The Upper Clutha Historical Records Society (UCHRS) has been delving into the archives in a series of articles to discover entrepreneurial young settlers who jumped at an opportunity to achieve something new and remarkable in the Upper Clutha.

In the most recent UCHRS newsletter, Ken Allan provided a fascinating introduction to the first commercial freight transportation to be based in the Upper Clutha, providing an essential link for local merchants and farmers between the Upper Clutha and markets in Clyde.

Ken has graciously permitted the Wanaka App to republish his story.

1913 – the year of the lorry

The movement of bulk goods to, from, and around the Upper Clutha since Māori first passed through the area was largely limited to travel on foot, packhorses, drays pulled by bullocks or horses, rafts and canoes. That was until 1913.

That is not to say that motorised vehicles had not been used in the Upper Clutha area before 1913. Mt Cook Motor Services provided service cars for transporting people (tourists usually) from Pukaki to Pembroke in December 1910, for instance.  

The development of motorised transport was in part restricted by local councils’ prohibition of motor vehicles being used on certain roads in the area. The catch-cry from some councillors was that motor vehicles would “scare the horses”.

Additionally, the roads were also very rough, in many cases not more than a bridle track and some had huge ruts created by the wheels of the drays.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it was a young man who first introduced a motorised lorry for commercial transport purposes to the Upper Clutha.

Born in Lowburn, 22-year-old George Edward Partridge (b.1 Dec 1889) took the plunge and arranged to purchase a Commer lorry from Walter E. Searle, the New Zealand agent in Oamaru. Walter had a thriving motor vehicle business selling and servicing cars, lorries and buses. He even ran a local bus service in Oamaru.

The new Commer lorry was ordered from the factory in England in 1912 and arrived in Dunedin on 19 January 1913 and ownership was passed to George.

While waiting for the arrival of his lorry, George arranged a partnership with Samuel Hunter, a well-known and respected carrier from Pembroke, and their new transportation firm, the Clyde-Upper Clutha Motor Carrying Co, was announced in the newspapers on 3 March 1913. 

Their principal goal was to provide a regular service from Clyde to Upper Clutha and surrounding districts. Certainly, there was a good demand for such a service. Grain was produced in the area in large volumes but transport was limited to drays and they were slow. 

Although the flour mill at Luggate had been in operation for some time, and was a boon to local farmers, flour, grain, wool and so on still had to be sent to Clyde while the locals continued their discussions with central government to build a railway line from Clyde to Hāwea Flat.  

The railway had been planned for a number of years and, although it appears on early maps, it never came to fruition.

The Clyde-Upper Clutha Motor Carrying Co. advertised in the local newspaper: ”To farmers, runholders, businessmen and the general public, Mr George Partridge begs to announce that he has landed an up-to-date Motor Lorry and will, this week, continue the service from Clyde to Hāwea Flat, and is prepared to undertake the transport of all classes of goods, merchandise, farm produce, etc at current rates. All correspondence promptly attended to. Inquiries solicited.” 

George was the lorry driver and it appears Sam obtained and administered the freight contracts.  

The lorry was described as weighing 4.25 tons; it had a body of the wagon 14ft by 7ft (4.26m x 2.13m) and was designed to carry a load of six tons. It was powered by a 40 hpw engine fitted with a five-speed gearbox. Its 40 inch wheels were fitted with twin solid rubber tyres giving an 11 inch tread “on the driving wheel”. Top speed was 20mph (32.18kmh).  

All was not plain sailing however as the Dunedin Expansion League was still negotiating in early February with the Vincent County Council to allow motor traffic at certain hours of the day on certain roads. Even special arrangements had to be made in the event of meeting a horse-drawn coach on the road.

The matter was resolved and it appears that the business went well at first with the only known issue being that the lorry occasionally over-heated. This started occurring in early 1914.

Tragically, the promising business was short lived.

Hāwea Flat farmer Pat McCarthy was travelling to Clyde on 22 April 1914 when he came across the Clyde-Upper Clutha Motor Carrying Co. lorry in the middle of the road near Rocky Point.  The toolbox was open and the radiator cap was off but there was no sign of George.  

Pat travelled on to Lowburn and discovered that no one had seen George, so a search was mounted. Searchers noticed a water jug George had purchased to replenish the lorry’s radiator was missing and when the search failed to find George it was surmised that he fell into the river with the jug. The river was particularly “boisterous” at that point along the road, it was noted.

The last person to talk with George was Jack Oliver, who farmed Run 236R on the northern side of where the Lindis River enters the Clutha. Jack recalled there had been nothing amiss and after 10 minutes talking, George drove off towards the Lowburn Bridge.

George’s body was never found, but it was reported at the inquest that there were four gold dredges operating just downstream and it was possible his body was buried in the tailings.

And so Upper Clutha’s first commercial motorised freight business ended. George’s mother arranged the auction of the lorry which was sold on 1 June 2014 to Wm Reid & Sons for £1,295.  At least the lorry stayed in the Upper Clutha area.

As for Sam Hunter, he packed up and purchased a farm at Taieri Mouth which he farmed until he retired. He passed away in 1939 aged 73.

1905 Cycle tour

While motorised transport was widely discouraged on many local roads at the turn of the 20th century, bicycles were a very popular form of transport.  

Tourists were using bicycles in the Upper Clutha quite early on. On 23 December 1899, a party of four men from Wellington, Dr C P Knight, G H Bethune, R W Kirkby, and D Robertson, departed Palmerston on a cycle tour of Central Otago. Their journey was by way of Naseby, Clyde, Cromwell, Lake Wanaka, Gibbston, Cromwell again, Alexandra, and Roxburgh and ending in Dunedin.  

They reported that “the roads were not good, and a continuance of rain and some head-winds had to be put down as setoffs” to the “magnificent scenery”. They spent an average of four shillings (40c) per day between them and “splashed out” on Christmas Day when they each spent two shillings on four sandwiches.

Clyde was described as “very dusty”; “sand” was the first impression of Cromwell, Pembroke was “a pretty little place” but the “environment of Wanaka is bare-looking, being almost treeless”.

They struck rain on the Crown Range and could not ride down the far side as the road had been washed out in places. They did take a ride on the steamer on Lake Wakatipu before heading for Dunedin.

They actually rode from Roxburgh to Dunedin in one day and finished their tour on 3 January, just 12 days after they started their journey. Given the road conditions of the day, that’s impressive.

PHOTOS: UCHRS