TRAVEL AND TRANSPORT 

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     Travel and transport in the upper Wainuiorū were difficult for decades. The first route was north to Tauweru and east to Castlepoint, initially with pack animals and then wagons.

    Brancepeth then cut a road south through the Westmere for the difficult climb on tracks across the Kourarau hill to the main Wairarapa valley.

    Dense bush and scrub in the Tauweru valley, and later opposition from landowners, meant that a good direct road between the upper Wainuiorū and Masterton, across the Tauweru River and Weraiti Hill, wasn't built until the first decade of the 20th century. 

    Travel was dangerous when the Wainuiorū and its tributaries were in flood. In 1881 Brancepeth's mail carrier, Willie Noble, drowned trying to cross the Wainuiorū on horseback. One account said "the river was just a mass of moving mud".

    Crossing the river and streams with loaded wagons was difficult even in good weather. Kevin Fearon's book Te Wharau describes the Vennell family moving to Bankview about 1880, when the track crossed the Wainuiorū at a ford upstream from the present bridge. "Heavily laden wagons would have logs attached behind them, to act as a brake on the steep down-grade to the Wainuioru River crossing." For the climb up to the flats on the other side, more often than not the horses would need assistance from a team of bullocks.

    A timber trestle bridge was built across the Wainuiorū below Bankview in 1886 with a grant from the central government's Public Works Office. (The present concrete bridge was built about 1940.)

    In 1895 the Wairarapa South County Council surveyed and began metalling the road from the Gladstone-Tupurupuru area over the Kourarau to the Westmere and on to Te Wharau – a road that was still important for folk on the upper Wainuiorū.

    However, in October 1897 the Wairarapa Daily Times Wainuiorū-East Coast correspondent reported: "The Gladstone-East Coast road is unusually dry for the time of year, but traveling is far from pleasant upon it, as it is very lumpy." 

    And in June 1898: "Our roads are in their normal winter condition as to mud, both the Homewood-Blairlogie, and the Gladstone-East Coast roads, are reported by travellers to be in a very bad state, one of the worst portions of the latter being on the Maungaraki between the Kororau creek and the Tupurupuru boundary gate on top of the range. Brakes [open four-wheel carriages] drawn by four horses loaded with from ten to fifteen cwts [500–760kg] have consider able difficulty in reaching the Wharau [Te Wharau]. With a Road Board having an over draft of over two thousand pounds, it is hoping against hope to expect much improvement in our means of access to civilisation. I see that the warden, Mr F. Moore, has however been authorised to expend sufficient money to clear away slips that may impede traffic."

    In 1905, wagons and coaches were still mainly reaching the upper Wainuioru area over the Kourarau. A Wairarapa Daily Times correspondent wrote: "The great drawback settlers have to contend with is the unmetalled state of the roads, and it would add much to the productiveness of the district, particularly the Fernyhurst and Stronvar portions, if more direct communication could be established with Masterton, via the Weraiti-road, which would save a distance of from six to seven miles."

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Sources and further reading

Bagnall, A G, Wairarapa, An Historical Excursion, Hedley's Bookshop Ltd, 1976.

Bannister, Charles, Early History of the Wairarapa, Cadsonbury Publications, 1999.

Fearon, Kevin J, Te Wharau, Netherton Grange Publications, 1980.

Papers Past at https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Yerex, David, They Came to Wydrop, GP Publications for Beetham & Williams, 1991.

    Most of the books are available in Wairarapa libraries.

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A team of 10 oxen pulling a cart on a hill track on Brancepeth Station in 1907. The bullock driver was John Charles Bland. A Beetham family photo in the Wairarapa Archive.

 

Horse-drawn wagons carting timber in 1907. These were pulled over the Maungaraki Range from the Admiral Station to a sawmill in Carterton. Similar wagons took timber west from Brancepeth on the upper Wainuiorū. Photo from the Admiral Station records at the Wairarapa Archive.

 

Passenger and light goods transport in the early 20th century: Four mail coaches outside the Masterton Post Office about 1912, including the Stronvar brake, second from left. The others are the Bideford, Castlepoint and Homewood coaches. A brake is an open four-wheel horse-drawn carriage. Photo from Wairarapa Arts Centre collection at the Wairarapa Archive.

 

Wool bales being loaded onto a wagon at Brancepeth about 1920 for transport to Masterton. Photo from Ralph Hopkins collection at the Wairarapa Archive