valuable mining properties, including several water-races and two quartz crushing batteries, and he also owns a good deal of other property in Waipori. In 1884 he married Mary, third daughter of Mr. Richard Lean, of “The Rocks,” Port Chalmers, and has five sons and two daughters. He has recently purchased, from his father-in-law, the fine property at Port Chalmers, known as “The Rocks,” and will probably settle there if he ever leaves Waipori.
Mr. F. W. Knight.

Mr. F. W. Knight.
“The Rocks,” Port Chalmers, Property Of Mr. F. W. Knight, Waipori.

“The Rocks,” Port Chalmers, Property Of Mr. F. W. Knight, Waipori.

Bridge Hotel (W. E. S. Knight, proprietor), Waipori. This is a two-storey wooden building, containing thirty-five rooms, including a bathroom, billiard-room, three sitting-rooms, and a large dining-room. There is ample stable accommodation attached to the premises.
page 693

Mr. Samuel Caudwell , sometime Proprietor of the Bridge Hotel, Waipori, was born in Nottinghamshire, England, in 1833. In 1852 he came out to Victoria, and went to Castlemaine, Mount Alexander, Bendigo, Sandy Creek, McIntyre’s, Mount Maldon and all the principal goldfields. Within two months of the discovery of Gabriel’s Gully, he landed in New Zealand. He immediately went to the field, and paid one shilling for the carriage of every one pound of food, tools, etc. For some time he was fairly successful, and he returned to Australia, where he became interested in various quartz mining ventures. About Christmas, 1866, he came back to New Zealand, and ever after resided at Waipori. On his return he engaged in ground sluicing, but sold out all his rights, waterraces, etc., and became a hotelkeeper. Mr. Caudwell was chairman of the local school committee. During a mining boom he and others sold the O.P.Q. claim to the New Zealand Minerals Company, Ltd., for £5000 cash. While he was on the Victorian goldfields Mr. Caudwell paid as much as £160 per ton for freight from Melbourne to Bendigo, and bought flour at £25 per sack, butter 6s per pound, sugar 3s per pound, and salt 3s per pound. Mrs Caudwell came to New Zealand from Victoria in the early sixties. Mr. Caudwell died on the 8th of December, 1901.

Mr. William J. Farrell , formerly owner of the Waipori Deep Lead, is a native of Belfast, Ireland, and arrived in New Zealand in 1874. Shortly after landing he joined an exploration party on the West Coast, but returned to Dunedin and entered commercial life, from which he retired in 1888. Mr. Farrell invested capital in the Macetown district, and for years was the managing director of several companies. In 1882 he made a special journey to America, for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of modern improvements in mining. With that end in view, he visited Colorado and Nevada, and other great mining centres. In two years he returned to the colonies and acquired the “Homeward Bound,” “Lady Fayre,” “Golden Treasure,” “Victor Emmanuel,” “Morning Star,” “Black Angel,” “Garibaldi,” and “Maryborough” mines, and other properties in the Macetown district. Following in the footsteps of the late Mr. J. C. Brown, M.H.R., who floated the Blue Spur mine, Lawrence, Mr. Farrell went to London, and successfully floated one of his group, known as the Premier Consolidated Gold Mining Company, Ltd., for the sum of £70,000. This company is now named the Glenrock, Ltd., and with a total expenditure of about £18,000, it had (up to the end of 1899) obtained gold to the value of £35,000, and was still working at a handsome profit. Mr. Farrell considered that this success was largely due to working the mine under the “Incline” principle, which was at first termed a Yankee notion. During Mr. Farrell’s absence from the colony, this plan was allowed to drop, but when he returned, he, as managing director, insisted on its resumption, and brought it to a successful issue. The Deep Lead at Waipori was another mine the development of which bears witness to Mr. Farrell’s resourceful enterprise. Mr. Farrell also invested in tin mines in the Rexhill district, Tasmania, where, according to the Government Geologist’s official report, “It is nothing unusual to find large blocks of tin which yield from sixty to seventy per cent, of pure metallic tin.”
Bridge Hotel, Waipori.

Bridge Hotel, Waipori.
Mr. W. J. Farrell.

Mr. W. J. Farrell.

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Tunnel Beach Walkway

 

Tunnel exit on beach
Tunnel exit on beach

The Tunnel Beach Walkway, one of the most popular scenic walks around Dunedin will be officially opened by the Minister of Lands, Mr Elworthy, on March 16. (1983).

Access to Tunnel Beach has been negotiated by the Lands and Survey Department with the farmer who owns the land the walkway crosses.

The advantage to the farmer of the walkway is that under the Walkways Act he can be compensated if there is damage done and the access can be controlled. For example, the Tunnel Beach Walkway will be closed during lambing.

…

The steps down the tunnel are worn and water seeps through it so concrete steps will be poured before the official opening.

The Tunnel Beach Walkway is a coastal walk, descending a line of seacliffs south of St Clair where the wild Pacific breakers have carved sheer headlands, sea stacks and arches, and the wind has sculptured extraordinary shapes.

From the road end the track descends across green pasture and within a few minutes reaches the clifftops above Tunnel Beach.

The rock underfoot is the soft Caversham sandstone, an extensive thick sediment laid down during the sea’s encroachment of the Dunedin area 20 million years ago. The sandstone was generally overlain by other sediments, but near here lava from the Dunedin volcano flowed over the sandstone itself. This occurred about a dozen million years ago. The soft nature of the almost uniform sandstone makes walking too close to the cliff-edge a dangerous practice, but has also allowed the magnificent carving both by humans and by nature that is in evidence here.

At Tunnel Beach the rock is seen in detail. Careful examination will reveal shell fragments and with luck a fossil such as a brachiopod shell or echinoderm (sea urchin) or even bones of an extinct whale could be found.

At the top of the tunnel and on the promontories, the rock supports a community of salt-resistant species including Austral spleenwort, Selliera sp and Samolus sp. Species that occur further up the slope do not grow here as they cannot cope with the sea water that splashes up during the high seas that can batter this stretch of coastline.

The tunnel was dug in the 1870s by workmen employed by John Cargill, a son of Captain William Cargill, and who farmed the area. It’s reputed to have been a birthday present to his daughter.

The Cargill families found seclusion and shelter on the beach at the foot of the tunnel steps.

The swift flowing current, with is load of sand and erosive potential, heads up the coast just beyond the extremities of this little bay. It must have deterred all but the strongest swimmer from entering the water. At low tide the sandy beach makes an attractive setting for picnics, with the deeply cleft sandstone buttresses towering above. Some are intricately carved, some lie scattered as blocks already tumbled to the beach. Needless to say, common sense dictates where to sit in safety.

Some of the smaller boulders beneath the cliff are derived from the lava floors above, or from Blackhead, a headland of down-thrown volcanic rock being quarried to the south-east.

Vertical rusty streaks of iron-staining make a cross-cross pattern with the near horizontal traces of each successively deposited layer, called “bedding planes”, visible on the cliff faces.

Caves and sea-arches are eroded into the cliffs and an arch at the southern edge of Tunnel Beach, when seen from the walkway above is an excellent example showing the formation of a “stack”.

When the arch has finally eroded and collapsed, the leg on the right will stand free of the mainland just as the stacks off the northern edge of the beach do. Horizontal bedding visible on these stacks suggests that these are still in situ and are not blocks that have fallen from elsewhere.

Amongst a group of trees atop the cliffs, Cargills Castle awaits further depredation by time, vandalism and weather. It was built in 1876 for Edward Cargill, another son of the founder of the Province, Captain William Cargill; and a Mayor of Dunedin 1879-98. Originally called “The Cliffs” it was not long before the Italian-designed building was given its present name by locals. It was one of the first concrete buildings in Otago.

The “castle” was of 21 rooms and cost £14,000 to erect. It was nearly completely destroyed by fire in 1892 and although rebuilt by 1923 – “the biggest white elephant in Dunedin” according to one building contractor – was unfit for habitation.

In more recent years there have been several attempts to instill new life into the building, including an opera venture and plans for a tavern, but all to no avail.

– Dunedin Midweek, Wednesday, Feb 23, 1983.

Saddle Hill Hotel

Saddle Hill Hotel
(9 miles from Dunedin)
Ewan McColl……..Proprietor
First class wines and spirits.
(N.B. Good stabling and paddock accommodation)
This was the advertisement in the Otago Witness in 1864.
Little is known about the early history of this hotel but it appears that Ewan M’Coll was killed in an accident when he was a young man. The next owner was James Purvis and an early photograph shows the building marked ‘James Purvis Hotel’, and on the Dunedin side there is an extension marked ‘Oats and Chaff’. There was no balcony or iron work but three sash windows upstairs and two windows and a centre door at ground level. Behind the hotel the large hump of Saddle Hill can be seen, with bush right down to the present Saddle Hill road.
By 1851 the route round Saddle Hill had been established as the main road to the south and by 1859 it was metalled as far as Taieri Ferry. On 12 January 1961 James McIntosh, Otago’s pioneer coachman set out from Dunedin to drive the mail coach for the first time as far as the Clutha Ferry.
Saddle Hill and Lookout Point were two of the trouble spots on the south road. Passengers had to walk up Saddle Hill and to steady the coach for the downward journey, a skid, fastened to a chain, was placed  under the back wheel.
A passenger commenting on early coaching days writes ‘How Carmichael managed to get his four horse team safely round the exposed places on Lookout Point and Saddle Hill I cannot tell. I turned my head or shut my eyes while he, standing up with the whip and voice, urged them past danger.’
In the early days there was a small settlement further down the hill called The Junction where the road branches off across the Plain. Here in 1869 Sydney Turnbull opened a store and bakery and in his large brick ovens he continued to make bread for several years to supply his second store at the corner of Bush and Gordon Roads. There was a blacksmith, wheelwright and saddler and also Steadman’s Hotel which was a stopping place for coaches. Near here was the toll-house which for some years was in the charge of ‘Cheekie” McKenzie, who had an iron hook over an injured hand.
Mr R W Stevenson whose great grandfather Robert Stevenson came out in the Philip Laing has lived in the former Saddle Hill Hotel with his family since 1957. He has made it more comfortable inside and where he raised the back about three feet to brighten the kitchen he has matched the timber carefully with the skill of a craftsman. He is proud of his old hotel but although he has had all the materials for some time to repaint it he has been unable to do so. – “More Taieri Buildings” 1972 by Daphne Lemon.

Salisbury Property

Donald Reid was ambitious, disciplined, far-sighted and a hard worker. He was born on a farm in Fifeshire, Scotland and it had always been his ambition to own his own farm.
With his two young brothers and his widowed mother, who had just remarried, he arrived at Port Chalmers in 1849. He was fifteen years old. In two years’ time he was grazing his own bullocks at Breadalbane, North Taieri. Before he took up 62,000 acres at ‘Salisbury’ in 1857, he had gained experience at the Valpy Farm at Forbury and had also operated his own farm at Caversham for two years, where he had succeeded in bringing swamp land into cultivation.
By 1857 there were clay-walled thatched roofed cottages sparsely dotted round the foothills of North Taieri well above the swamp of the central plain. Reid built a peesy (or pise [with e acute]) which was his highland name for the Australian named wattle and daub cottage. He brought the water supply right to the cottage with a tap on the verandah. He called his property ‘Salisbury’, as the hills reminded him of Arthur’s Seat and the Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh. Gradually the wilderness of high fern, manuka scrub and flax became a model farm: the flax and fern roots were broken up by ploughing with oxen; bricks were burnt on the property to build accommodation for the men; shelter belts of blue gums, macrocarpus, wattles and pinus insignis, ornamental trees such as poplars, weeping willows and hawthorn hedges were planted, and a plantation of gum trees were started with seed from Australia. ‘Salisbury’ was almost a self-contained community where most of their requirements were produced, including candles and soap. By 1865 the change from grain growing to sheep grazing had been made and it became one of the best grazing estates in Otago, splendidly watered and well sheltered with belts of trees.
When gold was discovered in 1861, Reid made a bargain with his men. They agreed not to abandon their farm duties for the goldfields until their important summer work was over. In return, Reid supplied transport, equipment and supplies for three months whilst they worked a claim together. This claim brought them more than their usual share of luck. Reid also ran a carting business to the diggings taking farm produce and stores, making a trip each way every week with a bullock dray.
… The first Mrs Donald Reid died in 1868 and he married Mrs Price in 1874.
… Donald Reid was one of the outstanding men on the Taieri and in Otago. His interests were wide including farming, transport, Harbour Board, politics and the development of industry and local affairs. He served continuously on road boards and school committees and donated the glebe of 10 acres on which the North Taieri Church and manse stand; he was instrumental in the passing of some early land Acts and in Sir H. Atkinson’s government, after the Abolition of the Provinces in 1876 he was Minister of Lands and Public Works. When he retired from public life in 1878 he commenced the business of auctioneer and stock and station agent which … developed into the … large concern.
His journey of 24 miles to Dunedin and back each day involved three to four hours’ travel in all weathers, part of it in an open buggy. in 1911 Reid made the decision to sell ‘Salisbury’ and the following year it was purchased by Mr L C Hazlett who retained the flat land for grazing his race horses and built the four cottages between ‘Salisbury’ and the North Taieri Church.
From 1945 to 1965 Mr E C S Falconer of Dunedin owned the property… The present owners are Mr and Mrs P O McDonnell. To maintain the ‘Salisbury property in its former condition would be costly and a great deal of work. Young Mr and Mrs J W Penno [who] now live in the house… – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon

Whare Flat School

Starting from a whare of stones, built by Mr Birnie in 1857 at the junction of Whare Creek and the Silverstream, the settlement at Whare Flat consisted manly of Scots, nearly all of whom spoke Gaelic. The first school opened in 1868 in a ‘but’ and ‘ben’ with Mr Neil McLeod as the teacher. The earliest roll call has a strong highland flavour: Macmillans, McQuilkans, Camerons, Kays, McDoalds, McInnesses, McLachlans, Jollys, McKenies, Leishmans, Pages, McRaes, McIntyres, Andersons, Hays, Thomsons, Rollinsons, Lambs, Lennies, Dodds, Gilchrists.
Later, the present wooden schoolhouse and school were built and Mr Robert Leishman, who owned the only bullock dray in the valley carted all the timber. This one-class, sole-charge school had 42 pupils at one time before it closed in 1943 and the pupils came from as far as Strath-Taieri and boarded in the valley during the week. The building was the centre of social, educational and religious life of the community and on Sundays public worship was held there by preachers from Knox Church and later from North Taieri Church, with Dr Stuart presiding on special occasions.
The first southern exit from Dunedin was by Halfway Bush along the Silverstream to North Taieri so that this settlement, with its two flax-mills and rope works, was until about 1860 a busy highway. Travellers would be mainly on foot, carrying heavy loads as bullocks and horses were scarce. Stock for the farms was driven this way from Port Chalmers and Dunedin where it was landed from Australia and thousands of sheep passed each year at shearing time to and from the woolshed on Flagstaff. About 100 diggers set to work on the surrounding hills when gold was discovered at Darkie’s Gully and there was said to be an illicit still at Powder Creek. In the mid 1870s however, the Dunedin Corporation took over the whole area as a watershed and the settlers gradually moved out as the trees were planted. – “Taieri Buildings” 1970 by Daphne Lemon

Horseshoe Bush

South of Lake Waihola in the region known as Waihola Gorge, a road branches off the Main South Road by the brick Ewing Phosphate Company building. At the end of this, a left-hand turn marked ‘Drivers Road. No Exit’ leads to this stable where Mr P J Heffernan, owner of Horseshoe Bush Estate since 1967 keeps his racehorses.
This stable, completed in 1884 with stone from the hill behind, took two years to build and consists of 12 stalls, 2 loose boxes, living quarters for two men, harness and storage rooms. The concrete floor laid over 18 inches of blue metal hammered into the swamp ground, the joinery by Mr Littlejohn of Milton and the masonry by Mr Lothian of Burnside are still in excellent condition; and the original spouting and Scotch iron roofing are still there. …
… It was built for Henry Driver who, born in the U.S.A. came to Otago as a youth from the Australian gold diggings. A merchant in Dunedin, he served on the first City Council and the Provincial Council and for a number of years was the member for Roslyn in the House of Representatives. …
… in 1884 he retired from public life. With the eye of a perfectionist, he supervised the completion of the stable and the area adjacent to it was divided into eight 22-acre paddocks with hawthorn hedges, each one with a heavy oregon gate with a number. …
… W H Valpy [when he] settled on the property in 1853, calling it ‘Horseshoe Bush’. …
… Another point of interest at ‘Horseshoe Bush’ is the ‘mound’, Waihola Gorge (now Clarendon) cemetery, which is on top of the knoll reached through a gate where the road marked Circle Hill joins the Clarendon-Berwick road. There are several unmarked graves, but names of several well-known families and people in the area can be read on the remaining tombstones. These include Yorston, Young, Bell, Fryer, Sinclair, Sutherland, Craigie, Donald McMaster, Rev. John McNicol and H B Flett. – “More Taieri Buildings” by Daphne Lemon, 1972.

Thomson’s Wairongoa Water

Mr A C B Thomson lifted a moss-covered piece of wood from the track and exposed an iron pipe from which water poured into a small tank set in the ground. I gasped slightly as I swallowed the first mouthful. ‘It’s fizzy and tastes like the Tonic you have with gin.’ The water contains carbon dioxide, 99.5 per cent pure, soda, iron and many trace elements. ‘This could be a spa like those in the Black Forest but it’s much more beautiful here, I think. … There are ten natural springs in 100 yards along the track through the glade where the most surprising mixture of native and exotic trees grow together. …
… The bottling shed, where the track opens out, was built in 1894, and about six year ago was refaced with corrugated iron. Inside is a balcony with a wooden slatted front. ‘As children we used to act plays up there and the audience would sit downstairs.’ A small six-sided shed, next to this building, once housed the gasometer where the natural carbon dioxide, collected from the spring water, was used to charge the soda syphons.
Wairongoa, which means Medicine Water, was known to the Maoris and this area was first acquired by Mr John Bell who settled at Woodside. Mr Alexander Thomson purchased it from him in 1894. Bottling of the water commenced the same year in the existing shed and it was exported as far as Australia until transport and freight charges made it uneconomical. The bottling business closed down in 1939.
In this corner of North Taieri, once bare tussock, scrub, gorse and rocks, Alexander Thomson ran his farm, specialising in Clydesdales which won many prizes and championships; and he also created a beauty spot. Visitors in their thousands used to come to see the trees, spacious lawns and two splendid fountains. Trains made a special stop here. And although the bottled water was on sale in the shops, visitors were allowed to drink it on the property and to take away as much as they could carry with them. But this generosity was repaid with the most violent form of vandalism and the Thomson family were forced to close their property to the public.
Wairongoa is still closed to the public and readers are requested not to try and gain admittance. – “Taieri Buildings”, by Daphne Lemon, 1970.