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In 1877, the New Zealand House of Representatives gave the go-ahead for a railway route running between Dunedin and Wanaka, and timetabled seven years for its construction. However, the best laid plans... BY RACHEL MACDONALD
These could only be reached by an arduous two-day trip across grim roads from Dunedin, making it hard to drag the necessities of life in and ship the produce out. So, in 1872, the Otago Provincial Council sent out a single surveyor to evaluate a potential rail route that might link Dunedin with Central Otago and eventually run through to Wanaka to take advantage of the lucrative West Coast timber trade. By 1877, seven possible routes had been tabled in a report to a government select committee set up to consider the issue. Of these, a track running through north Taieri to Cromwell via the Strath Taieri, and then through to Wanaka, was deemed to be the most viable. Works were to start in 1879 and be completed by 1884. “[This route] would open up 1,200,000 acres of Crown Lands directly and gives communication to 1,065,000 acres beyond Cromwell... The highest point of this route would be only 1500 feet (sic) while on the projected line to the West Coast the highest point, at the Haast Pass would be 1700 feet above sea level,” says the report. On June 7, 1879, 150 guests duly watched the turning of the first sod of the Central Otago Railway. That day, the picks, shovels and dynamite swung into action on a project that would ultimately span 42 years and only ever reach as far as Cromwell. The dream of being able to use West Coast logs to feed timber-starved Otago was never realised. The first glitch turned out to be one of human error, and, had it been known, it’s possible another route would have been chosen in the first place. The problem lay in the fact that the engineer who wrote the select committee report had estimated the distance from Dunedin to Cromwell via the Strath Taieri to be 129 miles (208 kilometres). By the time it was more accurately surveyed and actually turned out to be 154 miles (248 kilometres), it was too late for the government to reconsider. Then, in 1880, the country started a slide into economic depression. Another government report recommended ceasing all operations on the Taieri Gorge railway, concluding that the cost versus the outcome was unjustifiable. It’s hardly surprising, however, that a rival commission appointed by the Vincent, Maniototo and Taieri county councils came out for the other corner, finding that the area’s agricultural, pastoral and mineral wealth warranted the construction of an efficient means of sending them to market. So the project continued, albeit slowly. In 1891, the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. RJ Seddon officially opened the 64-kilometre section of track between Wingatui and Middlemarch. It was a single line railway, with passing loops at North Taieri, Parera, Hindon, Pukerangi and Middlemarch, and service sidings at Mt Allan, Hindon, Pukerangi and Middlemarch. It had taken 12 years to complete, equating to an average of just five kilometres a year. On its way to Middlemarch, the line runs through 10 tunnels, some brick-lined throughout due to the softness of the rock, and others only bricked at either end. The shape of the tunnels has always restricted the shape and size of the engines and carriages using the line, and even the modern Taieri Gorge excursion train displays this distinctive profile. The longest tunnel, at 437 metres, is No. 2 at Salisbury, with the shortest being No. 7, at 55 metres, at Machine Creek. The line crosses 35 bridges between Wingatui and Middlemarch, the longest of which is the Wingatui Viaduct. Its 197.5 metres spans Mullock Gully, 47 metres above the stream bed, and is New Zealand’s largest wrought iron structure. Like the other larger bridges on the route, it consists of riveted wrought iron latticework mounted on masonry piers. Given the Wingatui Viaduct’s location in the first 12.5 kilometres of the railway, it had to be completed early on in the piece, to enable rails, sleepers and other building materials to be carried further up the line. Even so, it still took six years for the platelaying to be completed to Mullocky Gully, in April 1885. This allowed the ironwork for the viaduct, which had been prepared in Dunedin, to be brought into the site. The completed structure was tested on June 24, 1887, using the two heaviest locomotives available. Happily, it stood up to the trial and was officially opened the following day. By 1895, the works had reached Hyde and even coach company Cobb & Co, which had – until the installation of the railway – enjoyed a monopoly on transport in the region, had to admit that it filled a need. In that year, the line handled close to 2500 passengers – most of whom were sightseers – 17,500 sheep and pigs, and 17,000 tons of goods. The railway reached Alexandra just in time for Christmas 1906, before pushing on to Clyde in 1907. Here it almost stopped, the government maintaining that the projected cost of £150,000 to go as far as Cromwell, where it would serve only 2700 people, was unwarranted. This got the settlers well up in arms, as many had been promised that a rail link would be provided when they took up their land in the upper Clutha. They chose the opening ceremony in Clyde as the moment to tell the official party that if the government didn’t follow through on its promise, it could have its land back and they’d leave for Canada. So, finally, rail-laying reached the Cromwell station towards the end of 1917 and the first trains started their run to the end of the line on Monday, July 11, 1921. Almost 60 years later, in April 1980, the Cromwell to Clyde section of the railway was closed for the construction of the Clyde Dam. The section from Clyde to Middlemarch was closed in April 1990, once the need to haul in materials for the dam was past. Today, the Taieri Gorge Railway is limited to the 60 kilometres from Dunedin to Middlemarch. Even so, it is still the longest privately owned railway in the country and carries thousands of visitors to the region each year. It officially begins four kilometers along the line – reached by an access agreement with Transit – where it curves around the foot of the Salisbury bank, before climbing the 1 in 50 gradient to the entry to the Taieri Gorge at the summit. It remains in the gorge for 35 kilometres, crossing 16 major bridges with a total length of 1020 metres, and passing through 10 tunnels with a total length of 1491 metres. It climbs steadily to exit the gorge at Pukerangi and then falls to the Taieri Plains, where it ends at Middlemarch, 64 kilometres down the track. On the way, it takes in some of New Zealand’s most spectacular scenery, and it is really this that has ensured the survival of this stretch of one of the country’s truly pioneering examples of engineering.
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In the late 1860s, there was a general sentiment in the halls of central government that the Otago region was on the wane. Much of it was rugged and remote, hard to access, and had only really been put on the map by its gold-rich rivers. However, the goldfields were worked out and the prospectors were turning away. In their wake, though, they left a few scattered permanent settlements – Cromwell, Clyde, Alexandra, among others – in the fertile river plains of the hinterland.