Feeling stuck at home with the kids right now? You can probably relate to the widowed woman with 6 young children, living in a tiny cottage in Peeress town… The town was only supposed to be a temporary settlement, for 24 immigrant families who arrived on the Peeress Ship in 1874. But with nowhere else to go, many families stayed on. After a typhoid breakout and issues with some "un-savoury characters" the area got a bad reputation and some Timaru Borough residents wanted it gone. Eventually the town was emptied and the buildings razed, leaving the former residents to find new homes.
The area at Patiti Point has been a place for shelter for many hundreds of years. Moa bones and a moa hunter’s necklace found in the area are thought to be more than 800 years old. In the 1830’s the area was also used as a whaling site when the Weller Brothers established a short-lived whaling station there. Samuel Williams, who features in some of our other stories about Timaru’s history, was part of this crew. A whale pot (for rendering blubber) at the current-day carpark is a reminder of this part of the area’s history.
In 1874 the government allowed 24 immigrant families from the ship Peeress to build temporary accommodation on a designated quarantine reserve. These were simple cottages made from cob and sod (Cob was a combination of clay, tussock and dirt-bricks. Sod was cut from the ground), and were a welcome relief for the families who had been housed in barracks up until that point.
However sanitary conditions were poor, disease was common (including outbreaks of typhoid fever), and the living conditions were far from ideal. Despite these difficulties and although the housing was only meant to be temporary, many families did not want to move on. These were their homes and they had nowhere else to go.
“The sooner they are destroyed the better for the moral tone of the town”
There were concerns about sanitation and crime from some residents of the neighbouring Timaru Borough. However the area fell outside the council boundaries at the time, so they had no ability to intervene in the township.
“It would seem almost a pity… to pull them all down, as several of them have been made comfortable little homes” Mr March, Immigration officer.
The government also wanted to keep the area as a quarantine/military reserve in case it was needed, rather than turning it into a permanent settlement. Eventually, the government ordered all residents to vacate the township and the vacant buildings to be razed. The area was then sown with English grass and returned to a reserve.
Later on, the reserve was considered for a battery where the big gun stands and used for rifle practice. The rail line from the rock quarry (now Centennial Park) used to run up Otipua Rd and down to the port past the rifle training butt. The train would ring a bell to warn the rifle men that it was coming and to cease fire while it went past.
The area was also used by the Borough Council. A WuHoo Timaru sign is at the car park celebrating the painting by William Greene, The Roadmakers 1916. These horses were used to plough the roads. It took hard labour to level the ground and form new roads, but this was necessary for a growing town.
Where does the point get its name? Pātītī "Patiti Point". Pātītī Point is located on the South Canterbury coastline at Timaru. Pātītī was a passenger on the Ārai-te-uru waka, which capsized off Matakaea on the North Otago Coastline. After the capsize, many of the passengers went ashore to explore the land. However, they needed to be back at the waka before daylight. Most did not make it, including Pātītī, and instead were transformed into many of the well-known landmarks of Te Waipounamu. In 1880, Hoani Kāhu from Arowhenua described Pātītī as “he kāinga nohoanga, mahinga kai, and he tauraka a waka”.
How you can join the history hunt...
If you are looking to learn more, check this out: pressreader.com
There is some great information here including the passenger list and grim accounts of young children who due to the unsanitary conditions there died while living there from diseases such as dysentery or diptheria: sites.rootsweb.com/peeress
Visit the car park, there are plaques and signs to spark your interest. When the road is wet you can see two lines that look like the old rail line used to quarry rock from Centennial Park to the Port. After big swells the beach below the Patiti Point cliff on South Beach can show some history clues like the old boiler, concrete with someones boot prints from years past and random bits and pieces wash up from time to time, like an old leather boot that our family once found in 2019.
Images from above 1956: retrolens.nz/map/PatitiPoint
Kā Huru Manu. A project dedicated to creating a Ngāi Tahu Atlas of place names and histories, helps you explore our Ngāi Tahu Atlas to view over 1,000 original Māori place names of Te Waipounamu - http://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas
Visit the Aigantighe website for details about the WuHoo Timaru signs including the sign featuring William Greene (1872-1925) painting The Roadmakers, 1916: aigantighe.co.nz/wuhoo-timaru