Shantytown-3

Activity:

Find and label these parts of the horses and coach.

 Wheel

 Axle

 Yoke

 Driver

 Brakes

 Passengers

 Reins

Why do you think the passengers are all on the roof and not in the coach?

One of the biggest drawbacks to coaches was the state of the roads. They could be muddy bogs in the wet as most roads had no hard seal. Teams of horses would easily get stuck in the mire and have to be dragged out by teams of bullocks. Another problem was deep cuts in the road made by carriage wheels over time. Once your wheels were in the ruts, it was very difficult to get out. If the ruts were not the right width for your wheels, you could straddle them, but this was risky. Ruts were the cause of many axles and wheels breaking.

Sometimes paths were made by lying logs along side each other, a bit like railway sleepers. This was called corduroying, like the fabric, because of the way it looked. It was easy for the horses to drag huge logs along this kind of road, but it would have been impossible to take a coach along.

Tolls were taxes paid by the traveller to the local council to help pay for roads and bridges. There were many complaints about the high sums which were charged.

Bullocks:

Bullocks were very important animals in the early days of New Zealand and Australia. They were mainly used to pull very heavy loads. They are slower than horses, but manage to keep going where horses give up. Bullocks can work in places where horses cannot. A bullock has a split or cloven hoof. It spreads open in wet or boggy ground. Cloven hooves help to stop the animals from sinking into the mud, or slipping in steep places.

Activity: Find and label these parts in the photo.

 bullock

 teamster (man)

 ‘corduroyed’ road

 houses

 yoke

Rivers:

Transport on the rivers was hard and dangerous. Long, narrow, flat-bottomed boats, capable of carrying a ton to 1 ½ tons, were generally used, with a crew of five men. One man guided the boat with the steer-oar and the others were equipped with iron-shod poles. Later the barges were towed part of the way by horses on the river banks.

Other kinds of boats in use were canoes, punts and skiffs. Some punts were attached to overhead wires and propelled by the current.

Travelling by boat was extremely dangerous, and many people met their end in the rivers of the West Coast. A boat could capsize in the current or a horse could shy and pull the boat out of control, and treacherous sand banks often shifted. Passage and freight on boats and ferries was very expensive due to the risk and demand.

In 1876, better railways, bridges and roads proved disastrous for boatmen and ferries, as they were gradually replaced by trains.

Sea:

Ships were the best way of getting provisions and people to and from the West Coast. As the Coast had no natural harbours, ships were forced to navigate over dangerous shifting sand bars to enter the Grey and Hokitika Rivers and reach the ports. Many ships never made it into the ports, and today there are many relics and reminders on beaches and in museums.

Before roads:

Before roads were constructed, miners had to scramble over rocks, logs and tree roots and through wide, deep swamps. Coaches and drays with broad wheels travelled along beaches between Greymouth and Hokitika.

Tramways:proved easier to construct than roads. On January 12, 1867, a wooden tram line was opened with horses pulling the tram cars.

The Horse trams:

The tracks to the different diggings soon became in such a state that some were impassable by packhorses. For a time in 1865 “packers” were employed by storekeepers to carry goods to the Waimea diggings. Wooden tramways were the solution as timber for rails and other construction was plentiful and the lines could be built quickly. Freight rates were high by packhorse; with the new addition to services with trams there was a dramatic drop to about half the normal packing rates.

The Greymouth-Saltwater Tramway Company was registered in October 1866 and the line was completed and opened by May 1867. The line from Saltwater to Rutherglen was finished on 10 October the same year, and opened with a grand free ball at Rutherglen sponsored by Mr Hamilton, the storekeeper.

“A carriage will leave Greymouth at 6.30pm, taking passengers free of charge”. The Argus reported. “There was a numerous attendance of friends from Grey and Rutherglen for the tram opening. In the evening, a ball on a gigantic scale; at supper the usual loyal toasts were drunk with enthusiasm”.

In March 1868 another branch tram was built from Rutherglen to Marsden, the line running through several cuttings and down a formidable hill. This horse tram ran until 1875, closing down after the construction of a new road.

When the last big rush on the West Coast took place - to Kumara - in 1876, the Grey-Saltwater tram was continued to the Taramakau River. A cage carried passengers across the river, and another tram went on to Kumara. This was the last tram route to operate on the West Coast; it finally closed down in 1893 when the railway between Greymouth and Hokitika was opened.

A traveller had this to say of the Kumara tram: “The rails are of wood and each length is rail joins the other in such a rustic manner that the uninitiated traveller prepares for the probable alarm, ‘off the rails’, at any moment; but however that signal is seldom heard.

“The horsecar carries a number of passengers and is as comfortable as the best of our city tram cars, while the absence of dust and the beauty and freshness of the bush made the journey an exceedingly pleasant one; notwithstanding the rusticity of the tram line, the car moves along at a merry place”.