Ripapa Island #1

Ripa Island. Ripper Island. Ripapa Island.  Even Humanity Island. What’s in a name? Well, the Māori name (not the anglicised version) tells us much about the early use of the island. ‘Ri’ means a flax rope used to drag a waka ashore and ‘papa’ a flat rock. A mooring rock.

This small, much modified island, close to the headland separating Purau from Pile Bay, has a dramatic history. To write about the jetty (which is still in existence as part of the Fort Jervois complex but awaiting post-earthquake repairs) requires writing a little about what went before.

Aerial view of Ripapa Island. The jetty and land bridge are clearly visible.
V.C. Browne & Son, undated.

Ripapa Island’s strategic position, roughly halfway down the navigable harbour and jutting out just enough to afford a clear view to the heads, made it an obvious choice for a Ngati Mamoe and later a Ngai Tahu pa site. The Ngai Tahu chief principally associated with Ripapa Island was Taununu who migrated from Kaikoura and took possession of family lands in Whakaraupō.  He established his pa on Ripapa Island in the early nineteenth century. According to Barry Brailsford...

Taununu’s Pa may be the first in the South Island specifically designed for the musket warfare era. It represents a remarkably rapid adaptation of pa engineering to meet the threat posed by a new war technology. Seven bastions project out from the walls in a style reminiscent of the towers of medieval times. The intention was to provide the defending marksmen with a clear field of fire along the line of the walls or palisades. Attackers attempting to scale the defences could be brought under a punishing crossfire. 

The section of the pa drawn by Strouts in 1872 locates the butts of the palisade posts within the high earth walls and clearly shows trenches 1.5 metres deep behind the walls. An inner earthwork divides the pa and creates the opportunity for a second stand against the enemy if one section of the pa falls.[1]

Copied [c. 1910] from plan made by Frederick Strouts in 1872,
CCL MapColl 834.44hkcmf/1872/Acc. 5099

The story is a tragic one. Ripapa Island was drawn into the Kaihuanga feud in the 1820s when Taununu’s nephew was killed by Kaiapoi Maori. In response, Taununu launched a surprise attack on Whakaepa - a small pa at Colgate populated by Kaiapoi people - and slaughtered all the inhabitants. Kaiapoi countered by putting together a large fighting force, armed with muskets. Ripapa Island was caught in a two-pronged attack. One war party went overland via Koukourarata (Port Levy) to Purau. Another went by waka round the peninsula to meet up with the land party. By the time the attack was launched Taununu had already left the pa, crossing the harbour and leaving his people leaderless. Despite the fact that it had been expertly designed as a musket pa, Ripapa had no guns. Most of those trying to escape by sea were killed by musket fire from the waka. Some, fleeing the pa on foot, were permitted to escape through the ranks of the attackers and were able to scramble up the hill at the back of Ripapa from where they rolled big rocks down on their pursuers. The pa was plundered, women and children slaughtered and the fortifications destroyed. Taununu was eventually clubbed to death at the Waiwera/Lake Forsyth outlet.

Ngai Tahu continued to occupy Ripapa until about 1832, when chief Te Whakarukeruke left to help defend Kaiapoi against Te Rauparaha. After the fall of Kaiapoi, Te Rauparaha overran a number of pa on Banks Peninsula, including Ripapa. It was never occupied as a pa again.[2]

In the early 1870s central government took control of immigration from the provincial governments and ramped up the programme across the country. The almost complete failure of the immigrant facilities at Camp Bay forced the authorities to build a new quarantine station on Ripapa Island. Before the buildings were constructed the site was leveled and the remains of Taununu’s pa destroyed.

The new buildings, designed by architect Frederick Strouts, were officially handed over 5 June 1873 with the steamer Halcyon conveying dignitaries to the island. Tenders had been called for the construction of a ‘small landing jetty’ on 24 April, the job awarded to Mr Sandford of Heathcote.[3] However, a Press report of the handover suggests that, if there were any jetty completed at all, it was a temporary one. This Press account is also interesting in that it offers a description of of Ripapa Island before the excavations of the 1880s transformed its geography.

The island is of a mound-like form, rather steeply rising on all sides from a belt of rocks that encircle it, washed by the sea, the highest ground being of course chosen as the site of the sanitorium... The landing yesterday was made at the south-west corner of the island, where a permanent jetty will be built running in that direction, the flat slab-like rocks gradually forming a natural ascent to the higher level of the ground.[4]

The hospital was a two-storied building with separate wards for men and women on the ground floor along with a dispensary and a housekeeper’s room. The upper floor was divided into two dormitories for convalescent patients. Other buildings included separate quarters for single men, single women and families and a kitchen. The buildings were firmly anchored down to solid stone foundations. Overall the barracks were capable of housing an extraordinary (for such a small island) 300 people, plus another hundred should the need arise. Since the only water available on Ripapa Island was from rainfall, 15 tanks, each able to store 100 gallons, were installed.[5] George Plimmer was appointed superintendent of the Quarantine Station. 

Ripapa Island with jetty and bridge, after its transformation into a military fort in the 1880s. Lyttelton Museum, undated

The issue of a jetty was further clarified just a few days ago when I found a report on the Quarantine Station complex written by Frederick Strouts in June 1874, a year after the official opening.

I may also state for information of the Government that the landing jetty for the Island so long since contracted for under Colonial Government but which has been delayed from contractors inability to procure necessary piles is now likely to be commenced the Colonial Government having called on contractors sureties to perform the work, and the piles I understand are now about to be landed.[6]

The quarantine buildings on Ripapa were not used for very long. Serious overcrowding meant that the quarantining was shifted to larger Quail Island from February 1875 with Ripapa Island taking just the overflow of immigrants. The introduction of steamers on the voyage from England to New Zealand in the 1880s significantly reduced voyage times and consequently the risk of disease transmission. In late 1886 the Press noted that the quarantine station on Ripapa Island had been unused for some years.  Thereafter the island moved into a whole new phase of its history – to appear in the next installment!

What I’ve yet to establish is whether the jetty eventually built for the Quarantine Station was the same one used when Ripapa Island was reconstructed as a military fort in the 1880s – and hence the one we see today.....

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[1] Barry Brailsford, The Tattooed Land: The Southern Frontiers of the Pa Maori.(Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1981).

[2] Ripapa island is of special significance to Ngai Tahu. The urupa or burial grounds on Ripapa and nearby, and the place of the island in tribal history, were acknowledged by the designation of Ripapa as a Topuni in the Ngai Tahu Deed of Settlement with the Crown in 1998. Today, Ngati Wheke at Rapaki are the guardians of Ripapa.

[3] Press, 5 May 1873

[4] Press, 6 June 1873

[5] Ibid

[6] Report on the state of Police Depot Christchurch and Quarantine buildings, Ripa Island, by F Strouts, 3 June 1974, Archives NZ, CAAR CH287 20410 Box CP 658  PPC6
As always I am indebted to the indispensable Gordon Ogilvie publications Banks Peninsula and Place Names of Banks Peninsula