Shipping and trade on the Ōpaoa River

At one time, Picton was described as Marlborough's front door and the Ōpaoa/Opawa River as the tradesmen's entrance, but in the early days of European settlement, river trade was essential to the developing province. Early Wairau settlers received goods and imported wool and grain by river schooner.¹

The early Beaver settlement was sited at the confluence of the Omaka and Ōpaoa/Opawa Rivers, with the Opawa River flowing into the seaward end of the Wairau River. The settlers misspelt the Māori name of Ōpaoa as Opawa, in so doing losing its meaning of smoking, or smoky river. It was 200 years before the river again had its proper name, restored through Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements.

The ship `Opawa' at Eckfords Wharf, Blenheim. [Sydney Charles Smith]. Alexander Turnbull Library: http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=6775

Blenheim's shipping trade dates back to 1849 when small coasters such as the Triumph and Old Jack discharged and collected cargo inside the Wairau Bar.² Marlborough produce was ferried across the Wairau Bar to larger vessels waiting in Te Koko-o-Kupe / Cloudy Bay or at Te Whanganui / Port Underwood,³ and goods were transported to Blenheim on whaleboats towed by horses walking along the riverbank.⁴  

It wasn't until a major earthquake in October 1848 caused the Wairau Lagoons to subside, resulting in greater tidal flows  which scoured out the Wairau (and Ōpaoa) river mouth bar, ⁵  that navigation became less difficult and schooners and steamers could transport wool directly from Blenheim to Wellington.⁶

In November 1848, the first recorded trading vessel to cross the Wairau Bar and navigate the 20 kilometre route along the Ōpaoa River to the small settlement of Beavertown was the Triumph, a 10 ton schooner with Captain Samuel Bowler  at the helm.⁷  Bowler and his partners owned a fleet of small boats which ferried wool from Wynen's Wharf to the Boulder Bank.⁸

From 1860 it was realised that vessels up to 40 tons could travel up the river⁹ and within a  few years, a fleet of small trading vessels sailed between Blenheim, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch.¹⁰

In 1861, the Nelson Marlborough Steam Navigation Company began trading across the Cook Strait with the 84 ton paddle steamer the Tasmanian Maid, which was wrecked on the Wairau Bar in 1862.¹¹  She was followed by the Lyttleton, a 78 ton paddle steamer, which began a Wellington-Blenheim-Nelson service on 20 October, 1866.¹²

A.S. Echo stranded on the Wairau Bar, 1956 (courtesy Seddon Station Master) 0000.900.0812. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives
Click image to enlarge

Numerous ships were stranded on the hazardous Wairau Bar and and several were wrecked completely.¹³ The bar is formed where the Wairau River flows into Te Koko-o-Kupe/Cloudy Bay and its shape is altered depending on river flows, flood waters and tidal flows in and out of the Wairau Lagoons.¹⁴  The Wairau became a designated port with a pilot and, by the turn of the century, the Port of Wairau was controlled by the Wairau Harbour Board based in Blenheim.¹⁵

The steamer Neptune being repaired on the 'Sandspit', Opawa River, Blenheim. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives

There was keen competition for the Cook Strait trade and Captain Thomas Eckford joined the fray in 1881 with the 30 ton steamer, Mohaka.¹⁶   The Eckford Shipping Company eventually handled most river trade to Wellington, operating between 1881-1965. They outlasted competitors such as the Wairau Steamship Company, which owned several  passenger and cargo steamers in direct competition with the Eckford's Opawa.¹⁷ 

The best-known Eckford ship was the Echo, an auxiliary scow, with a flat bottom ideally suited to shallow river conditions and stranding inside the Wairau Bar.¹⁸  The Echo carried a range of cargo including peas, apples, Lake Grassmere/Kapara Te Hau salt, cars and newsprint for the Marlborough Express.¹⁹   At one time, she was nicknamed ‘the breakfast ship' as she carried eggs and bacon on the hoof from Blenheim to Wellington.²⁰

 In 1939, James Cowan described the passage of the Echo which made three trips a week between Wellington and Blenheim. "The farmer on the bank of the Wairau exchanges greetings with the little ship working up the river under engine power. Out with the cargo and general merchandise and in with farm produce...and the Echo is off...for the Wairau Bar and the sea; then up with the sails for Cook Strait." ²¹

The advent of the Cook Strait ferries in 1962 ²²  sounded  the death knell for the Eckford family and, after 45 years of outstanding service, the Echo made her last voyage on  17 August 1965.²³  

2009 (updated 2021)

Sources used in this story

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