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."
Much has been
made of the prodigious railway bridge at Matapihi
and a useful resource from the Katikati Library Archive
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
– 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. 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.
 |
Building the railway bridge over the Waikareao Estuary, Watercolour by Ethel McMillan
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. Ams 80/11/43 |
This
exuberant watercolour by Ethel Mcmillan
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
the idea. His successor Minister K S
Williams in fact walked
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
that let them loop home via Judea. Trains had been running regularly on the
track since 1928.
 |
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. 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. 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." The predictable brouhaha about the actual
site of the Te Puna Station was significantly influenced by canny hopes that an "adequate" road 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.
In 1924 construction of the railway
between Tuapiro and Tauranga was contracted to Sir William G Armstrong,
Whitworth and Company. 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."
 |
| Omokoroa railwayCollection 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.
 |
| Railway Overbridge planCollection 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.
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)
