Wayne Ryburn: Tall Spars, Steamers & Gum

Tall Spars, Steamers & Gum

By Wayne Ryburn

Kaipara Publications $39.95

Reviewed by Colin Moore


The Kaipara Harbour is the largest in New Zealand. It has an extensive shoreline and is fed by navigable rivers reaching deep into a productive rural hinterland.

That could well have made the Kaipara the hub of New Zealand commerce and trade except that in keeping with most West Coast harbours, its entrance is a narrow and dangerous funnel.

But when the land surrounding the Kaipara was clothed in virgin kauri forest, and the only way to gain access to most places was by water, such a large harbour could not be ignored.

Maori used the harbour for centuries as a safe inland route from the Far North to the Auckland isthmus and on to the Waikato.

Samuel Marsden used the same route in 1820 and European settlers soon followed. They cut the kauri and shipped it out through the treacherous harbour entrance. They dug kauri gum out of the swamps and created pastoral farms around the harbour flanks.

Small steamers plied the waterway to take farm produce from the towns along the river margins. When those towns, such as Te Hana, Maungaturoto and Dargaville, were linked by rail and road, the Kaipara's heyday was over. What was left of the region's plundered resources was transported to more friendly harbours and the Kaipara ran out of steam.

Wayne Ryburn wrote his MA thesis on the vibrant history of the Kaipara 1854-1947; later, inspired by a field trip with seventh-form history students, he turned his thesis into a book.

His research is thorough and detailed. What the book lacks in racy narrative it makes up for in its huge collection of fascinating historic photographs.

Of course the Kaipara is not dead, and although its farm produce travels overland, its waters remain a rich fishery and its extensive mangrove provides a valuable marine nursery for the west coast fishery.

It also has a healthy core of recreational devotees who, often drawn by its history, paddle kayaks or sail small boats in the harbour's quiet backwaters.