Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

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Many who came on holiday to Akaroa in the first half of the 20 th century camped. Taylors camping ground, described as the “official motorists’ camping ground”, was established on a sloping site on Rue Balguerie. It became the town’s official Automobile Association campground. In 1947, this camp ground offered penny-in-the-slot electric meters and plug-ins for caravans. In that year, camping visitors had the option of using the Progress Association’s camp ground behind the Post Office, but this seems not to have been a long-lived venture. There was also, for a time in the middle of this period, a camping ground up Aylmers Valley, near Fyffe’s boarding house. 18 Various activities were promoted to draw people to Akaroa. A golf course was laid out immediately beyond the reservoir of the power station (see below). In 1926, the course had nine holes and was described as being within 15 minutes walk of town. By 1947 it was a “splendid” 18-hole course with a good motor road to the club house. It remained until after 1950. There were tennis courts in the Domain and behind the Grand Hotel, where the Akaroa Lawn Tennis Club was based. On or near the Recreation Ground were three croquet courts, a basketball court and a bowling green. Apart from these sports, Akaroa was promoted as offering many beautiful walks, places of historic interest, abundant fishing, boating and bathing, launch trips and “hundreds of picnic places”. All these activities, the promotional literature promised, could be done in beautiful surroundings under unusually favourable climatic conditions. By 1926, it was already possible to take a trip that remained a popular activity for tourists into the early 21 st century. The Press told its readers in 1926 of the Eastern Bays trip with Read’s Royal Mail motor service that “the ... glories of this marvellous trip are simply indescribable”. 19 The sea remained important because it provided opportunities for recreation not readily available elsewhere in Canterbury. “From a yachtsman’s viewpopint” the Press declared in 1926, Akaroa “is a paradise”. Launches were available to take visitors on pleasure trips to “all the most picturesque places of interest around this beautiful harbour” or out fishing. The fishing included red cod which could be caught “almost anywhere a line is dropped” and blue cod towards the heads. Crayfish could be taken “in large quantities” in season. Bathing was also popular, the town’s “lovely sloping sandy beach [being] safe for the smallest infants to paddle”. 20 In 1913, fire consumed the building which the Akaroa Rowing Club had erected on Beach Road at the far the southern end of the town after its earlier boat house by Daly’s Wharf had burned down. The Club’s third (surviving) boat house, on the same site as the second, was opened in 1914. For swimmers, a bathing shed and enclosure for swimming were built in 1910. It survived until the 1960s. (This facility is discussed more fully in the following section of this report.) 21 During the Great Depression, private donations and labour made available under unemployment schemes enabled the Borough Council to erect, near these baths, “a handsome and ornamental building in keeping with its surroundings” to serve as a Ladies’ Rest Rooms. The building, erected right on the sea wall, behind the War Memorial 18 Akaroa Tourist Guide Book II (1947), p. 27 19 Akaroa Tourist Guide Book II (1947), pp. 17, 27; Akaroa Tourist Guide Book I, pp. 1, 18-19, 36; The Press, 28 September 1926, Supplement, p. I 20 The Press, 28 September 1926, Supplement 21 Ogilvie, Cradle, p. 45; AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 6 YEARS OF STABILITY 1900 TO 1950 PAGE 93
grounds, was dedicated to the wives of the old pioneers 22 (refer figure 6.7). The waterfront through these years was a popular place to promenade and rest. It was well-maintained by the Borough Council. “Well cared for garden plots and flower-beds adorn the waterfront and Britomart reserves” one guide book told prospective visitors. (The plantings on and use of the waterfront are discussed more fully in the landscape sections of this report.) 23 Daly’s Wharf, which was used mainly by pleasure boats and launches taking visitors out on the harbour, was re-opened after it had been reconstructed in February 1915. 24 Figure 6.7. The popularity of swimming and sunbathing among visitors to the resort town Akaroa became in the years between the two World Wars is evident in this photo of the main beach, probably just before World War II. The Ladies’ Rest Rooms on the foreshore, visible close to the bathing shed, were built in the early 1930s. Ref: 2182 Industry It was acknowledged as early as the 1920s that visitors were the economic lifeblood of Akaroa. “The cocksfoot still sometimes waves on the field” the Press declared in 1926 “though it no longer brings wealth; but the township itself now depends largely on the tourist for its resources.” 25 That industry has never played a significant role in Akaroa’s development has often been celebrated. Andersen wrote in 1927 that “[i]t is a pleasure ... to know that there is a place of such natural beauty where the ambition is not to mar it with useful but unbeautiful industries, but rather to preserve such of the natural beauty that remains, and add to it the parks and gardens of man.” 26 But tourism was far from the sole, or even overwhelmingly important, means of support Akaroa relied on in the first half of the 20 th century. Industry continued to have a small 22 Akaroa Mail, 25 October 1933 23 Akaroa Tourist Guide Book I, p. 5 24 Ogilvie, Cradle, p. 45 25 The Press, 28 September 1926, Editorial 26 Andersen, Place Names, pp. 43-44 AKAROA HERITAGE OVERVIEW : SECTION 6 YEARS OF STABILITY 1900 TO 1950 PAGE 94
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A REPORT PREPARED FOR: KERI DAVIS-M
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LIST OF FIGURES: Section 2: Introdu
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Figure 6.7. Akaroa beach before WW
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Figure 7.41. View of hillside veget
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SECTION ONE: OVERVIEW Report Contex
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It draws particular attention to wh
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AKAROA: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Sect
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It had the appearance of remoteness
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SECTION THREE: LANDSCAPE & HUMAN HI
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Paka Ariki seems to have had a less
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They appear also on occasion to hav
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The settlers were given clear title
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Commercial Hotel. (Green sold this
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Figure 4.2. The cottage built in 18
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Charlotte Godley, however, observed
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THE NATURAL AND PLANTED LANDSCAPE P
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own property in Takamatua and the n
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By 1847 cropping and stock breeding
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Figure 4.10. Father Sione's plan sh
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Figure 4.12. Plan of the Akaroa sho
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EXTANT TOWN FABRIC & FEATURES DATIN
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SECTION FIVE: THE COLONIAL TOWN 185
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Akaroa’s transformation from vill
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Although the proportion of Akaroa
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The most important concentration of
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The largest private home built in 1
Page 55 and 56: He soon built his own store and coa
Page 57 and 58: time after 1884 (probably in 1888)
Page 59 and 60: Figure 5.17. In this view looking s
Page 61 and 62: Industry Industry had less of an im
Page 63 and 64: Public institutions As Akaroa grew
Page 65 and 66: One of the organisations which met
Page 67 and 68: The first Anglican church was built
Page 69 and 70: distinctively Akaroa style of archi
Page 71 and 72: The Akaroa Mail greeted the formati
Page 73 and 74: Figure 5.28. For a time in the late
Page 75 and 76: THE COLONIAL LANDSCAPE The disappea
Page 77 and 78: By 1900 the forest was virtually go
Page 79 and 80: Figure 5.32. Walnut Avenue was the
Page 81 and 82: Figure 5.34. Charles Haylock's prop
Page 83 and 84: The resort garden and the seaside h
Page 85 and 86: The re-invigoration of the town's e
Page 87 and 88: public gardens in the colony” 122
Page 89 and 90: Britomart or Green's Point Monument
Page 91 and 92: Names on the landscape in 1900 The
Page 93 and 94: c SNAPSHOT OF AKAROA IN 1900 The 19
Page 95 and 96: Public buildings and structures •
Page 97 and 98: AKAROA: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Sect
Page 99 and 100: During and just after World War II,
Page 101 and 102: with the previous half century. Two
Page 103 and 104: The unveiling of the monument on Gr
Page 105: Figure 6.5. James Bruce established
Page 109 and 110: Building a dairy factory in Akaroa
Page 111 and 112: Community Life Between 1900 and 195
Page 113 and 114: The building of the Post Office was
Page 115 and 116: through Little River and over Hillt
Page 117 and 118: Power from the Lake Coleridge power
Page 119 and 120: area without the fear of currents a
Page 121 and 122: Land reclaimed on the northern beac
Page 123 and 124: Akaroa cemetery: “the most inviti
Page 125 and 126: Figure 6.23 The central memorial fe
Page 127 and 128: Centennial celebrations In preparat
Page 129 and 130: In addition to built landscape elem
Page 131 and 132: Coronation Oaks were planted on L'A
Page 133 and 134: Figure 6.34. Aylmers Valley Road in
Page 135 and 136: Figure 6.36. The Narbey family home
Page 137 and 138: c SNAPSHOT OF AKAROA IN 1950 Descri
Page 139 and 140: Public buildings and structures •
Page 141 and 142: SECTION SEVEN: CHANGE AND GROWTH 19
Page 143 and 144: When the Akaroa County first drew u
Page 145 and 146: The Metropole and Bruce fires left
Page 147 and 148: offered from the 1970s and more rec
Page 149 and 150: By the late 20 th century, a town w
Page 151 and 152: ensure as far as possible that the
Page 153 and 154: Figure 7.7. In this aerial view tak
Page 155 and 156: This expectation was fulfilled. In
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On Rue Balguerie, subdivision in 19
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But the spread of houses onto those
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Figure 7.16. Some architects who de
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Farrell stated her case against the
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Figure 7.19. Behind the recent and
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Figure 7.22. The Haylock House on A
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In 1970 a local complained to the w
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Figure 7.25. The new gymnasium on t
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Figure 7.26. General view of Akaroa
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palms, sumach, chestnuts and walnut
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Commemorative fabric and historic t
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The changing face of the Domain Dur
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Cemetery reserves: “nothing but c
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widened in part to better accommoda
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Figure 7.38. 1972 map of Akaroa . P
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c SNAPSHOT OF AKAROA TODAY The seco
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EXTANT TOWN FABRIC DATING FROM 1950
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Come to Akaroa Canterbury’s Premi
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Vangioni. L. J. (1967) Old Maori pl
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Akaroa Mail, 7 September 2001 Akaro
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Appendix 2. Although Akaroa's popul
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Appendix 4. Typically, subdivisions
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Appendix 6. In 1946, the block of l
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Appendix 8. In 1953, the extensive
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Appendix 10. In 1962, one of the fi
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Appendix 12. After the major subdiv
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Appendix 14. On the south side of A
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Appendix 16. The most recent large
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Appendix 18. Nearly 20 years passed
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Appendix 20. In 1971, the block of
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Appendix 22. A 1981 subdivision saw
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Appendix 24. The Settlers Hill subd
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Appendix 26. The houses on Percy St
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Appendix 28. As development extende
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Appendix 30. As development crept u
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Akaroa Historical Overview - Christchurch City Council

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