Early settlement of Tauranga Moana benefited hugely from the natural accessways of its estuaries and waterways – navigable at least to the limits of their tidal swells and occasionally, as in the case of the Waimapu, Kopureroa, Wairoa, and Uretara, quite a lot further inland. But for the East Coast Main Trunk Railway, the harbour’s wide shallow stretches of mudflats and saltmarsh were impediments. Tauranga’s geography set a major challenge and made for a long gap in time before the railway from Waihi’s goldfields was joined up with the 1910 site of the "first sod" at Awakeri, "51 miles and 5 chains from Tauranga."[1]
Much has been made of the prodigious railway bridge at Matapihi[2] and a useful resource from the Katikati Library Archive[3] explains the extension from the Athenree end of the line as far as Apata.
But the bits in between – the Waikaraeo estuary, the Bellevue saltmarsh, the Wairoa River, and the not unimportant watery gulfs between three Te Puna peninsulas[4] – also needed bridging. No fewer than eight bridges of varying lengths were built as the line skirted the harbour edge from Waikaraeo before it turned inland to Apata. Crossings were needed at the Waipapa Estuary and another minor channel west of Pahoia. Perhaps the degree of engineering expertise required was not on the scale of the Matapihi construction but these other gaps in the landmass were just as important to fill.
The survey for the Waihi-Tauranga line had been completed as early as 1908[5]. Its actual building came much later – and the bridges were the last and most expensive items to go in. And, as usual, everyone wanted to get the most out of them.
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| Building the railway bridge over the Waikareao Estuary, Watercolour by Ethel McMillan Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. |
This exuberant watercolour by Ethel Mcmillan[6] shows why excitement ran high as residents of Otumoetai speculated on the possibilities of a very shortened trip between their rural area and the township. There was much talk of multi-modal transport (rail and road), "planking" the railway in between trains to allow for road vehicles, and even a Plan C (a mere footbridge) before Minister of Works J G Coates firmly scotched[7] the idea. His successor Minister K S Williams in fact walked[8] the still-unfinished rail bridge in 1927, but it was to be another thirty-five years before cars went over the Waikaraeo rather than around it. Boy Scouts, however, were in 1932 allowed a hike[9] that let them loop home via Judea. Trains had been running regularly on the track since 1928.
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| Wairoa River Bridge construction, 1925, by unidentified photographer Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 03-544 |
The Wairoa River mouth was a significant challenge, well under way in 1925[10]. The flatland of Tahataharoa is in the mid-ground on the right of this image; beside and beyond it Pukewhanake occupies the centre; and the challenges of employing heavy infrastructure on fragile wetland, still felt today, are evident in the marshy wheelmarks on the river shore. The rather sleek launch and the busy barges – engaged in floating the steel spans into position with the aid of the tide – seem much more at home in this watery environment than the boxy piles and their randomly-angled guardian poles.
Forfeiting the navigability of the Wairoa did not go unquestioned. As early as 1910 one W R Turner (unrelated, as far as the writer can tell, to the County Engineer Archibald Turner) advocated for the "value of the Wairoa as a waterway.[11] But the glamour and convenience of road transport was already beguiling both politicians and populace. Coates pointed out, when asked for a significant Public Works loan for the ECMT line, that he had delivered substantial sums to roading "not yet served by a railway."[12] The predictable brouhaha about the actual site of the Te Puna Station was significantly influenced by canny hopes that an "adequate" road[13] would align to the railhead for the convenience of farmers. So it proved. Te Puna Station Road’s logistic importance will be overcome only when the Takitimu North Link comes into operation, this century[14].
In 1924 construction of the railway between Tuapiro and Tauranga was contracted to Sir William G Armstrong, Whitworth and Company[15]. A great many dignitaries, including the British Trade Commissioner, engaged in a complicated journey from Wellington via Waihi to Athenree (motor cars from there to Te Puna) where a shirtsleeved Minister Coates, having been welcomed by Potaua Tangitu, watched a "steam navvy" cut the first substantial sod in the line on his behalf. It was a great day for Te Puna, culminating in a grand celebration dinner that "might easily rank as the most notable function ever held in Tauranga."[16]
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| Omokoroa railway[17] Collection of Western Bay Community Archives, Ref. |
As for the rest? We know the line made its way through the
soft geology of the harbour basin of Tauranga Moana. We are also fortunate to have some practical
idea of how Sir William et al actually did the job.
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| Railway Overbridge plan[18] Collection of Western Bay Community Archives, Ref |
Although dated 1917, it is realistic to assume that the blueprints for the Public Works Department bridges were what Whitworth & Co used to make their railway’s shorter jumps over the waterways that had previously served as transport options. Australian hardwoods took over from sloops and barges. The harbour that had for centuries been a highway was, from 1927, caught in a steel and imported hardwood web.
[2] J Neal, “The East Coast Railway” taurangahistorical.blogspot.com, 6 December 2019
[3] https://westernbay.recollect.co.nz/ East Coast Railways, 2012, Katikati Advertiser Collection
[4] At the end of what is now Newnham Road (the Te Puna Stream estuary).; at Plummers Point; and at Mangawhai Bay
[5] WAI215 AO50.pdf. Anthony Fisher, Keni Piahana, Te Awanuiarangi Black, and Rahera Ohia, Issues Concerning the Use, Control and Management of Tauranga Harbour and Its Estuaries, Report Commissioned in September 1996 by the Waitangi Tribunal for the Tauranga Claim (Wai215)
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