Bay Harbour: September 07, 2016

PAGE 6 BAY HARBOUR
Wednesday September 7 2016
Our People
Author unearths the history of
Governors Bay’s Jane Robertson is documenting
the long history of the head of the harbour in a new
book which is about to be released. Our reporter
Annabelle Dick spoke to her about quitting her
job to dedicate her hours to the time-consuming
publication, the surprises she uncovered and how
the peninsula kept dragging her back.
Your book Head of the Harbour
is about to be released, can you
tell me about it?
It’s a history of the area from
Teddington around to Governors
Bay – so Teddington, Allandale
Ohinetahi, Governors Bay and
Sandy Bay. It’s really a history
starting with the formation of
the landscape and the volcanoes
in Lyttelton and Akaroa. It looks
at the land, the fauna and flora
and then it comes forward and
looks at Maori history and the
Maori settlement at Ohinetahi.
Then there’s the European
settlement and it goes from
there. It’s being launched at the
beginning of December and it’s
being published by David Bundy.
Why did you decide to write
the book?
It started off as a little project,
and I thought I’d interview
some of the older residents in
Governors Bay to get some
record of their stories. It wasn’t
going to be any more than that
but talking to David Bundy he
said someone should write a
book on the head of the harbour
and I thought I’d do it.
How did you go about
sourcing information?
It took me five years worth of
gathering to compile the book. I
went on conducting interviews
with local older people and I
realised that to make sense of
what they were talking about
I needed to do some more
research myself and better
understand that ground. So I got
into archival research using old
newspapers, the museum library,
resources that were available as
well as unpublished materials.
Another primary source was
diaries and letters from local
families.
Was there any discoveries you
made that surprised you?
HOME: Jane Robertson considers Governors Bay her
‘turangawaewae’ or the place where she stands in life.
That’s a big one. A few things
actually . . . well something I
didn’t know was that there was
a Maori pa on the side of Mt
Bradley. Another thing that
was a puzzle was to do with
“Exclusive range
of pottery,
furniture,
handcrafts,
stoneware &
gifts”
the jetties around the harbour.
One of the things that I learnt
was that in Teddington in the
1860s there was a 90m jetty
that extended out into the mud
flats and there’s still evidence
of the jetty there but it was
washed away in the 1868 tidal
wave. There was a lot of activity
going on up there and this was
a major jetty and I found that
really interesting. Also the fact
that the Governors Bay jetty
was on record as being built in
1883 but it was actually built
back in about 1874 and then it
was extended twice because of
the mud flats and because of the
fact it kept silting up. Another
thing that surprises me was one
of the first arriving families,
Samuel and Jean Manson, had
17 children – here they were,
they were pioneers and setting
up their own farm and she was
just having children one after
another. They must have worked
so hard. This also used to be an
orchard and horticultural area –
there were lots of plums, apricot
trees, outdoor tomatoes and
early potatoes. Almost
all of that is gone now but
it really defines the nature
of Allandale, Ohinetahi and
Governors Bay.
Dr Tim Lindley
For Heathcote Community Board
395 Brougham St,
Christchurch
Ph (03) 365-3411
Open 7 days
Mon-Fri 10-4.30pm
Weekends 10-4pm
“For communities
you’ll love to live in”
@timlindleychch
Authorised by Tim Lindley, 28 Patmos Place, Mount Pleasant, Christchurch, 8081
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