Whalers' Base 90th Anniversary - part 2

On 5 April at 10am, the Golden Bay wharf was abuzz with people and boats as the trip to Whalers' Base got underway. A great network of volunteers ticked off their sheets and guided us to the right boat - I was on MV Wildfire, the first boat to leave.

The jetty at the Whalers' Base has long gone so I wondered how the day-trippers would get ashore. I was very surprised to discover a sturdy jetty and a huge picnic shelter at Millars Beach in Price's Inlet and from there it's only a short bush walk through to the Whalers' Base.

The snekke, Winnie, at Golden Bay wharf

Google map showing Millars Beach jetty (circle) and track to
Whalers' Base

Google map of Whalers' Base - can you see the slipway and the
workshop foundations?

I didn't check how long it took to get from Golden Bay to Millars Beach but I guess it was somewhere around 30 minutes. There was lots of excited chatter on board and a sample of interlocking walls from the Norwegian manager's house was being passed around - very similar to Lockwood though thicker and made of Norwegian spruce rather than pine.

Coming in to the jetty at Millars Beach

Millars Beach - getting the barbecue and food ashore

Millars Beach shelter - what a great place for lunch

Millars Beach shelter - I was expecting a small bus-stop type shelter, not
this huge one with two toilets out the back

It was all hands to the deck to carry the provisions off the rowboat and up to the shelter. The Stewart Island Lions manned the barbecue and more volunteers set out the tables laden with salads, coleslaw, sauces and buttered bread - man, did they go well with sausages, steak and seafood from the hotplate.

There was a bit of time before we left for the Whalers' Base so I went exploring around Millers Beach. It's largely private land with well-marked paths and surprises round the corner of man-made structures largely hidden by the bush.

Lovely ngahere behind the shelter

Boat shed extraordinaire

The leaning shed of Millars Beach

Ammunition store - Millars Beach

I've been trying to find out more information on the ammunition store but haven't come up with anything yet. Will show some more photos of it in my next blog. A Stuff article on Whalers' Base and Millars Beach is here (opens in new window).

Part of the crowd waiting for lunch

Millars Beach

left to right: Winnie, Aurora, Wildfire, Southern Isle at Millars Beach

Definitely a place I'll go back to - anyone care to join me?

Whalers' Base 90th Anniversary - part 1

The 90th anniversary of the Whalers' Base/Kaipipi Shipyard in Paterson Inlet took place at the beginning of April 2014 and was attended by around 200 people. The celebrations included displays, songs and dances by the Halfmoon Bay schoolchildren, a boat trip to Millers Beach and the Whalers' Base, dinners, Church services and open houses of the Norwegian houses that were relocated to Oban after the base closed down. I only went on the boat trip so will show you photos from that as well as some history to put it all in context.

The Norwegian link with Stewart Island started late 1923 after a successful application by the Rosshavet Company for a whaling licence in the Ross Sea area. To meet inspection and compliance requirements the boats over-wintered here, initially at Little Glory Cove and Bravo Island, before a more permanent repair base was started in 1927 at Price's Inlet and called Kaipipi Shipyard. The base was only fully functional in the winters of 1927 to 1931; there was no whaling in the 1931-32 summer and the fleet did not return to New Zealand in 1933. The base was dismantled and mostly cleared by August 1939.


Paterson Inlet showing the Kaipipi Shipyard/Whalers' Base



An excellent 90th Anniversary Souvenir book has been written by Jim Watt - 60 pages packed with old photos, information on the men that worked at the base, the boats that called in and the history behind the base. I'll seek permission to put some of his photos up on my blog as it's great to compare the old vs present day artefacts that can be seen at the base.



The L-shaped workshop foundations - 108' x 30' (east end) 50' (west end)



Workshop artefacts - the large concrete obelisk is the percussion drop
hammer stand

DOC display panel showing the workshop at bottom

Whalers' Base slipway. The old workshop boiler was abandoned beside
the slipway after a failed attempt to take it to Bluff in 1940

The boiler (left) and the beach

Ship propellers lying on the beach

The base of the winch house; the person in purple is standing
on the pulley base at the head of the slipway

The steps and foundations to the bunk house

The bunkhouse site. The bunkhouse was dismantled and reassembled
in Oban where it was used as the Presbyterian Church Hall until
2010 when it was sold and is now a private home

Rusting accumulator springs from the whaling boats

Two snekke (motorised launch), Winnie (left) and the white one (?Arvid)
moored by the boiler

Mussels have found a home on the rusting artefacts

DOC info panel for the manager's house

The front steps and foundations of the manager's house. This was a 6-room
house made from interlocking Norwegian spruce and assembled on site
in 1927. It was dismantled and re-assembled in Oban in 1942 and
is still in use today.

The tin hut foundation

A video with commentary by Jim Watt has been made for the occasion which has some delightful tales - I'll bring you some in a later blog.