On tunnels, maritime disasters and cars on poles
Southland’s claim to having two railway tunnels has been disputed.
The 301m Glenham Tunnel is one and the 27m Crawford’s Tunnel at Ohai might be regarded as the other.
Examination of the latter, however, shows that no tunnelling was involved in its construction and that it is in fact a thick overbridge.
Surely a tunnel has to be hollowed out with pickaxe and shovel, and aided by flickering lanterns, a canary and a team of pit-ponies? The noun tunnel is not legitimate unless it is the product of the verb to tunnel.
Until 1964, there was a one-way traffic overbridge there. This was replaced with oversize culvert pipes to help traffic flow as there is a blind corner just past this on the Ohai side.
Maritime disasters
One of the lesser-known maritime disasters, with a bit of a connection to Southland, is the burning of the clipper Fiery Star.
The Fiery Star had left Brisbane for London on April 1, 1865, with passengers and a load of wool but had ironically taken fire northwest of Chatham Island.
Most aboard abandoned ship in the only four serviceable boats, while a volunteer crew of the mate, 16 crew and one passenger remained to fight the fire.
After 21 days the men were taken from the burning ship off Great Barrier Island at the last possible moment by the Dauntless, and the Fiery Star sank a few hours later.
There was public indignation that the captain and 78 passengers and crew had left the ship, leaving behind a scratch crew with no lifeboats or navigational equipment, but in reality there was not room in the boats for everyone and leaving the burning vessel seemed the only option.
They had volunteered to stay behind after all.
A search for the missing lifeboats was mounted in the vicinity of Chatham Island but none was found and the possibility that they had drifted far to the south prompted a call for a search of the subantarctic islands. The three surviving castaways from the Invercauld had recently been rescued from Auckland Island and three men from the wrecked Grafton had managed to sail to Stewart Island.
Two more castaways were rescued soon afterwards but there seemed to be the chance of others as smoke had been spotted, although this could have been spray from a waterfall.
The Bluff tug Southland and an Australian vessel Victoria were dispatched to examine Auckland and Campbell Islands for survivors of the Invercauld and Fiery Star and the missing vessels Jack Frost, Citizen and Timaru with no success.
The loss of 78 people makes the Fiery Star disaster amongst the top few in New Zealand history.
Cars and poles
Invercargill’s famous car-up-a-pole has been gracing the State Highway 1 entrance to the city for at least 60 years.
The present car, a Morris Minor, is the third to sit on the pole; the first was a threeseater Citroen followed by a 1935 Morris Eight and then the Morris Minor. The cars advertised the Leven Motor Wrecking Company but the incumbent has been repainted to promote an auto magazine.
No more than a quick glance is necessary to show that the car would fail its next warrant. Surely Invercargill should make this a bit of an icon – what about a motorbike or a truck?