Our Treasures: The Whangārei Museum takes a road trip down Northland transport’s memory lane

Bank St in downtown Whangārei in the 1920s.

Watching my kids jump off the school bus is one of my favourite daily sights. My son seems so small when descending the steps but being able to ride the bus with his big sister has instilled a sense of pride and independence in him, and he always jumps from that bottom step with a big smile on his face.

Those bus trips are the first experience of public transport for so many of us and it got me thinking about the history of public buses. I went searching for photographs in the Whangārei Museum and found some beautiful pictures of early public transport in Northland.

Horse-drawn buses and coaches were a popular way to get around in the 19th and early 20th centuries, before reliable roads and long before motor vehicles. Even when engine-powered vehicles arrived, many of the early roads in New Zealand were unsuitable for their use.

A horse drawn bus in the 1920s.

A historical newspaper advertisement about a bus in Kawakawa.

Bridle trails, as many were known, were initially rough and narrow. Popular trails were widened and graded to become dray roads, suitable for horses and carts. The most popular routes were upgraded over time and busy paths became roads. Those roads with heavy traffic were eventually sealed with asphalt.

Public transport is a centuries-old service. Bullock-drawn carriages have been dated back to 3000BC. The large, four-wheeled carriages, typically pulled by oxen, included a wooden platform for passengers and large wooden wheels. These pre-dated chariots, of which some relics, including twin horse-drawn carriages discovered in Mesopotamia, date back to 1900BC.

The first public bus line was attempted in France in 1662. Blaise Pascal, a mathematician, philosopher, author and inventor, established the system in which seven horse-drawn vehicles operated along regular, scheduled routes, each carrying six to eight passengers. While the service was initially popular the novelty quickly wore off and rules allowing nobility and gentry to ride the coaches, but not soldiers or peasants contributed to its quick demise.

Pascal’s bus routes were out of business by 1675. It was more than 150 years later that the idea of public transportation returned, this time in the form of an omnibus, which carried up to 42 people and was pulled by three horses. France was once again the first to trial this innovative transport, but this time, both gentry and commoners were allowed on board.

The first public bus to operate in New Zealand hit the road in 1862 in Nelson. It was pulled by horses along a one-kilometre length of tracks between the city and the port. By the early 1900s many cities and towns had trams and buses available, but most of these were still horse-drawn.

Horse drawn coaches.

According to the Bus and Coach Association (NZ), when horsepower was replaced with horsepower, many of the early bus drivers would still yell “Whoa!” when applying the brakes on their motorised buses, a habit acquired while working with animals.

While the most popular way to get around now is by car, sometimes it’s nice to sit back in a bus, to look out the window while someone else worries about other drivers, potholes and traffic jams. And on a practical front, having a bus service as the price of petrol skyrockets is one thing I’m glad we have available to us.

Visitors to Kiwi North can ride the bus from Whangārei as the number 6 City Link service comes all the way into the carpark before turning around and heading back to town.