RIVER CONTROL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 10, 12 August 1946, Page 5

RIVER CONTROL

WHAKATANE & RANGITAIKI MR G. J. MURRAY LOOKS BACK '* "■ ■"> 1. 1 *«» ' An interesting story of the days before' the Whakatane Harbour Board was formed,' of the different channels occupied by the Rangitaiki and Whakatane Rivers and of the work carried out on them comes from Mr Geo. J. Murray of Otakiri. Mr Murray’s account reads as follows:

It is 33 years since the Harbour Board was formed and previous to that the County Council had control of the harbour, but so long as part of the Rangitaiki River flowed out to sea along with the Whakatane River water the harbour required very little controlling.

It was because of the river mouth silting up after tRe Orini branch of the Rangitaiki River had been blocked by a dam being put in where it left the main channel at, or near Thornton, that , steps were taken to form a Harbour Board.

This dam was put in by the Rangitaiki Drainage Board about the year 1905; about 8 years before the Harbour Board was formed. Until the Outlet at Thornton was opened the Rangitaiki River overflowed its banks during wet periods and water travelled across country to enter the old Orini channel lower down to join the Whakatane River, as in previous days, and give the harbour mouth a periodical scour out. In the old days, when the Rangitaiki River reached the' lower reaches of the Plains, down near Thornton, it divided into three channels. Two channels, the main channel and the Awaiti turned west and joined the Tarawera River and entered the sea past Matata just where the Matata railway station is. The third channel, the Orini, turned East and joined the Whakatane River.

In those days Whakatane, Matata and Te Teko were all connected by waterway. The late Mr William McGarvey, who had resided at Te Teko from the time that Te Teko was a military redoubt, and who ran the hotel and store and farmed the flat between the Maori Pah ’and the foothills kept a large boat and used it to carry all the Te Teko maize and wool and any other produce they had down to Whakatane and to backload with stores etc. A team of Maoris used poles to propel the boat taking two days to go down to Whakatane and three days to return against the current. The most difficult part to negotiate was a mile or two downstream from Te Teko where there is an old forest of totara in the river bed. They used to load 100 five bushel sacks of maize on the boat (over 10 tons).

As I have already stated, the Orini channel was blocked about the year 1905. In March 1906 the Awaiti channel was blocked. I was there and saw the job being done. Blocking these two channels left only the one main channel to carry all the river water out to sea at Matata and consequently, until the direct outlet to the sea was opened at Thornton, some 6 years later, every time there was a wet period the river overflowed its banks on both sides, from above Edgecumbe township nearly to Thornton, the water travelling across country to go out to sea at Whakatane and Matata. Except for occasional exceptional floods, this ceased when the outlet was opened and it became imperative that something should be done to keep the Whakatane port workable throughout the year.