Onekaka Ironworks Wharf and Tramline Piles

75 Washbourn Road, Onekaka Inlet, Onekaka, TASMAN

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Onekaka Inlet is culturally significant to Te Tau Ihu iwi, particularly to Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu, Te Runanga o Ngāti Rārua and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui, but also for Ngāti Kuia and Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō. Traditionally, Onekaka was the site of a papakāinga and an important signalling point for communications with other rohe. The Onekaka Ironworks Wharf and Tramline Piles, built in 1923-24, has historical and archaeological significance as a poignant physical link to an ambitious iron mining and smelting scheme. Although this undertaking ultimately proved uneconomic, the deteriorated remains of the scheme’s coastal infrastructure are a rare physical reminder of its impact on the locality. The aesthetic values of the wharf’s rusted vertical piles, a particular favourite subject of noted painters Doris Lusk and Enga Washbourn, continue to inspire artists, photographers, and poets. People have inhabited Mohua (Golden Bay) for many centuries, valuing its climate and resources, including kōkōwai (red ochre) obtained from the foothills of Parapara, a maunga of great cultural importance to manawhenua and tangata whenua. The mineral richness of the Onekaka-Parapara hills was also recognised by early colonists, who moved quickly to secure this resource for the Crown. The Onakaka [sic] Iron and Steel Company was formed in 1920, consolidating various earlier mining leases that had not been fully realised.1 Forty men were employed to construct smelting works on a terrace to the west of State Highway 60. The plant was fully operational by 1924, producing bars of pig iron suitable for making railway irons, stoves and pipes. The company’s infrastructure stretched from the hills to the coast at the Onekaka Inlet. An aerial ropeway carried buckets of iron ore and limestone 2.4 kilometres downhill to the ironworks. There the raw materials were crushed, washed, and smelted in a blast furnace; coal was purified into coke in the plant’s many beehive coking ovens. Good transport routes were necessary to get machinery and coal to the works, and the smelted iron products out to domestic and international markets. Initially the company used Skilton’s private jetty at Onekaka Inlet, and lobbied for improvements to the road. However in 1923 permission was granted to build a pier projecting 365 metres from Onekaka Beach into deep water. The timber piles of this structure were vulnerable to teredo borer and were soon reinforced with rejected steel tram rails, with extra steel bracing welded to the piles. A huge coal bin sat on the decking at the outer end of the wharf. A tramline, built in 1924, ran 2.6 kilometres directly from the wharf to the ironworks, crossing the inlet on raised trestles, and passing under the main highway. A hydro-electric scheme was built in 1928-29 to power the pipe-making plant that was installed in an attempt to remain competitive. The ironworks were a major employer in the area, and with over 81,000 tons of iron produced between 1922 and 1935, hopes were high for an enduring industry. However, ultimately the enterprise proved uneconomic, and the company was placed into receivership in 1931 before closure in 1935. The wharf was reconditioned in 1941 in case it was needed during wartime, but suffered storm damage in 1945. Government efforts to revive the Onekaka industry ceased in the early 1950s and the ironworks were dismantled; the site was eventually subdivided for residential use. Today (2021) the deteriorated vertical piles of the wharf and a few piles from the tramline provide a poignant reminder of this ambitious undertaking.

Onekaka Wharf and Remnant of Tramline, Onekaka. Image courtesy of www.flickr.com | Shellie Evans - flyingkiwigirl | 04/09/2014 | Shellie Evans
Onekaka Wharf and Remnant of Tramline, Onekaka. The tallest remaining wharf piles, crossing the mouth of the inlet at low tide | Blyss Wagstaff | 26/01/2021 | Heritage New Zealand
Onekaka Wharf and Remnant of Tramline, Onekaka. Heritage New Zealand plaque affixed to a tree stump alongside the line of tramline piles | Blyss Wagstaff | 26/01/2021 | Heritage New Zealand

Location

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List Entry Information

Overview

Detailed List Entry

Status

Listed

List Entry Status

Historic Place Category 2

Access

Able to Visit

List Number

5126

Date Entered

2nd February 1990

Date of Effect

1st January 2022

City/District Council

Tasman District

Region

Tasman Region

Extent of List Entry

Extent includes part of the land described as Pt Seabed, Pt Legal Road, Pt Sec 100 DIST Takaka (RT NL2A/399), Sec 284 Takaka DIST (Onekaka Inlet Recreation Reserve NZ Gazette 1995 p.225), Pt Lot 1 DP 701 (RT 135911), Nelson Land District, and the structures known as Onekaka Ironworks Wharf and Tramline Piles thereon. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).

Legal description

Pt Seabed; Pt Legal Road; Pt Sec 100 DIST Takaka (RT NL2A/399); Sec 284 Takaka DIST (Onekaka Inlet Recreation Reserve NZ Gazette 1995 p.225); Pt Lot 1 DP 701 (RT 135911); Nelson Land District

Location Description

Onekaka Inlet is 16 kilometres north of Tākaka. GPS information (NZTM) +/- 5 metres: Base of Onekaka Wharf E1575559 N5489374 Tramline piles in middle of Onekaka Inlet E1575442 N5488952 Tramline embankment at southern edge of Onekaka Inlet E1575389 N5488749

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