by Guest Author Max C. Avery
For nearly 40 years the cargo shed on the Railway Wharf was
the very busy hub of Tauranga’s mercantile marine commercial trading. It
remains the only substantial architectural feature of the Tauranga water-front
of the previous century - a reminder of bygone days when the wharf was crowded
with sailing scows, coastal and trans-Tasman steamers and motor ships.
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| Railway Wharf, early 1930s Real photo postcard, photographed and published by Robert J. Rendell Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 0318/10 |
The shed had its origins in a 1919 proposal for development of the Port of Tauranga by engineer J. Blair-Mason, commissioned by the Tauranga Harbour Board (THB): “The construction of the quay proposed as part of the railway works at Tauranga should meet the needs of the coastal trade for some time to come, and allow for berthing a superior and large class of vessel,” the engineer surmised. At the time Tauranga had only the Town Wharf (off Wharf Street) and the Victoria Wharf (off Harrington Street), of which Blair observed: “None are adapted for berthing large vessels, or for the rapid handling of cargo and the quick dispatch of vessels.” With remarkable optimism and foresight, they recommended the construction of 9530 ft of berthage at Tauranga and 13,170 ft of berthage at Mount Maunganui.
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| Unidentified steamer arriving at the Railway Wharf, Tauranga, c. 1927-1935 Unmounted loose Velox print, postcard format, by unidentified photographer Tauranga Heritage Collection Ref. 0692/08 |
However, the Public Works Department’s plan for a quay of about 710 ft at Tauranga prevailed. The East Coast Main Trunk Railway (ECMT) was then being built, and in February 1924 the bridge link to Matapihi was completed and the rails laid to the Town Wharf. Construction of the new wharf (which would be known as the Railway Wharf, as it carried a spur line from the ECMT) and the cargo shed began early in 1925 and was completed in 1927, although at first the wharf provided only 320 ft of berthage. The cargo shed, with sliding doors opening to the wharf on one side, and a landing for motor trucks on its Dive Crescent frontage, was a much-needed and much-utilised feature. When the last section of the ECMT (from Katikati to the Wairoa Bridge) was opened on March 28, 1928 the wharf went into full operation, with some cargo being transferred direct from ships’ holds to railway wagons, and other items into the shed or through to motor trucks, and vice versa.
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| “Dive Crescent – Situated at the north end of The Strand, is a hive of
industry.” Half-tone print used in Western Bay of Plenty Year Book, c. 1950s Collection of John & Julie Green |
Under the steady supervision of long-time wharfinger Jack Treweek, coasting vessels of all types, sailing scows, steamers, motor ships, and scows converted to mechanical propulsion, hailing from ports north and south, were found berths in order of their arrival. The masters of coasters like Clansman, Seagull, Kohi, Toa and Tuhoe had pilotage exemptions, and it was said they could smell their way up the Stella Passage in the dead of a dark and dirty night. All manner of general cargo, some bagged, boxed and baled, some in sacks and barrels, and drums, and individual items like machinery and motor vehicles, were hoisted onto the wharf using ship’s gear, for there were no wharf cranes. Steam and kerosene stationary engines hissed and banged as they turned the winches and capstans. The wharfies skilfully handled the ropes to land the cargo on big iron-wheeled trollies, to be trundled off to the cargo shed. There Jack Treweek, and the representatives of the Northern and Union Steam Ship Companies, if their ships were alongside, scanned cargo manifests and organised temporary storage in the cargo shed, or immediate onward carriage of goods.
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| “Three of a Kind: Aerial photo of the Company’s Hotunui, Nikau
and Maunganui occupying the whole of the available berthage at Town
Wharf, Tauranga, September 1955.” Advertisement for The Northern Steamship Company Limited, mid- to late 1950s Collection of John & Julie Green |
Cargo over the railway wharf and through the cargo shed grew steadily. Until 1949 all imports were exclusively coastal in character and Tauranga’s wharf had never been busier. Ships were sometimes double-banked, awaiting a berth alongside the wharf. Tauranga Harbour board chairman Jock Reid reported a record 55,600 tons of cargo handled in 1953, and in June 1954 the New Zealand Herald surveyed Tauranga shipping and noted that that “Tauranga town wharf will remain the principal point for handling provincial and inter-island coastal cargo as well as a considerable tonnage of export timber, but further increased shed accommodation will be required.” However, the wharf and cargo shed were about to become victims of their own success, for in 1955 the chairman of the directors of the Northern Steamship Company was reported as saying that the inadequate port facilities at Tauranga were involving the company in losses on its provincial trades.
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Railway Wharf, Dive Crescent, Tauranga, c. late 1960s |
By this time the Sleigh Line of Australia was sending its ships James Cook and Matthew Flinders to Tauranga to load cargoes of timber. L.B. Mckenzie and Bert Godfrey were busy pioneering this trade and Dive Crescent was becoming quite congested with New Zealand Lumber Company straddle trucks carrying packets of timber between road, rail and ship, while fork lifts handled exports from the Whakatane Board Mills. By 1957 the Northern Steamship Company was declaring that congestion was such that the company had to curtail its services to Tauranga.
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| Tauranga Railway Wharf Cargo Shed and warehouse, |
The company was advised in June 1958 by the Tauranga Harbour Board that plans were in hand for the immediate construction of extra berthage space at the wharf, but it seems it was too little and too late. Load restrictions were placed on the deteriorating decking of the wharf, and the Mount Maunganui Wharf was then open and thriving. Within a few years the Northern Steamship Company flag would be only a memory at Tauranga. That situation applied also to most of the small coastal traders, as union activity saw them becoming increasingly uneconomic.
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During the 1960s the trend in cargo handling was to bulk palletisation and containerisation. Individual items were carried by more efficient road transport, and with fewer general goods there was less need for the cargo shed. In March 1965 Poranui was the last NSS Company coaster to visit the Railway Wharf. The occasional cattle carrier called, the Wilson Portland Cement Company’s bulk carriers continued to be regular visitors, but they had no use for the cargo shed. Yet the wharf still provided a useful berth. When harbourmaster Captain H.A.C. Hodkinson took a 441 ft Liberty ship up the Stella Passage the occasion went into the record book as the longest ship to berth at the Railway Wharf. THB pilot Captain John Weston created a new and enduring record on June 26, 1968 when he berthed the 460 ft log carrier Kyotaku Maru at the war, but the cargo shed remained largely idle.
The construction of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge and its opening on March 13, 1988 sealed the fate of the Railway Wharf and the cargo shed. From that date nothing larger than trawlers and launches could navigate the harbour south of Sulphur Point due to the height restriction caused by the bridge. The Railway Wharf continued to deteriorate and was in part demolished, but the cargo shed, still sound and weather-tight after nearly 40 years as the hub of Tauranga’s maritime commerce, was hereafter used for a variety of social purposes.
