Bay Harbour: July 31, 2019

PAGE 8 BAY HARBOUR
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Wednesday July 31 2019
News
HISTORY: Teddington farmers once used a 300ft jetty, built in 1865, before it was wiped out by a
tsunami three years later.
Blog unearths stories
behind Lyttelton
Harbour’s lost jetties
• By Jess Gibson
YOU MAY not know it, but
Teddington was once home
to a 300ft jetty that stretched
out across the mudflats to help
farmers who used the sea as their
highway.
Its use was short-lived. In 1868,
three years after it was built,
it was wiped out by the largest
recorded distant tsunami to
strike New Zealand.
This story is one of 58 that were
uncovered by Governors Bay
resident Jane Robertson on her
blog Between Land and the Sea:
Jetties of Whakaraupo/Lyttelton
Harbour.
Ms Robertson has just wrapped
her series of blogposts about
Lyttelton Harbour’s lost jetties,
which she has been working on
since early 2018.
She has written stories about
private and public jetties in
Charteris Bay, Purau, Cass Bay
and Camp Bay, among others.
She decided to focus on the
topic of jetties after writing
her 2016 book, Head of the
Harbour: A history of Governors
Bay, Ōhinetahi, Allandale and
Teddington.
For each lost jetty, Ms
Robertson would travel
to its location to see any
evidence and form a
mental picture of what
once was.
“I actually see things
differently. I can see
how difficult life was
for a lot of people,” Ms
Robertson said.
Ms Robertson would
spend about a week
or longer writing each
post, gathering information
from websites, old newspapers,
books, national archives as well
as residents.
She said people who have
viewed the blog have given her
positive feedback.
“What I like most is when
people say, ‘oh, I remember that’.”
“Charteris Bay was an
interesting one because of the old
yacht club out there. I had a lot of
people talk to me about that and
give me photographs. There were
actually a lot of old jetties out that
way once upon a time,”
she said.
Ms Robertson moved
to Governors Bay in
2003 and decided to give
up her job at Canterbury
University in 2006 as
she wanted to earn an
income in Governors
Bay.
“I was fed up with
living in such a
beautiful place and having to
go over the hill and work out of
concrete buildings.”
Do you have a story to tell
about Lyttelton Harbour’s lost
jetties? Email them to:
jess.gibson@starmedia.kiwi
Jane Robertson ​
Governors Bay walking
track temporarily closing
A POPULAR walking track
along the Governors Bay
foreshore will be closed
weekdays for the next two
months.
The closure is necessary
because contractors working on
the Lyttelton Harbour wastewater
project need to lay new
pipeline and electrical cabling
to connect the Jetty Rd pump
station with the new Governors
Bay pump station, which was
commissioned last month.
“Heavy machinery and rock
breaking equipment will be in
use while this work is done so in
the interests of public safety we
have decided to close the track
during the weekdays when the
contractors are working,’’ said
city council senior project manager
Hunter Morgan.
“We know the track though
is very popular so we will be
allowing public access to it in the
weekends.’’
The pipeline and cabling work
is part of the Lyttelton Harbour
Wastewater Project to end the
routine discharge of treated
wastewater into the harbour.
The project involves converting
the wastewater treatment
CLOSED: The Governors Bay
foreshore track will be closed
on weekdays for the next two
months. ​
plants at Cashin Quay, Governors
Bay and Diamond Harbour
into pump stations and piping
all of the harbour’s wastewater
through the Lyttelton Tunnel
and onto the Bromley Wastewater
Treatment Plant.
The Governors Bay foreshore
track will be closing in August
and is expected to reopen at the
end of September.
Community information
sessions about the track closure
will be held in the Governors
Bay Allendale Hall on July 31
and August 1.
Tram lines unearthed
A SECTION of the original
Sumner tram line has
been uncovered during
Sumner Village Master Plan
enhancement works.
Well-preserved tram tracks
were discovered last when undertaking
works in the middle
of the carriageway on Marriner
St, near the intersection with
Burgess St.
A tram line connecting
Christchurch and Sumner was
first proposed in 1855, but it was
not until the 1880s that the idea
became reality, with the Sumner
tram line extension opened in
1888.
City council’s planning,
delivery and transport manager
Lynette Ellis said the on-site
archaeologist was able to record
and photograph the sleepers
and take a sample for later testing.
However, the construction of
the road means that the site is
not able to be preserved.
Contractors are currently
in stage eight of the village
upgrades, which includes
paving footpaths and road
surfaces at the intersection of
Marriner St and Wakefield
Ave, digging up the old road
surface along Wakefield Ave and
building a new one, installing,
testing and chlorinating the
new water mains, installing and
testing the water sub-mains
and continuing to install
the stormwater pipes along
Wakefield Ave.
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