Photo taken April 2014 with autumn colours just starting to appear.
In your own back yard. You will see cabbage trees, toi-tois, flax, bracken, cross a few footbridges; enjoy a manmade duck pond with mallard and domestic ducks. Also swings, slides for the kids, picnic tables, bike tracks. Gardeners don't just like to dig big holes, they also like to fill them and holes don't come much bigger than an abandoned quarry. The Bowker Gateway, opened in 1940, on Otipua Road is an entrance to Centennial Park and the exit is beside the Claremont Road Bridge on Claremont Road. It is a lovely walk or drive. The reserve includes a 1½ hour walk, 3.5 km walkway, following the wooded valley of the Otipua Creek. Many locals still know it by the Scenic Reserve or The Scenic. On the west of the town centre, take Church St., past St. Mary's, up to the intersection of Otipua Rd and go through the Bowker Gateway, down the zig-zag, Quarry Rd, one-way since 2013, and drive to the lake - car park, and start to walk. An old railway line used to take the basalt boulders from the quarry to the harbour breakwater. The park has a wide variety of exotic and native trees. There is a planting programme part of the Tu Kakariki tree planting programme. New Zealand is a tree country.
Photo taken April 2014 with autumn colours just starting
to appear.
You don't need a machine to exercise.
Maps
Scenic drive 2015
Centennial Park
Otipua Creek Walkway
The
Otipua Wetland
Charitable Trust was established in 1996, after it was
suggested that the margins of Saltwater Creek, which were a muddy eyesore, could
do with some attention. The idea was popular with Timaru locals, who suggested
that the 20 hectares of nearby farmland also be included in the development. A
small group of volunteers raised the $50,000 needed to buy the farmland. They
applied for the appropriate consents, had the site surveyed and fenced and then
started planting trees. Since those beginnings the Otipua Wetland Charitable
Trust has raised almost $500,000 towards the restoration of the wetland, has
planted between 60,000 and 70,000 trees and has developed around three
kilometres of walking tracks.
Saltwater Creek Walkway
Walkways
View the
old
reservoirs on
Brookfield Hill above Centennial Park, last used in 1974. Timaru's first
town water supply, was developed in the late 1870s and early 1880s and saw water
fed from the original Pareora dam through a series
of races and tunnels to a bluestone-lined reservoir above Centennial Park.
Timaru Herald, 5 May 1875, Page 2
THE WATER RACE.
On Saturday, April 10, Mr Geo. Cliff the Mayor, and Councillor, Padget,
accompanied by Mr Fraser the contractor, Mr Williamson the engineer, Mr Lough
the Town Clerk, and a representative of the Press inspected the Timaru-Pareora
water race. The party- of whom two were on horseback, and the rest in a
two-horse buggy left town at about noon, and followed the line of the race till
reaching Mr D. Fyfe's on the Otipua Creek. At this point a halt was made in
order, to see the extensive iron flume, which is suspended from one side of the
creek to the other. ... From the flume the race extends through Mr D. Fyfe's and
Mr T. W. Fyfe's farms, and along the southern side of the road leading from the
Otipua Creek to the Rev Mr Foster's farm. At this farm it branches off and is
carried down the road extending to the western end of North-street. The
reservoir is situated on Mr Landsborough's land, on the western bank of the
Otipua Creek, at the point of the race about one mile to the southward of of
where the iron fluming which we have alluded to crosses the gully. The distance
from the reservoir to the town is abut two miles. The reservoir, which will be
finished as regards the excavation in about ten days, is 437 ft long on the top
and 130 ft wide) 21ft 6in deep, and 370 ft long on bottom the and 86ft wide. Its
holding capacity is 5,000,000 gallons, sufficient to supply a town
containing-ten times the population of Timaru. ..
Timaru Herald 30/04/2013
The Timaru Harbour Board once owned much of the land at Centennial Park, which
was worked as a quarry to provide a source of harbour-protection rock for the
development of the Port of Timaru. Road bridges and and railroads were built for
moving the quarried rock out of the reserve by railway lines on Wai-iti Rd,
Otipua Rd and James St to reach their destination at the port. During
1934-35 negotiations took place between the Timaru Harbour Board, representative
of the estate of J King, and the Timaru Borough Council to acquire land for a
reserve in the western sector of the borough. The land lay from Claremont Rd
stretching east to the end of Quarry Rd. About 32 hectares was bought for the
equivalent of $1060. However, the harbour board maintained its right to quarry
in the reserve until 1975. The plan also provided for coin-operated barbecues, a
suspension bridge over the lake, a walkway across the dam and swings, slides and
seating, plus extensive landscaping and plantings. In 1938 it was formally
opened and named the Scenic Reserve; however, by 1940 it had been renamed
Centennial Park marking the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The park would not be what it is today if it was not for the initiative of a
Timaru service club, Round Table 48. In early 1988 the club launched a fundraising project with the aim of damming
the Otipua Creek that flowed through the park to create a lake and recreational
areas. The plan also provided
for coin-operated barbecues, a suspension bridge over the lake, a walkway across
the dam and swings, slides and seating, plus extensive landscaping and
plantings. With $90,000 having been raised by the Round Table and other service
clubs, work was able to start in 1990 on the dam to create an 800-metre-long
lake. The following year the lake was filled in May and work began on planting
7000 trees around the area.
Timaru Herald, 31 December 1904, Page 3
The Harbour Board's quarry has been gradually extended up Wai-iti creek; until
he furthermost cranes are at work within view from the Claremont road bridge,
and the pioneer workmen of future extensions of the railway have begun clearing
a road-bed beside the last exposure of rock in the lease, this being opposite of
Fyfe's quarry and its upper end quite near the Claremont end. The four cranes
are now at work at two spots a considerable distance apart. Two of them in the
near side of the back shunt, have got a nice face of good stone to work at, but
there is not a great deal left at this point. The uppermost pair have a
considerable area stripped, and part of the face is about 50ft high. There has
been some rather heavy stripping on parts of it, one comer running to as much
18ft. the deepest yet done. The rock deposit is very uneven, and its outward
appearance is frequently deceptive. More than once, the surface when stripped
has promised a good quarry, and it turned out that there was only a layer of big
stones on top, covering lower streams of small rubbishy stuff. A peculiarity in
the surface of the rock is a sort of basin-like hollow, sometimes many yards
across and several feet deep, and filled with a tough dark coloured, waxy clay.
These "potholes," as the quarrymen call them, are always a surface indication of
loose, dirty, and rubbishy rubble below. The uppermost face towards which the
men are now working, appears to be of good-sized stone, and it is expected to be
between 30 and 40ft high. Fyfe's quarry, across the narrow creek is the best
face and the most solid rock to be seen near Timaru and it will be most
satisfactory if the Harbour Board's quarry proves to be of the same nature. The
upper end of the exposed face, on the Board's side of the creek is certainly
different and inferior, being a huge nest of rotten stuff, which is supposed to
be "cooked" but not melted rock. As this stuff shows in the creek above the
bridge, it may be that the stream of lava which made Fyfe's good quarry crossed
the creek line below, in which case the Harbour Board will get the benefit of
it. The work at the quarry appears to be carried on in a most methodical manner
and with an alteration in the method of blasting which used to be advocated.
Formerly, the blasts used to be made with long tunnels, to shake a large area of
rock. Shorter tunnels are now made, and smaller quantities of rock are more
thoroughly shaken apart. The quarry gully now looks very pretty in its summer
dress of green grass and wild flowers on the sunny side, and thick gorse and
broom wastes on the other, and nature has already almost hidden beneath
vegetation the ugly scars made by the earlier stages of the quarrying work. A
good deal of the rubbishy rock left behind seems to be rapidly disintegrating
into soil, and the loose dirt of the quarry grows some fine specimens of Scotch
thistle and other weeds, and gorse and broom flourish in it.
Timaru Herald, 28 March 1914, Page 9 TIMARU HARBOUR
BOARD.
The Resident Engineer reported that: Extension of Eastern Mole, 450 ft. Fairly
good headway is being made with this work. The staging is now out 125 feet. The
first stone was tipped on the 10th instant and up to date 1073 tons have been
deposited in the 450 ft. extension. In the raising of the wall at the root of
the Eastern Extension mole 5848 tons have been deposited, and with 258 tons on
trucks in the ready for tipping, the total quantity sent down from the quarry to
date is 7179 tons. He had taken the levels, etc., for extending the train to
Fyfe's quarry on the opposite side of the creek.
The railway line.
Stone quarried between 1888 and 1890 was transported by
tram via Wai-iti Rd to build the North Mole.
The Otipua Rd tramway was used in the 1930s or 1940s to repair the East
breakwater.
The Gleniti Quarries were reopened in 1955 to stockpile 30,000 tons of rock. A
weighbridge was put into operation and 838,149 tons rock registered up to Feb,
1957. Ref. Gillespie. pg 162
Several men from King's Quarries, in 1911, at the
northwestern end of Centennial Park have loaded several tipping wagons with rock
bound for Timaru Harbour. The white posts in the background borders the
Claremont Rd.
Two steam cranes and several men were employed in
Fyfe's
Quarry in Centennial Park during 1888-1890, extracting rock for the North Mole
of Timaru Harbour, which was built by Palliser and Jones contractors.
Wagons.
FYFE
Press, 20 February 1922, Page 6
Mr David Fyfe, who died at Glen-iti, South Canterbury, last week, [buried 16th]
was a native of Dundee, where he was born in 1833. As a young man he went to
Canada and spent some years there. On the way back to Scotland he was one of the
survivors of the wreck of the Mailsteam Canada in the Strait of Belle
Isle. The survivors were picked up by a French fishing smack, which landed them
at a fishing post. Provisions were short, and the refugees were rationed one
biscuit and half a glass of stale water a day. Eventually they were landed in
Newfoundland. Mr Fyfe still retained a leather-bound Bible that was given to him
by the Bishop of Newfoundland in 1861. In 1862 he came to New Zealand, landing
at Christchurch. Just then the Dunstan rush excited both old and new colonists,
and he went to Dunedin by boat on the way to Dunstan. In the meantime the
Molyneux River had risen so that it was useless to stay there. A party of
disappointed men tramped back through Gabriel's Gully and Dunedin to
Christchurch. One of their camping places—they had gone up Otipua Creek to get
sweet water— was a piece of land that appealed to Mr Fyfe, and four years later
he went down from Christchurch and bought it from the Government, and on this
property he made good as a farmer and brought up a family. He married in 1868,
the wedding being one of the earliest celebrated by Rev. George Barclay. Mr Fyfe
is survived by his widow, two daughters, and three sons. The Misses M.D. and and
O.
[sic]
Fyfe live with their mother at Glen-iti. The sons are Mr D. J. Fyfe,
Wellington, A. C. Fyfe, Christchurch, and W. Fyfe. Wairarapa.
Timaru Herald, 2 December 1871, Page 2 Birth
Dec. 1, at Tranent Cottage, Otipua Creek, the wife of David Fyfe of a son —
stillborn.
David Fyfe arrived on the Mystery in Lyttelton 7 Jan. 1862. He
was single, a farm labourer, from Forfarshie. David Fyfe married Elizabeth
KIRKWOOD in 1867. Children of Elizabeth Spiers Fyfe (d. 1922 aged 76) and David FYFE:
1873 Fyfe Margaret Davis m. 1930 to John Randle
1874 Fyfe David James
1876 Fyfe Archibald Cecil d.1955 aged 79
1877 Fyfe William Arthur
1880 Fyfe Andrew Gibson d. aged 2w.
1887 Fyfe Harry Ladbrooke d. aged 6m in August
1886 Fyfe Mary Jane d. 1951 aged 65
David Fyfe, of Gleniti, farmer, born in Dundee, Scotland. Died 13 Feb. 1922.
Will 1922,
online. To my daughters the said Margaret Davis Fyfe and Mary Jane Fyfe,
both of Gleniti, spinsters, in equal shares all that piece of land situate at
Gleniti aforesaid containing eight acres more or less with the brick cottage and
wooden stables thereon and marked No 2 on the plan drawn hereon.
Evening Post, 27 May 1943, Page 3 MR. D. J. FYFE aged 68
The death occurred recently of Mr. David James Fyfe, who had been engaged in the
silk trade in various parts of New Zealand for over half a century. Born in
Gleniti, Timaru, in 1874 Mr. Fyfe received his early training in Timaru and
Dunedin, later going to England for two years to gain business experience. On
his return he was employed by Messrs. Kirkcaldie and Stains, Ltd., first in
Napier and later in Wellington, until he went into business on his own account
in 1927. During his younger days he was a keen member of the Dunedin Shakespeare
Club, and for many years was associated with the Artillery Volunteers. Of recent
years he had been a member of the Kelburn Bowling Club. He is survived by his
wife and four children.
Timaru Herald, 27 June 1903, Page 4
A pleasant social gathering was held in the Wai-iti schoolroom last evening, to
bid farewell to Miss Fyfe, who, after six years service as teacher in that
school, is now leaving to take up a position in the Waimataitai school. Miss K.
Matheson read and presented an address from the past and present pupils of the
school, and handed to Miss Fyfe a beautiful diamond ring as a token of the
esteem and love the pupils and their parents feel towards that lady. Miss Fyfe
had occupied her position in the school for more than six years; previously to
that she was a pupil teacher, so that her whole service extended over quite ten
years.
Plaques & Signs
Centennial Park Lake Development - A community and combined
service clubs project opened 6 November 1994 by the Mayor Wynne Raymond, J.P.
Concept -Round Table No. 48.
In honour of Dr. Richard St Barbe Baker
(1889 - 1992) conservationists, author, founder Men of the Trees.
Steam trains hauling rock from these quarries to the Timaru harbour, stopped at
this point to replenish their water supplies. From here they travelled via
Quarry Rd, Otipua Rd, and James St. and Domain Ave, to the harbour.
Conical mounds visible on the site of the track were created when soil and clay
overburden was removed during the quarrying to allow access to the rock beneath.
Otipua Creek Walkway - Quarry Rd entry / exit to Coonoor Rd, 15 min.
D.J. Fyfe's Quarries
Miss Fyfe's Quarry 1941, 1955-58
Timaru Harbour Board Quarry 1912
The pine trees are looking old. An
old wheeled hut still there in
April 2014.
A lot of work has been done to turn the quarry into a passive
recreational area but there is still maintenance and noxious weeds. Saw gorse and
broom blooming in April 2014.
Gives you an idea what type of rocks were in the quarry.
What a beautiful place to take a dog off leash and let
them explore. It will be their highlight of the day.
I can see the creek can flood, has been up higher. Toi-toi
abounds.
Fungi on soil and wood in autumn 2014. Scarlet flycaps
[Amanita muscaria] is often found under pine trees and are toxic.
North Otago Times, 11 November 1891, Page 4
The bone of a small species of Moa, found two years
ago under it lava stream at Timaru, are still older and probably upper miocene.
Timaru Herald, 28 September 1894, Page 2
As some of the Borough Council's men were trimming up the footpath on Forth
street at the foot of the bank cutting below St Mary's Church they came across a
moa's leg bone m the solid clay. The bone was nearly at the footpath level, or
twelve feet below the original ground surface. It was of good size, but not a
large one as moa bones go, As usual with bones found m the clay it is in a soft
cheesy condition
There is a variety of seating
T.W. Fyfe
Any relation to David Fyfe?
Thomas Webster Fyfe, 26, a mechanic
from Forfarshire and Margaret, 25, arrived on the
Echunga to Timaru on 16 Dec. 1862. Margaret Craigie Fyfe died 1st Oct.
1863, aged 28, born 1836. He married to Jane Craigie in 1864 and they had 12
children. Jane had also came out on the Echunga with her sister.
Her brother, James Craigie, was mayor of Timaru from 1902 to 1912. Thomas was a
painter living at 9 Heaton St. and later moved to the area what is now Barnes
St, the property neighbouring David Fyfe on Otipua Creek. Their son, T.C.
Fyfe, was a mountain guide at the Hermitage, and took part in the
first ascent
of Mt. Cook on Christmas Day 1894. T.W. Fyfe (1836 - 12 June 1926). Jane Craigie
Fyfe (1847 -1921) Jane and Thomas Webster FYFE children:
1865 Fyfe Margaret Craigie
1867 Fyfe Jane Pareora d. Aug. 7th 1945
1868 Fyfe Isabella b. 1 April at Heaton St. m. Wm Corbert in 1906. She d. Aug.
10 1912.
1870 Fyfe Thomas Camperdown b. 23 June. On Christmas Day in 1884 climbed Mt.
Cook with two others. d. 1947
1872 Fyfe Jessie d. 28 June 1945
1874 Fyfe Evelyn b. 8 Dec. D. Nov. 1946.
1877 Fyfe William Mcfarland buried at Onehunga 1925
1879 Fyfe Minnie Wai-iti
1881 Fyfe Alfred James b. 24 May at at Balgay, Wai-iti, 13 acres in two paddocks
in 1898
1883 Fyfe Charles Marshall d. in Australia May 1945
1888 Fyfe Christopher Hume
Timaru Herald, 22 May 1914, Page 9
The house which was destroyed by fire at Gleniti on Wednesday night
belonged to Mr T. W. Fyfe, and was occupied by Mr H. H. Leathwick. Mr and Mrs
Leathwick were in Timaru when the fire occurred, and there is no clue as to how
it started. They knew nothing of it until they returned home to find their place
in ruins. Mr Bernard Tripp who lives opposite, was the first to notice, the
fire, and he took Mr Leathwick and family to his home for the night.
Craigie
James Craigie, was mayor of Timaru from 1902 to
1912 and Member of Parliament for Timaru 1908 - 1922. He was a brother to Jane,
17, and Jessie Craigie, 21, dairymaids from Forfarshire when they arrived in
Timaru in December 1862 on the Echunga. James Craigie born in
Perthshire, Scotland, in Sept. 1852 came to New Zealand when he was 17 years of
age with his parents; Agnes MacFarlane Craigie (July 1809 -July 1893, aged 84)
and James Craigie (Sept. 1812 -July 1934) from Forfarshire. They landed at
Lyttelton 14 Nov. 1867 by the ship Glenmark as assisted immigrants.
Craigie Ave in Timaru is name after him. Also onboard were his sisters Susan
aged 19, Eliza aged 9 and Margaret aged 7. James died Aug. 1935. Susan
Craigie married James Selbie Sept. 20th 1878 at High St., Timaru.
Susan died 14 Nov. 1932, aged 86, and her husband James Selbie died 26 Jan.
1925. James Selbie from Berwickshire, Scotland had arrived on the Merope
in 1870 with his parents John and Helen Lowrie Selbie. The family lived up
Claremont Rd.
1951. AA signpost at the intersection of Stafford St., Church St and Strathallan
St.
