Settlement of the District

After Sir George Grey bought the Wairau district legally in March 1847 surveys started again and in Tua Marina 90 acres were reserved as a site for a village. This was later surveyed into 118 small sections and put up for sale in the Nelson Land Office on 13th August, 1859. Remembering the events of 1843 streets were named Wakefield, Thompson, Cotterell, Patchett, England, and Howard.

Thirteenth August, 1859, is taken as the date upon which the Tua Marina settlement started and one hundred years later on page 2513th August, 1959 a very successful Centennial function was held and a memorial made of local stone was erected in Pioneer Place. Survey Contract No. 1, April 1843

Some of the Tua Marina people are proud of the fact that the land from the Wairau Bar, north along the beach to Whitio Bay, and then west to Tua Marina on the north bank of the Wairau River, was in Survey No. 1, being the first survey contract let to the two young surveyors Barnicoat and Thompson. Certainly it was not their fault that the survey came to nothing. In honour of this survey one of the first proposals put before the Historic Places Trust when it was formed in 1956 was the request that this be suitably recognised. So far the proposal has not been successful.