A look at Bluff's past - part1

When he arrived in Bluff from Melbourne in 1872 Anthony Trollope looked aver a somewhat raw port town set on a peninsula at the southern tip of the South Island. It was dominated by a 265 meter hill from which magnificent vistas spread in all directions To the south and east lay Foveaux Strait and in the distance Stewart island and Ruapuke Islands. To the north lay Bluff Harbour itself, beyond to the north and west the vast expanse of the Southland Plains to which Bluff was connected by a narrow neck at the northwestern corner of the peninsula.

Its steep topography and location on a peninsula combined to make it appear as an island from the sea and to the Maori it was known as Motupohe, 'island of convolvulus'. Bishop Selwyn, visiting Bluff in 1844 - 30 years before Trollope - described its hill as a bold wooded headland standing out of an extensive plain'

Bluff was not a settlement until the arrival of Europeans but the area surrounding served a variety of functions for the Maori before European settlement.

The main Maori settlement in the area which became known as Southland, was Ruapuke Island, which with its seven pas was the base of the paramount chief of the South Island, Tuhawaiki, otherwise known as 'King of the Bluff' or Bloody Jack'. Smaller Maori settlements were scattered along the Southland coast, including villages at Ocean Beach, Omaui and Oue on what is now known as the New River Estuary.

Although a village was established by Te Wero at Ocean Beach, on the neck of the peninsula, the settlement was transitory in nature. The Maori people appeared to move in cycles and Ocean Beach was another stopover point.

A Maori settlement needed a combination of resources, food and water, flax for clothing and of course a defensive position. Food sources in Bluff were good, especially kina and paua, although much flax was speckled and not of good quality. But one important resource abundant in the vicinity of Bluff was argillite, which was quarried and worked into adzes at Tiwai Point across the harbour. Studies have shown that the site appears to have been used about 500 years ago, but during the summer months only.

The European arrived in Bluff sooner than in many other parts of New Zealand. The first record of a boat entering Bluff Harbour was in 1813 when a Sydney expedition, on board the 'Perseverance', was sent to report on the possibilities of trading in flax. Robert Williams, an ex-convict who was engaged on the Perseverance, as an expert flax-dresser and ropemaker provided the first description of Bluff Harbour. (The fact that Williams was allowed to leave Australia at all is an indication that his crime was of a minor nature). The expedition named the harbour 'Port Macquarrie' in honour of Lachlan Macquarrie, the Governor of New South Wales. The name was retained until the late 1850's.

The expedition may not have been the first European venture to visit Bluff. It is widely held that as early as 1792 there had been extensive whaling and sealing in the area and it is highly probable that ships engaged in the industry used Bluff Harbour. About 1806 it is believed, a whaling party visited Bluff and all party members were killed except a small boy who was raised by Topi Patuki.

The first European to settle at Bluff was James Spencer a veteran of Waterloo. he arrived in 1823. aboard the 'St Michael' while he was a member of Johnny Jones Waikouaiti based whaling team and returned the following year to establish a permanent home. Spencer's settlement was one of the earliest in New Zealand - the first to survive to become a town. Bluff therefore has a longer history than any other town in New Zealand.