Sulphur Point

Sulphur Point works, c1910-1924
Collection of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 04-629

On 30 March 1885 the New Zealand Manure and Chemical Company was formed to mine sulphur on Whakaari (White Island) intending to produce both fertiliser and sulphur ore, the latter for export and also to be used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid.

The Spit and Mount, Tauranga, c1909
Postcard from the collection of Justine Neal

A base on the mainland was needed and Tauranga was chosen because of its sheltered harbour and the hilly surrounding countryside providing a convenient market for fertiliser. A site was acquired on the shore of Tauranga Harbour at what came to be known, for obvious reasons, as Sulphur Point. A small superphosphate manufacturing works was built. This plant was demolished in 1910. For the next 70 years various enterprises made use of the Spit including being used as the rubbish dump.

In 1907 George Moore established a fishing and fish drying industry at Sulphur Point and with the help of the Salvation Army a small freezing plant was set up. The Te Ope Fish Supply Company was sold to Sanford Ltd. in 1913.

The Spit and Mount, Tauranga, c1915
Chromolithographic postcard by Mirrielees & McMahon
Collection of Justine Neal

The Tauranga Defence Rifle Club had its rifle range at Sulphur Point and in 1917 Captain J.C. Millar presented to the club a handsome tea set and tray to be shot for by the ladies on the rifle range on March 1^st. The lady who won it was Elva Brain and the silver tea service and tray are on display at the Brain Watkin House along with a photo of Elva beautifully attired in her long white dress and hat.

In 1923 plans were approved for the White Island Chemical Company to construct a wharf at Sulphur Point. They wanted to extend the existing jetty to a maximum of 600 feet in order that larger vessels could load and unload at the wharf at any time.

The Spit and Mauao, undated postcard
Collection of Justine Neal

In 1926 the Sulphur Point Road was metalled to give easier access to the White Island Agricultural Chemical Company’s works. This company became White Island Products and eventually went into liquidation in 1934 with the plant being auctioned on site at Sulphur Point.

In 1942 a permit was issued to the firm of J Kaaklund Ltd. for the establishment of a fish canning works. The build was not smooth sailing as the following report from the Bay of Plenty Times, 15 December 1942 records.

 

“While engaged in placing roofing iron on the building at Sulphur Point, which is to be used as a fish canning factory, yesterday afternoon Mr.J.D.Simpson, of Hairini and Mr. Gordon Decke, of First Avenue, fell twenty feet to the ground.

Mr. Simpson suffered a fractured leg and is a patient in Tauranga Hospital, his condition being satisfactory, while Mr. Decke suffered from shock.

The two men were sitting on a sheet of iron from which they had removed the nails to adjust, when the sheet slid off the roof, carrying Mr. Simpson and Mr. Decke with it.”

Later that year the Public Works Dept. advised that it had recently acquired three sections at Sulphur Point and wished to erect three tents or huts for their staff.

Railway Station on reclaimed land at Sulphur Point, undated
Postcard from Tauranga Heritage Collection, Ref. 0030/11

In 1944 there were plans afoot for Sulphur Point to become an industrial area. Tauranga Harbour Board leased four sections to TeKau Knitwear. Mr. P. Densem said thought needed to be given to the erection of buildings and layout and provision of open spaces so the board could not be blamed for creating slums later on.

The first proposal I can find for reclamation at Sulphur Point is 1937 when a proposal was made to reclaim 5 acres between the railway yards and the shore end of Sulphur Point. This proposal did not go ahead. Eventually land reclamation for Sulphur Point began in ernest in 1965 and by 1990 90 hectares of land had been reclaimed.

References

Island Volcano, W.T.Parham.

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Papers Past, Bay of Plenty Times, 3 Mar 1944
Papers Past, Bay of Plenty Times, 7 Feb 1917
Papers Past, Bay of Plenty Times, 15 Dec 1942
Papers Past, Bay of Plenty Times, 9 Apr 1926
Papers Past, Bay of Plenty Times, 29 Sept 1944
Papers Past, Bay of Plenty Times, 3 May 1926
Papers Past, Bay of Plenty Times, 14 Aug 1942