Bay Harbour: July 19, 2023

The Port of Lyttelton’s
historic jetties
Wednesday July 19 2023 Bay Harbour News
TREASURES FROM THE PAST 11
ON JUNE 20, the Lyttelton
Port Company announced their
decision to dismantle three of
the inner harbour’s historic
wharves – jetties 4, 5 and 6.
These late 19th century structures,
which have been witness
to so much maritime activity
over more than a century, have
not been accessible to the public
since the mid 1990s.
The port company says 66kms
of timber will be removed,
including the piles which will be
extracted by a crane on a barge
(currently visible in place beside
No. 6 jetty). When possible, the
timber will be recycled by being
gifted to iwi, local councils and
community groups, with necessary
environmental controls in
place in regard to the infestation
of Mediterranean fanworm,
found in the piles in 2022.
Prior to European settlement,
the waterfront was utilised by
Whakaraupō Māori as a base for
fishing and trading at Ōhinehou
Lyttelton, near the entrance to
today’s road tunnel, and also
near the site of the old post
office.
The bay which would become
the Port of Lyttelton had shallow
water to a depth of only about
8m at low tide and a gently sloping
sandy shore on its eastern
flanks, with rocky bluffs to the
west. The seabed was loess; a
fine wind-deposited silt, which
made for huge challenges when
colonial infrastructure began to
be constructed, as it turned to a
cloying mud when worked.
Once Lyttelton had been
officially designated a port on
August 30, 1849, preparations for
the arrival of the Canterbury Association’s
fleet of ‘Pilgrim’ ships
bound for the carefully planned
settlement of the region began in
earnest.
Under the watchful eye of
the Canterbury Association’s
chief surveyor Captain Joseph
Thomas, the loads of Tasmanian
hardwood were imported and
the first jetty was constructed by
Messrs John Grubb, and Robert
and Magnus Allan.
While the jetty was being built,
others worked on levelling the
foreshore, the construction of
a seawall, the roadway named
Norwich Quay (after the Anglican
Bishopric of Norwich) along
with a customs house, agent’s
office, immigration barracks
and a fine house for Canterbury
Association agent and leader
Robert Godley.
That first jetty, known as
Thomas’s or ‘the Government
Jetty,’ was soon extended with
screw piles, the installation of
which highlighted the peculiarities
of the seabed in as much as
the liquified silt ‘swallowed’ most
of the rock that was thrown at it.
Port development continued
apace through the rest of the
century. The construction of
‘Peacock’s Wharf’ in 1857 was
The Ocean Steamer wharf at Lyttelton under
construction. The paddle steamer tug Lyttelton’ at
centre wharf, 1884.
Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref 14625.103
https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1135372
a privately funded enterprise by
John Jenkins Peacock; this was
the first commercial jetty near
the location of today’s No. 7
Jetty (also known as the ‘Ocean
Steamer wharf’ through the 20th
century).
The massive engineering
achievement of the construction
of the rail tunnel through the
hill to Heathcote provided
much spoil for the reclamation
nowadays occupied by oil tanks.
A damaging tsunami caused by
an earthquake in Peru in 1868
convinced the powers that be
of the need for breakwaters to
protect the inner harbour; the
eastern mole, completed in 1876
with railway lines, goods shed
and lighthouse, became known
as Gladstone Pier.
With the establishment of the
Lyttelton Harbour Board in 1877,
facilities continued to be built
and improved, including jetties
4, 5 and 6, constructed between
1875-1881.
Another essential element of
port infrastructure, the graving
dock was opened in 1883 to
much fanfare. Over ensuing
years the inner harbour jetties
saw the arrival and departure
of countless vessels powered by
both sail and steam.
The museum’s online collection
holds numerous images of
a forest of masts and funnels at
these jetties – vessels servicing
the frozen meat and wool trade,
royal visitors, troop and hospital
ships, Antarctic exploration vessels,
naval craft including those
that served Operation Deep
Freeze in the 1950s and 60s, tugs,
ferries, steamers and pleasure
boats. Neighbouring No. 2 Jetty
hosted the movements of the
interisland ferry service for 80
years until ceasing of operations
in 1976.
The development of Cashin
Quay from 1957-1964 and the
opening of the Container Terminal
in 1976 saw cargo movement
shift away from the inner harbour
jetties.
Jetties 4, 5 and 6 had their
decking replaced in 1978,
however from the early 1990s
they had fallen into such a state
of disrepair they were deemed
unsafe and public access was no
longer permitted.
Locals of a certain generation
tell stories of their exploits on
and around those jetties, including
the museum’s own founder,
Baden Norris, who wrote of
searching for ‘treasure’ around
the jetty piles as a boy.
To date, Lyttelton Port
Company has not announced
any plans for operational
activities in the vicinity once
the ‘broken teeth’ in the inner
harbour’s smile have been
removed.
Aerial view of
Lyttelton Port in
1937.
Te Ūaka The
Lyttelton Museum
ref 14169.1
https://www.
teuaka.org.nz/
online-collection
/1134895