Wallace County Infrastructure - Tūātapere Punt, Midstream in the Waiau River (no date)

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Wallace County Infrastructure - Tūātapere Punt, Midstream in the Waiau River (no date). The punt has a two horse team wagon and rider, with a very large log on it, which might be going off to the mill. The people cannot be seen clearly. This image was gifted as part of the Margaret Thomas Collection, and the photo is in the Public Domain. HISTORY: Tūātapere has been long unfortunate in being built on two sides of the once mighty Waiau River. The only crossing for many decades here, was by a government ferry punt, such as that shown in this photo above. However, Ferry services for the district had originally started off at the Waiau mouth. Hugh Erskine’s boat was for many years, used not only by himself, but by the many miners heading westward. But as the district grew, late in 1893 a site was set aside by the government of the day, for an official Ferry Site, this was gazetted and made into a Ferry Reserve. Hugh Erskine himself was an early ferryman at the mouth, mainly as he was one of the only people with a boat capable of providing this service. But within just a couple of years, by 1896, a regular ferry operated at Waiau mouth by puntsman Robert ‘Bob’ Drummond (he later went upstream to the new Ferry). Historical reports say Frank Green replaced him, followed by John Hunter. It is noted that the two mouths of the river caused issues to early settlers, even back well over 100 years ago. Even with this ferry service in place, as most Te Waewae crib owners were said to have later obtained their own row boats, demand for passage over the river at the mouth, was to fall off. This was also because even as more land was taken up, the Papatotara settlers found their needs better served by the new river punt further up the Waiau, at what became known as ‘Drummond’s Ferry’ after the man who operated the punt for this service (the same ‘Bob’ Drummond who had originally been at the mouth ferry). By 1907, it is recorded there was no longer much business being operated at the Waiau mouth, due to the new ferry, put in place around 3 miles or nearly 5 kms away, where the river had just one stream in a deep channel. The new ferry was situated about where the later Angler’s Rest Hotel was erected by ‘Bill’ or William West, who also had the contract for operating this service. This was later to become a contentious issue for the township and WCC or Wallace County Council. It is further recorded that West and the man who was later to become his puntsman, Charles Rask, had got timber from Pearce’s mill at Te Tua and then on the banks of what became known as Drummond’s Ferry after the first ferryman/puntsman ‘Bob’ Drummond, and these two men assembled the new punt, which started its service there from 1899. Of interest is that none of the puntsmen were employed directly, the contract for providing the punt service was given by the government to ‘Bill’ or William West, who had previously been puntsman at Clifden. And it was he who employed these puntsmen to do the job for him, as he was busy building and running hotels. However the two ferries did remain in operation together for some time, competing for business and also puntmen. It is said that in 1905 Charles McLean took over the lower Waiau mouth ferry but this was short-lived and in 1906 the service returned to puntman John Hunter. In 1908 the very last record of this ferry is noted and at this point the old flaxmill at the river mouth site was leased by Hunter for quite some years. Drummond’s Ferry helped grow the settlements on both sides of the Waiau River and helped develop farms at Papatotara. By the time 1904 rolled around, they were supplying the Te Tua Dairy Factory across the Waiau. The vast unmilled forests and bush across the Western side of the Waiau, also provided much traffic for the punts, and the Drummond’s Ferry (later Tūātapere) punt, was kept extremely busy carting loads of milled timber to the railhead before the bridge at Tūātapere was opened in 1915. This was all before roads were properly formed and the ferry enabled almost guaranteed transport, whereas the tracks which were poorly prepared, were very weather dependent. The punts were reliable transport for supplies, provisions, herds of stock, and even helped to provide social cohesion in the district by allowing people to more easily congregate and travel for events, which helped to provide the base for the new community identity. After opening the Angler’s Rest in 1901, Bill West went on to erect a new double story hotel on the eastern side of the river, situated opposite the planned Railway terminus for the new Tūātapere Branch line. With the railway opening moving closer, West decided to move to the other side of the Waiau where the new township would develop, and to focus his efforts on the hotel business, rather than the government punts. This new hotel, called ‘Wests Waiau Hotel’ was opened on 6th February 1909, the railway later in the year. More on this Hotel can be seen in these archives under entry CWA.012.103.005 Eventually, after a very long wait, many trials and tribulations and even a false start and failure, the Waiau was finally bridged at Tūātapere, the opening being held on 17 March 1915, see more about this on these entries in this archive from CWA.012.055.002 to CWA.012.055.010 and of course this would have further curtailed West's punt traffic, which is why he probably wisely decided to leave the hotel before that time. It was 1970 before the original bridge built at Tūātapere was replaced. Sources used for the above are the school centenary booklet, "Up the Waiau" by Gordon McLeod and "Papatorara" by Mark Hangar alongwith published news items from Papers Past and NZ government gazettes. Hopefully this entry will be added to as more information comes to hand. If you or anyone you know has any more information or photos to share or accounts of the various punts over the Waiau which operated for years, the first Waiau River Bridge Opening in 1915, or the second one replacing it in 1970, please do share this with us in the comments section. You can do this by making a comment in the space provided under the image page. Or you can make contact with us as per details on the archive front page.