Church Bay/Kaioruru #1: Early industries - fishing

Church Bay was my childhood summer-holiday paradise – a rented bach, sun, sea and hills in the company of the Sinclair family. But I knew little of the story of the jetty or of Church Bay in general until quite recently. Between Land and Sea has enabled me to better appreciate this lovely haven.

Me on the foreshore at Church Bay c.1960. Eliot Sinclair's boat Elaine getting a spruce-up.

Māori knew Church Bay as Kaioruru – variously translated as ‘sheltered place’ or ‘food of the morepork’. There was also a Māori employee of Robert Rhodes named Ruru who lived at the bay. Tucked between Diamond Harbour/ Te Waipapa and Hays Bay, Kaioruru is bounded by Pauaohinekotau Point to the north-east (separating it from Diamond Harbour) and Black Point to the west. Early on, land on the headland to the east of the bay was set aside to provide investment income for the Anglican Church – hence the name. Diamond Harbour’s Mark Stoddart later purchased this land while the Rhodes brothers from Purau owned most of the land above the stock route – to which they added the Church Bay gully with its guaranteed supply of fresh stream water.

Today’s tranquil bay was once a hive of industry. Long before the first holiday homes were built below the road, the bay provided a base for various pioneering enterprises. 

Māori had always valued the abundant kaimoana - fish and shellfish - of Whakaraupō. Pre-European settlement, "the heavily zostera-blanketed tidal flats of Charteris Bay were the main camouflaged spawning ground and nursery for fish frequenting the Canterbury coast."[1].  Unfortunately, with the arrival of Canterbury Association settlers, this resource was rapidly plundered. Sharp-edged scraper-dredges were used to remove the long zostera grass in order to access the oyster beds of Charteris Bay/Te Wharau and Church Bay/Kaioruru for the local market. Loss of habitat exposed the young fish to hungry sea birds and the rich kaimoana was rapidly depleted.

Lyttelton Times 14 July 1866

Oyster farming also became an attractive option. In June 1867 an application was made to the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands “to plant an artificial oyster bed on the shore adjacent to the Crown lands bordering on Church Bay on the southern side of the harbour.”[1] The area in question covered 70 acres and included the whole of Church Bay. The application for such a large area was rejected and five acres proposed instead. It is not clear whether this reduced option was taken up but in August 1898, the Star reported several days of phenomenally low tides during which “the mud flats have been completely drained, and many residents of the southern side of the harbour have obtained plentiful supplies of oysters when the tide was out.”[2]

The Deep Sea Fishing Company, launched in 1872, purchased or leased four acres of land at the base of Church Bay Gully from Robert Rhodes with the aim of supplying the fast-growing town of Christchurch with fish. The company established a fish-curing and smoking plant at the mouth of the Church Bay stream and several huts were built on the foreshore for the fishermen.  These men seem to have been the first pakeha settlers in Church Bay. 

Looking down into Church Bay/Kaioruru (undated). Site of the Deep Sea Fishing Company settlement (known as 'The Huts') on the beach to the left. Hunter family cottage above the road on the right. 

The company purchased the Nautilus and later the schooner Result (which was promptly sold when it was found to be too small for purpose). Fish caught included trumpeter, sole, habuka, moki and crayfish. The Press reported in July 1873 that smoked trumpeter was becoming a favourite with the Christchurch public. In November of that year the paper indicated that the company was planning to “lay down a preserve in Church Bay, where fish can be kept alive, so that the market can be kept supplied two or three times a week with fresh fish.”[3]

However by 1874 the company had wound up. I can find no reference as to why but wonder whether the logistics of landing and processing fish at Church Bay and then transporting them to Lyttelton and on to Christchurch were unsustainable. Maybe the fledgling company overreached itself. I also wonder how the fish was landed at the Church Bay beach in the absence of a near jetty. Did the boats beach on the shore or were smaller boats used to ferry the catches ashore?

The land owned by the Deep Sea Fishing Company was eventually bought by Shetland Islander James Hay and his second wife Jean. They added another level to the last hut and retired to live there. After James’ death in 1914 Jean lived on at Church Bay for many years.

The Hay house on the beach at Church Bay. Photo taken from Mary Stapylton-Smith's book, From Adderley to Bradley

The Hay house in 2014 (Jane Robertson)

Tucked behind the sandy Church Bay beach. (Jane Robertson, 2014)

[1] An early conservationist: The life of Oliver Hunter. Manuscript in possession of Oliver's granddaughter Mary Harrison
[2] Lyttelton Times, 4 June 1867

[3] Star, 8 August 1898