CHARLESTON
Dobson about 1869. The latter in his reminiscences, says: “In the very early days there was a considerable extent of level ground between the forest and the sea; this was the first part occupied. A very large flood occurred and threatened to wash away the whole settlement, and the buildings had to be removed as quickly as possible. I set out a new cemetery at the river Orawaiti, and all the coffins, about 200, were moved from the old cemetery to the new one.” Another authority states that when the cemetery was washed away, some coffins and bodies were collected from the river-banks and the beach.
On 8th April, 1870, Mr. John Blackett, Provincial Engineer, reported: “The sea has made considerable encroachments, necessitating the removal of a great many houses. The damage to the beach extends about 30 chains, the greatest damage being opposite the north end of Russell Street.” On 2nd June, 1870, a petition was presented to the Government by the holders of land, praying for compensation for “land purchased from the Government as freehold, and since removed by the sea.”
In 1872 or 1873 Westport’s main street, was, according to one writer, “completely demolished, and where the old town school stood became a waterway.” Mr. A. D. Dodson records that “Palmerston Street ran parallel to the river and had, in 1869, been cleared to a chain in width.”
The Kawatiri River, later named Buller by Brunner and Heaphy in honour of Charles Buller, a Director of the New Zealand Company, was first entered by Thoms’s sealing schooner in 1844. This vessel was almost certainly the Three Brothers, to which vessel Heaphy refers in an article in the Nelson Examiner, regarding his journey in 1846. He says: “Thoms, master of the Three Brothers, anchored near the Three Steeples or Black Reef about two years since; . . . reporting on his return the existence of a large river, with a, considerable tract of level land on its banks, in the vicinity of that place.”
The first trading vessel to enter the port was the cutter Supply, Captain John Walker, on 30th August, 1859, with stores for Mackay and Rochfort. She landed the stores in
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