New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero – Report for a Historic Place Onekaka Ironworks Quarries and Hydro-electric Power Scheme, ONEKAKA (List No. 5120, Category 2) Onekaka Dam (Blyss Wagstaff, Heritage New Zealand, 27 January 2021) Blyss Wagstaff DRAFT: Last amended 30 July 2021 Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 1. IDENTIFICATION 4 1.1. Name of Place 4 1.2. Location Information 4 1.3. Legal Description 5 1.4. Extent of List Entry 5 1.5. Eligibility 5 1.6. Existing Heritage Recognition 6 2. SUPPORTING INFORMATION 7 2.1. Historical Information 7 2.2. Physical Information 20 2.3. Chattels 23 2.4. Sources 23 3. SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT 24 3.1. Section 66 (1) Assessment 24 3.2. Section 66 (3) Assessment 25 4. APPENDICES 28 4.1. Appendix 1: Visual Identification Aids 28 4.2. Appendix 2: Visual Aids to Historical Information 43 4.3. Appendix 3: Visual Aids to Physical Information 47 4.4. Appendix 4: Significance Assessment Information 53 Disclaimer Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions. Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include ‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office for archaeological advice. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 5120 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Purpose of this report The purpose of this report is to provide evidence to support the inclusion of Onekaka Ironworks Quarries and Hydro-electric Power Scheme in the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero as a Category 2 historic place. Summary Parapara maunga, the iron-oxide ores it contains, and its rivers, are culturally significant to the tangata whenua of Te Tau Ihu, including hau kāinga Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu, Ngāti Rārua and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui. The Onekaka Ironworks Quarries and Hydro-electric Power Scheme, built in 1922 and 1929, has historical, technological, and archaeological significance as a physical link to an ambitious iron mining and smelting scheme. Although this undertaking ultimately proved uneconomic, the remains of the scheme’s infrastructure are a rare physical reminder of its impact on the locality. People have inhabited Mohua (Golden Bay) for many centuries, valuing its climate and resources, including kōkōwai (red ochre), obtained from the foothills of Parapara, a maunga of great cultural importance to tangata whenua. The mineral richness of the Onekaka-Parapara hills was also recognised by early colonists, who moved quickly to secure this resource for the Crown. The Onakaka Iron and Steel Company was formed in 1920, consolidating various earlier mining leases that had not been fully realised.1 Fifty men were employed to construct smelting works on a terrace to the west of State Highway 60. The plant was fully operational by 1924, producing bars of pig iron suitable for making railway irons, stoves and pipes. The company infrastructure stretched from the hills to the coast at the Onekaka Inlet. Limonite (iron ore) and limestone were mined from open-face quarries in the foothills; workers lived on site in huts. Then an aerial ropeway carried buckets 2.4 kilometres downhill to the ironworks. The raw materials were crushed, washed, mixed with coke produced on site, and smelted in a blast furnace. Good transport routes were necessary to get machinery and coal to the works, and the smelted iron products from there to domestic and international markets. A wharf was constructed at Onekaka Inlet and a tramline ran 2.6 kilometres directly from the wharf to the ironworks. In 1928-29, near to the quarries, a hydro-electric scheme consisting of a 10-metre-high concrete arch dam on the Onekaka 1 Note the difference in the spelling of the company name from the spelling of the place name. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 5120 3 River, a 1.25-kilometre-long penstock, and a powerhouse containing a Boving Pelton wheel, was built to fuel the ironworks’ new pipe-making plant. The ironworks were a major employer in the area, and with over 81,000 tons of iron produced between 1922 and 1935, hopes were high for an enduring industry. However, ultimately the enterprise proved uneconomic, and the company was placed into receivership in 1931 before closure in 1935. Government efforts to revive the Onekaka industry ceased in 1954. The ironworks were dismantled, and bush reclaimed the quarries and the workers’ camp. However, the hydro-electric power scheme continued to be useful. The Golden Bay Electric Power Board utilised it to meet increased demand between 1937 and 1944, before the Cobb Dam was opened. In 2003 the dam gained a new lease of life when it was resurrected by Onekaka Energy Company Ltd, and it continues to supply power to the national grid. 1. IDENTIFICATION2 1.1. Name of Place Name Onekaka Ironworks Quarries and Hydro-electric Power Scheme Other Names Onekaka Dam; Onekaka Hydro-scheme 1.2. Location Information Address Takaka-Collingwood Highway (State Highway 60) Onekaka Golden Bay/Mohua Tasman Additional Location Information Onekaka is 16 kilometres north of Takaka along the Takaka-Collingwood Highway (State Highway 60). GPS information (NZTM): Onekaka Dam: N5485361 E1573642 +/- 5 metres 2 This section is supplemented by visual aids in Appendix 1 of the report. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 5120 4 Local Authority Tasman District Council 1.3. Legal Description Pt Sec 19 SO 15200 (RT 212069; Kahurangi National Park NZ Gazette 1996 p.977), Sec 1 SO 15230 (Conservation Purposes NZ Gazette 1995 p.2242), Lot 2 DP 19322 (RT NL12C/1283), Sec 1 SO 15235 and Lot 1 DP 331995 (RT 131389), Nelson Land District. 1.4. Extent of List Entry Extent includes part of the land described as Pt Sec 19 SO 15200 (RT 212069; Kahurangi National Park NZ Gazette 1996 p.977), part of the land described as Sec 1 SO 15230 (Conservation Purposes NZ Gazette 1995 p.2242), part of the land described as Lot 2 DP 19322 (RT NL12C/1283), part of the land described as Sec 1 SO 15235 (RT 131389) and part of the land described as Lot 1 DP 331995 (RT 131389), and the structures associated with Onekaka Ironworks Quarries and Hydro-electric Power Scheme thereon. All land parcels are within the Nelson Land District. Extent includes the limestone and limonite quarry sites, associated remnant machinery, workers’ accommodation sites, historic tracks, remains of the aerial ropeway system, and the concrete arch dam, old penstock and powerhouse foundations from the hydro-electric power scheme. The extent does not include the new power station and penstock, or the house or farm buildings on Lot 1 DP 331995. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information). 1.5. Eligibility There is sufficient information included in this report to identify this place. This place is physically eligible for consideration as a historic place. It consists of land and structures (or parts of buildings, structures, or associated buildings or structures) that are fixed to land which lies within the territorial limits of New Zealand. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 5120 5 1.6. Existing Heritage Recognition Local Authority and Regional Authority Plan Scheduling Scheduled in Tasman Resource Management Plan Operative 1 November 2008, [as amended], Schedule 16.13C Cultural Heritage Sites Ref: AE13/ M25-26 Industrial (unspecified) – identified as a Highly Significant Site. Rule 16.13.6.2 makes any activity, including destruction, a Controlled Activity IF an Archaeological Authority is obtained from Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, or HNZPT states in writing that an authority is not needed. If HNZPT does not give an Authority, any activity including destruction becomes Restricted Discretionary under Rule 16.13.6.3. Site Specific Legislation This place is protected by site specific legislation: The National Parks Act 1980. Other Protection Mechanism Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu, and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui have a Statutory Acknowledgement over Parapara Peak (Nelson City Council, Tasman District Council and Marlborough District Council, Te Tau Ihu Statutory Acknowledgements: Statutory Acknowledgements of the Resource Management Plans of Marlborough District Council, Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council, 2014). The Onekaka River source flows from Parapara Ridge, not within but relatively near to the area that has the Statutory Acknowledgement. New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme This place or sites within this place have been recorded by the New Zealand Archaeological Association. The reference is M25/26: Onekaka Iron Quarry and Dam. Other Heritage Recognition This place is recognised in the Engineering New Zealand Heritage Record: Onekakā Ironworks, URL: https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage- records/onekak%C4%81-ironworks/ Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 5120 6 The part of this place that is on Department of Conservation land is an Actively Conserved Heritage Place in the DOC system.