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  • 30/11/1999

Archives For 30/11/1999

Buried treasure on Grey Valley ‘plank roads’

Department of Conservation —  01/08/2013

By Shaun Burnett, Community Relations Ranger, Greymouth

There are still a few old ‘plank roads’ hidden in the Grey Valley on the West Coast. These are wooden ‘planked’ roads constructed for the timber industry in the early twentieth century to help extract timber to the nearest road or sawmill site.

A mountain biker planking along a track.

Planking but not on a plank road

One rainy Tuesday we set out to record one such road on GPS. This particular road was rumoured to have half buried treasure abandoned along its route.

The road was roughly 3 metres wide and consisted of cedar poles laid along it to form a type of ‘boardwalk’ road for the logging trucks.

Walking along the plank road through a corridor in the bush.

Native planks rotting and a faint corridoor ahead

Today, nearly 80 years later, little remains of these roads but the trained eye can still pick a faint corridor in the trees and occasionally you can see the actual logs that made up the road, rotting away as the bush slowly regenerates and claims back its rightful place.

In a swampy clearing, celery pine grows up between the runners, as we stepped carefully between the logs and followed the remains onwards, into the bush again.

Plank road remains in swampy areas of the Grey Valley track.

The remains of the plank road are clearly visible in the swampy areas

After a short 40 minute walk, Historic Program Manager, Jim Staton, led us to his treasured find at the end of this particular plank road: a Marshall portable steam engine!  This old engine was used to drive a winch that hauled logs out of the bush.

The steam engine is in remarkable condition considering it has lain forlornly on its side in the bush for nearly 80 years. The question now is, what to do with it?

A Marshall portable steam engine.

A Marshall portable steam engine

DOC Historic Program Manager Jim Staton is considering the engine’s fate. We could remove it to a local place for public viewing (taking it out of context), or remove it to a place that will restore it to working order, or cut a track to it for public viewing that has an interpretation panel explaining what it was and why its here, or simply forget about it. What do you think should happen?

Marshall portable steam engine half buried.

Small parts have been poached, but it’s mostly intact

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Historic haulers on Stewart Island/Rakiura

Department of Conservation —  25/06/2013

By Andrew King, Ranger – Visitor/Historic Assets, Stewart Island

At the end of April, three Winton Vintage Machinery Club members set off to help DOC with the maintenance and preservation of two log haulers that sit in the bush about an hour’s walk inland from Port William Hut on the Rakiura Track, one of New Zealand’s nine Great Walks.

Hauler No 1

Hauler No 1

The haulers had been preserved and covered for years, but were located in bush a long way from any tracks, so only a small number of people ever got the chance to see them.

Hauler No 2.

Hauler No 2

In the past two years, the Rakiura Track has been realigned and gravelled to make it more enjoyable. Aligning the track with the haulers, and other relics from the saw milling days, has increased their profile and has also helped see an increase in the number of trampers on the track.

Trampers enjoying history on the Rakiura Track.

History made accessible

Colin Davidson, Nelson Horrell, Bob McNeill and I had a bumpy trip to the island, only to find that we couldn’t get onsite that day as the weather had deteriorated.

The next morning, once onsite, we carried all the tools needed and started chipping and scraping loose rust. Painting with a metal preservative, we got one hauler completed, leaving the other one to do in the summer when (hopefully) the weather is better.

Bob McNeill getting preservative in all the gaps.

Bob McNeill getting preservative in all the gaps

The guys put in a lot of effort and are a great team to work with and we hope to see them again this year.

All three Vintage Machinery Club members working hard.

All three Vintage Machinery Club members working hard

Colin Davidson has also been involved in the maintenance of the tractor at Mason Bay—another historic site on the island that is a great example of farming in the extremes. The farming property was run by Tim Te Aika, and originally Colin had flown the tractor in by fixed wing aircraft in parts, assembling it on site.

Colin Davidson painting rust preservative.

Colin Davidson painting rust preservative

The Winton Vintage Machinery Club and other volunteer groups and individuals have been playing, and continue to play, a vital part in bringing our historic heritage to life, and preserving it for future generations to enjoy.

Just a 20 minute flight from Invercargill or an hour by ferry from Bluff, Stewart Island/Rakiura is home to New Zealand’s most southerly and newest national park, Rakiura National Park, and the Rakiura Track.

The Rakiura Track is suitable for anyone with moderate fitness. It takes three days, provides a good introduction to the scenery of Stewart Island, and is suitable for tramping all year round.

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Volunteers bring craftsmanship to heritage projects

Department of Conservation —  04/06/2013

By Philippa Christie, Community Relations Ranger, Murihiku Area Office

The Port Craig Hut began its life in 1926 as a school house in what was once a busy sawmilling settlement run by the Malborough Timber Company. At its peak, over 150 employees ran the mill and processed up to 1800 cubic metres of timber per month.

Greg outside Port Craig Hut preparing a window.

Volunteer Greg prepares a window to fit at Port Craig Hut

It was the largest and most modern sawmill in New Zealand at the time.

The settlement also had a blacksmith’s shop, a wharf, a cook shop, a bake house, and accommodation for the workers. While many remnants remain of these buildings and the sawmilling machinery, the school house is the only intact building that remains.

As the depression approached, demand for timber declined and the business venture struggled until it finally failed and closed in 1928.

Paul preparing the Port Craig Hut window frame for a replacement.

Paul preparing the Port Craig Hut window frame for a replacement

The school house saw less than four year’s use, and began its second life as a tramping hut in the 1960s.

The commitment, knowledge and skills of two volunteers have helped keep this historically important hut in Southern Fiordland weather tight and true to its original fabric.

An annual volunteer trip is run to carry out maintenance of the school house and surrounding relics from the saw milling era. This year the wooden exterior of the 86 year old building was showing signs of wear and the windows needed replacing.

Two volunteers—Greg Clark and Paul Clements—offered their time and skills to the project. Greg is a joiner by trade and built new windows for the school house from scratch. Paul glazed and painted the windows and transported them from his home in Dunedin. Not only did they construct the windows, they were onsite to carefully install them.

The volunteers standing on a bridge.

Volunteers standing on the historic Percy Burn Viaduct in 2010

Paul has been involved in conservation volunteer trips for over 15 years, and during that time has made a considerable contribution in both time and monetary value to the historic heritage of the Port Craig area. He is also involved in manning the DOC stall at the annual Crank Up Days held in Edendale, and eagerly passes on his knowledge of historic areas and relics that DOC Southland manages.

Greg’s grandfather, Archie Clark, in 1940 built the last remaining split beech log hut in Fiordland—aptly named the Clark Hut. Greg’s interest in conservation and volunteering began when he was invited to help restore a wall section of the hut in 2010. He has also been involved in making replacement windows for Becketts Hut in the Takitimu Mountains.

Paul and Greg are shining examples of how volunteers are contributing to increased gains in the conservation of our natural, historic and cultural heritage.

Greg outside another historic hut that required maintenance.

Greg at the historic Clark Hut

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Lower Acheron Historic Bridge restoration

Department of Conservation —  06/05/2013

The Lower Acheron Suspension Bridge in South Marlborough was built by engineering students from Canterbury University in 1945, with their brief being to build a bridge that would take ‘one man on a horse at a gallop’.

Before and after

Before and after

Having been closed to the public for years, the historic bridge is now just about ready to be used again, thanks to a team of dedicated DOC workers from the region who spent an ‘abusively hot’ two weeks dismantling and rebuilding the bridge, while retaining its original character.

Replacing the decking.

Replacing the decking

Two workers in DOC uniforms removing the screw jack.

The screw jack enabled the removal of the tower

All gear was taken in by road, with a helicopter used to carry over the timber and equipment needed. This involved a couple of early mornings for staff, who made up for a short sleep with an al fresco cooked breakfast beside the Acheron River.

Staff had attended a harness use and fall arrest training course before the project, and received further instruction on rope rescue at the site.

Planning and setting up fall arrest systems that would be effective at all times and still allow the staff to move around on the bridge was all part of the challenge, and only the occasional nut or bolt (and maybe a drill bit…) was lost over the edge of the bridge!

Screw jacks were used to take the weight of the main cables (which were still in good working order), while each tower was removed, rebuilt and reinstated. The steel connecting plates were able to be reused, but most nuts and bolts were new. Only one of the droppers, three transoms, about half the bearers and the decking was replaced – everything else was reused. The native beech wood was replaced with Blackbutt (Eucalyptus pilularis), a tough and strong hardwood timber.

Five DOC workers sitting and standing around two DOC utes sharing some food.

Well-earned breakfast

The bridge is part of the ‘Molesworth Journey’, an attraction that incorporates short walks, lookout points, picnic areas and other historic structures into the drive between Blenheim and Hanmer, through Molesworth Station. It provides visitor access to the other side of the river for fishermen, walkers and swimmers, and will continue to be maintained as a historic asset.

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Well-travelled Antarctic cabin rides again

Sarah Mankelow —  20/03/2013

Swinging below the crane, a wee cabin linked to Scott’s fatal Antarctic expedition looked more like a cubby than a 100-year-old piece of history.

“It looks like a child’s playhouse!” remarked its ‘owner’ Valerie Crichton.

Scott's cabin is moved by crane from the earthquake crumbled cliff in Sumner.

DOC’s Murray Lane helps guide the hut as it’s lifted out of the spot where it has sat for the last 100 years

But as Grant Campbell, DOC Community Relations Programme Manager eloquently said, “We’ve lost so much heritage in Christchurch, even the wee ones count.”

The hut, which for the past 40 years has been under the care of the Crichton family in Sumner, has been pulled from the brink of an earthquake-crumbled cliff top after being vested with DOC.

It’s the culmination of lots of long talks and negotiations by Grant and Community Relations Ranger Cody Frewin with the Crichtons, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and the Christchurch City Council.

Valerie Crichton said, “It’s taken more than two years to get traction on this. Then we met with DOC and it was ‘can do’. That ‘can do’ was music to our ears.”

Scott's cabin is hoisted by crane on to a truck.

The hut had to be lifted high around pitched garage roofs and powerlines

Cody said, “I’m really proud of what we have achieved.”

Grant, Cody and the Crichtons were all onsite to watch the cabin be retrieved and trucked to Godley Head by contractors HGM Construction. David Crichton pacing back and forth was reminiscent of an expectant father.

“I have mixed feelings about this event,” said David. “It would have been nice to stay here but this is the next best thing.”

The cabin began life as a meteorological hut taken to the Antarctic by the Terra Nova for Captain Scott in 1911. But it was brought back to Lyttelton in 1912, still in its wrapping.

Scott's cabin makes its way from Sumner to Godley Head by road.

The convoy makes its way through the narrow streets of Sumner before heading up the hill (you seen the road in the background)

It was erected on Clifton Hill above Sumner in the garden of the expedition agent, Sir Joseph Kinsey and was home to the wife of Captain Scott’s right hand-man Dr Edward Wilson, Oriana Wilson, for a year until she received the news of his death in February 1913. The hut was also known as ‘Uncle Bill’s Cabin’ after Dr Wilson, whose nickname was Bill.

David Crichton used the cabin as his study, and later it was a place of refuge after the September quake, when the couple felt nervous about sleeping in their own house. This fear was proved founded when the February quakes bought their house down, while the cabin rolled with the quakes like “a wee boat,” said Valerie.

In a press release, Minister of Conservation Hon Dr Nick Smith said, “I’d like to acknowledge the Crichton’s vision and generosity in gifting the hut, as well as the assistance provided by CERA and the Christchurch City Council in making the removal possible.”

The cabin is place at the new Godley Head site by crane.

The hut will sit on the old parade grounds on Godley Head temporarily until it’s restored and resource consents are sorted for its final resting place with a sea view

“For a building to have travelled so far and survived so much, it would have been a tragedy to have left it to be demolished.”

The hut has been taken to public conservation land at Godley Head where it will be restored and eventually opened to the public, in a spot with sea views as it was on Kinsey Terrace.

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