Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, October 1974

[introduction]

These notes describe a field trip of the Nelson Historical Society on 28th October 1972, led by the writer.

The party followed the route of the early explorers and settlers from the Waimeas, by way of Reay's (originally Rea's) Saddle to Golden Downs.

The first settlers going to the upper Motueka Valley to as far north as Tapawera travelled this way with their bullock drays. The track over Spooner's Range came later.

Stafford and Dillon were running sheep in the Motueka Valley by 1845 and George Duppa pastured sheep in the upper part of the valley. His shepherd was William Gordon, a Scotchman, and the locality was soon known as Gordon Downs, with Gordon's Knob and Gordon Creek naturally following.

Most of the land was held as large blocks until after World War I when the area was cut up for soldier settlement under the optimistic name of Golden Downs. The land was priced too high and some settlers knew little about sheep. One property abandoned in 1926 was planted in trees in 1927 and this was the start of the Golden Downs Forest originally set up as an employment measure.

page 12

The track by way of Golden Downs became the "Main South Road" and the only overland route to Buller, Wairau, and Canterbury for many years.

There were difficulties in crossing the Motueka River in time of flood so an accommodation house was started here in 1846.

Kerr's Hill at the head of the valley was so named after the David Kerr family who had the Blue Glen run in the locality from 1849 onwards. The original track followed a spur, still known as 'The Bullock Track', to the top of the hill, and simply zig-zagged down the face of the hill to Blue Glen homestead in the Motupiko Valley.

Big Bush was originally a heavily timbered area of beech forest but large areas have been felled and one fears that a great deal more will be removed. It is still possible to see the old logs from the uprooted trees from the great 'blow down' of 1867. A great deal of the present area is re-growth forest.

Tophouse Telegraph Station was opened in 1876 and from there the line was extended to the Lyell so giving Nelson a direct link with the West Coast.

The Tophouse Hotel was moved to this site in 1887. It is no longer a licensed house.

A tragedy took place at Tophouse in 1894 when two men were murdered and one committed suicide.

J. S. Cotterell discovered the Tophouse Pass in November 1842, and Lake Rotoiti in January 1843. Here the streams lead in three directions, north to Motueka, east to Wairau, and west to Buller.

The original track to the Wairau kept to the higher ground nearly as far south as the present road junction to avoid the swamps.

The track to the Buller kept to the west side of Black Valley, again to avoid the swamps.

A small hill in Black Valley is actually the terminal moraine of an ancient glacier.

There is also another terminal where the road descends into the Wairau Valley. The original track here kept to the ridge, and Wiesenhavern's Top House, built in 1859, was beside the track, the site not being visible from the present road.

(Stop at the old 'top house')

This is where Cooper and Morse were squatting with sheep in 1846, so becoming the first sheep farmers in the Wairau. Their place was simply the 'top house'. Goulds were occupying a mud building there as a licensed accommodation house in 1856.

When the survey was made in 1859 to decide the boundaries of the new Marlborough Province a peg, shown on the maps as Top 2, was driven into the wall of the building and a line was taken north from there to Ward's Pass and another east to Barefell Pass. The result was that when permanent buildings were erected at Red Hills homestead the house was in the Nelson Province while the woolshed was in Marlborough.

page 13

A good route south to Canterbury by way of Wairau Gorge, originally known to the Maoris, was discovered in 1855 and many of the North Canterbury runs, as well as those in the Wairau, were stocked by sheep shipped into Nelson and driven overland.

Land was taken up at Tarndale by J. W. and C. S. Saxton in 1857 (and possibly by others) about that time.

In 1863 an accommodation house was established on an accommodation lease held by William White.

In the late 1860s N. Edwards and John Kerr took over the Tarndale area.

They also took up the Rainbow in the Wairau Valley and had the licence removed from Tarndale to there in 1874. Rainbow was normally handled as part of Tarndale.

The name of Rainbow station has now been transferred to the land earlier known as the Red Hills run, originally the Top House run.

The Tophouse route was the only vehicle road to Marlborough until the Whangamoa was opened in the late 1880s.

The Red Hills are part of the mineral belt which follows the ranges north to Dun Mountain and D'urville Island.