Tunnel township being re-cycled
Belgrove was once on track to be a bustling stop in the regions burgeoning rail network. tunnels deep into the township’s past.
An item in the Nelson Evening Mail in 1896 intrigued me. ‘Nelson Belgrove Railway: Trains leave Nelson for Belgrove daily 9:45am and 4:30 pm. Trains leave Belgrove for Nelson daily 7:15am and 12 noon’.
Belgrove is 36km south of Nelson on State Highway 6 and is somewhere I drive through while going to somewhere else. I wondered why they needed a train.
The township initially served sawmill workers, farmers and their families, who were attracted to the area from the 1850s onwards. Like many townships, a pub was one of the first buildings. It was a rest stop for horses and humans before, and after, tackling the Spooners Range.
As traffic on the highway increased, people in the top of the south lobbied for a railway to connect Nelson to the rest of the South Island. The plan was for it to pass through a tunnel under the Spooners Range to Kohatu, then via Tapawera to Murchison where it would join the West Coast line.
Construction started in the 1880s and the railway reached Belgrove in 1890. Next was the section that included Spooners Tunnel. Men worked three shifts, 24hrs hours a day, with picks and shovels to dig the tunnel, while others made concrete blocks for its walls. The first train went through Spooners in 1893.
Although sections were added over the next few years, construction was hampered by economic recession and doubts about the line’s long-term viability. After 1931 it was under constant threat of closure.
The dream of linking Nelson to the rest of the South Island was never realised, and the line became known as the ‘railway to nowhere’.
Trains used the line and Spooners Tunnel until 1955, when it was dismantled amongst fierce public protest. One protestor was pioneering trade unionist, politician and feminist, Sonja Davies. Davies responded to a call by Ruth Page, from Golden Bay, for local women to sit on the tracks at Kiwi Station at Tapawera for a week. This ended with the arrest of nine women, including Davies.
Between 1955 and April 2016, the Tapawera and Valleys Historical Society, in association with the Spooners Tunnel Group, opened the tunnel to visitors for a few days each summer.
Earlier this year, the Tunnel opened to the public on a permanent basis as part of Tasman’s Great Taste Trail for cycling and walking.
However, an engineering inspection found cracks in the northern portal which meant another closure until last week.
Now many tens of thousands of dollars later, the Tunnel is once again open to the public. Gillian Wratt, Chair of the Nelson Tasman Cycle Trails Trust says the Trust is ‘‘delighted that the work has now been completed and the tunnel will be open for the busy summer period.
Getting the tunnel reopened has been a team effort and we want to particularly acknowledge the Tasman District Council and Nelson Forests’’.
The Tunnel is not lit and cyclists need to use torches. A warm layer is also needed as it is cold inside. At 1.4km long, Spooners is NZ’s longest decommissioned rail tunnel and the 5th longest tunnel open to cycling and walking in the world.
If you want a ‘taste’ of cycling or an interesting historic outing, park adjacent to The Belgrove pub. From here follow the signs for a safe 15km return trip on off-road trail to Spooners Tunnel. Enjoy the hospitality at the pub – it is not the same one that existed in the 1800s, as this burnt down. But the welcome is still warm and the beer cold. A perfect summer day-trip for your family and visitors.
elizabeth@greenaway.co.nz