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Ngā Tohuwhenua Mai Te Rangi: A New Zealand Archeology in Aerial Photographs
Sealing and whaling
Sealing and whaling
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Opposite. The Denniston coalfield, town and incline in 1959
The coalfield is here marked by the lighter-coloured, deforested country. Coal was taken out by surface tramways around the eastern side of the field, across the central gully and into the town and processing plant via the 'rope road' (trams were driven by a cable between the rails). Tramways were the easiest form of transport in such rough country. The coal was then transferred to and taken down the self-acting incline to the road and rail points further west along the valley. The forested ridge to the north was the route of the early Koranui incline which shows faintly through the scrub. The large slip at the head of the central gully is about 1 km long.
Above. The slip at the head of the Waimangaroa River. At bottom centre running up to the right is the line of the tramway taking coal to the head of the incline which is out of view at bottom right. The view is to the east.
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Denniston township and the head of the incline
The incline runs from the centre of photograph down to the right. At the head of the incline are the industrial buildings and bins of the transfer station and offices. On the far right, just to the right of the town centre, are the miners' hall, hotel and church (the last with tall gothic windows). In the far distance by the strip of light-coloured road by the gully are the bathhouse and power generation plant. Thirteen million tons of coal were taken through this town over its 100-year existence. The photograph was taken in 1947.
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A seal colony on Taumaka Island, one of the Open Bay islands off the Haast River, West Coast
The high seal numbers and the ease with which they could be chased and killed are evident in this recent photograph of a sealing ground much frequented in the early nineteenth century. In 1989 zoologists by chance discovered the stone walls/foundations of a sealers' hut in the darker coloured shrubs at top centre. It may date from as early as the 1790s.
themselves for up to a year or more until the parent ship returned, if at all. This activity reduced the number and geographical range of seals, which had fallen to numbers too low to be worth culling by the late 1820s.
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There is some evidence from archaeology of sealers living in caves, especially around Chalky Inlet, southern Fiordland. In 1989 a sealers' hut was found on the Open Bay Islands near Haast. The walls were massive, only 60 to 100 cm high but 74 cm thick, enclosing a tiny space some 120 cm across and 270 cm long. 4 The aerial photograph used here shows the difficulty of the seaward approaches over a rock platform and also the density of the modern population of seals, which is probably similar to that prevailing on this spot before sealing began 180 years ago.
Shore whaling stations were late in establishment (not until the 1830s) and much of the whaling industry throughout the whole period was conducted from the boats themselves. Shore whaling is much more significant in the archaeological record, but it is not always amenable to aerial photography. It was also an important early social contact between European and Māori cultures. Marriage, trade, the extension of protection (from Māori to whaler) and the opportunity for Māori to travel widely were all important. Māori worked as part of the general whaling crews and the earliest whaling stations were the main centres of contact between Māori and European. Māori for their part respected the whalers' way of life. By the 1840s Edward Jerningham Wakefield thought that without the advent of British law, Māori and whalers would have bred 'a powerful nation of buccaneers'. 5
The location of the stations was dictated by the migratory patterns of two most important species, right and humpback whales. In winter these whales feed in the Antarctic Ocean and then migrate north in spring or early summer to breed in the tropical oceans, particularly in the region north and east of the Kermadec Islands. The reverse pattern applies in the autumn. The migrating streams split at either end of New Zealand and also cross frequently through Cook Strait. These whales, then, were essentially coastal dwelling or migrating species, hence their close passage by New Zealand. The right whales also floated when dead and were able to be towed the sometimes long distances to shore stations. Generally established in less rough waters with sheltered landing areas (on the east rather than the west coasts), important stations were at Great Barrier, the eastern Bay of Plenty, the East Coast, Māhia Peninsula, the Hawke Bay and Wairarapa coasts, Cook Strait (Mana and Kapiti Islands, Tory Channel and Cloudy Bay), and the Kai Kōura, Banks and Otago Peninsulas. 6 The peninsulas and Cook Strait itself had the effect of concentrating the path of the whales. The most productive places early in the industry, they were also the last places to support a commercially successful industry as whales became few in number. 7
Te Awaiti, in a sheltered position 3 km inside the Tory Channel entrance, Marlborough Sounds, was the earliest shore whaling station in New Zealand, established in 1827 by John Guard. However, his operation was not very successful and was not fully established until 1831. Competition for whales here was intense and, due to the volume taken, the population of right whales decreased dramatically in the 1840s. 8 In 1839 Te Awaiti was visited by the Wesleyan missionary, John Hobbs, who recorded 15 boats working from the bay. Hobbs' description of the daily duties of the whaler is plain enough: 'They go up on the hills at the heads and look out for the spouting of the whales, and when they see where they are they pull out after them.' Speaking of living conditions on Kapiti Island to the north, he noted of whalers: 'They will dwell almost in the clefts of rocks to get oil.' 9 Te Awaiti by contrast had the aspect of a spacious and well-settled village in 1843 when it was sketched by J.W. Barnicoat, with some 10 houses or other large structures at the water's edge, and other houses and fenced yards inland on the flat.
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Te Awaiti, in Tory Channel, site of the first shore whaling station of 1827
On the far ridge are the pits of a pre-European Maori settlement, possibly occupied also in the whaling era. At the foot of the ridge slope just in from the beach are the depressions of former hut sites, probably part of the whaling station. On the eroding beach front at the far end are the graves of the Toms family (marked by a distinct rectangular patch of light-coloured concrete) and the try-pots. The whole of the flat was settled in the mid-nineteenth century but obvious surface evidence does not show. The view is to the south-west.
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Perano's whaling station, Tory Channel
Whales were winched up the ramp on the right with the winch gear uphill by the steps at rear of the building. The flensing floor is to the right of the ramp, elevated above the freezers; the whale carcasses reached the floor by hydraulic lift from the slipway. The cylindrical shape of the digester (pressure cooker) is against the wall by the ramp. At left on the slab of concrete are the circular footings of the whale-oil
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Dune lakes and Croatian gum-digging trenches, Onepu Block, south of Parengarenga Harbour
The parallel lines at bottom are face-dug trenches each about 50-150 m long and 4 m wide. They were probably dug by Croatians in the 1930s. Taumatawhana is one of the two pre-European pā on the small hills north of the lakelets. Both pā have distinctive twin rectangular platforms, with outer perimeters of ditch and bank or scarp.
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Gum-digging trenches on the Ahipara gumfields
These fields were active in the 1930s. The peat with gum fragments was dug out by hand and placed in rows and then washed by machine. Wider views show the extensive system of races and water storage dams that were part of these fields.
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Late nineteenth-century photograph of gum-diggers, probably Croatians, working in the 'advance-face' fashion which produced the regular pattern of straight lines seen in the aerial photographs.
In this century several generations of the Perano family whaled from Whekenui Bay near Te Awaiti. Beginning in 1911, they ceased operations in 1964, 10 the last practitioners of an industry of paramount importance in the early European settlement of New Zealand. On the Perano base, structures still stand in outstanding condition although their continued maintenance proved to be costly and conservative measures have been taken to strip the site of material that cannot be readily maintained. 11 It is now an industrial site rather than an industrial building, interesting in that its internal functions are exposed clearly to the aerial photograph view. The concre'e wharf and steel framework of the factory of the Perano's station still stand; the roof is off the buildings and their interiors have only the solid built-in items remaining: the slipway, winching site, flensing floor, digester (a large cylindrical pressure cooker in effect) and the circular foundations of the whale-oil storage tanks. 12