A look at Bluff's past - part 2

James Spencer built the first European house in Southland. He bought land from local Maoris and cleared 24 hectares for cultivation before importing a herd of cattle. Finally, he set up a fishing station where ho employed a total of 21 Europeans and Maori. Spencer was soon joined by other settlers and the nucleus of the town was formed. Maori people living in the Bluff area were subjected to European influence long before the Maori living in most other parts of New Zealand. Very few of Bluffs early settlers had European wives. Intermarriage between the Maori and British, Norwegian and Portugese arrivals occurred, creating a multicultural community which is still evident today.

Bluff grew to become a popular haven among whalers and the production and sale of supplies to meet the needs of both whalers and sealers, provided the basis for the town's further development.

In 1856 the town was surveyed by JT Thomson, who called it Bluff Town and named the streets after rivers in Ireland. That did not meet instant approval for he was ordered by the Superintendent of the Province, Captain Cargill, to change the name of the town's main street from Shannon to Gore Street, to honour Governor Gore Brown and to rename the town Campbelltown to honour the Governor's wife who was a Campbell. The Governor's word was law and the town was officially known as Campbell until 1 March 1917 when the name of Bluff was officially adopted.

A road to Bluff was first sanctioned by the Otago Provincial Council in 1859 and in April 1860 1, 000 pounds was voted by the Provincial Council for the work to start. In 1861 when the Southland Provincial Council came into being, work was pushed ahead more vigorously but the first attempt to put a road through proved an expensive failure. The swamp simply swallowed up the metal. That made the idea of putting a railway across the swamp instead an attractive alternative The railway line from Bluff to Invercargill was opened in 1867 and communication was maintained in the meantime via a temporary 'road' following a route nearer the coast Use of the 'road' which threaded its way between swamps and sandhills, was completely dependent on the tide.

Completion of rail and road links meant Bluff was no longer isolated from the rest of Southland. The separation of Southland from Otago meant immigrants could enter Southland directly and between 1862 and 1864 a total of 1680 immigrants arrived in Bluff on 12 vessels. A wharf was established in 1864 and the way for ships was marked by buoys, Not surprisingly. the volume of trade passing through the port also increased the building of large wool and grain stores attested to the fact that the provincial hinterland was proving most productive By the end of the 1860's the port of Bluff and the township were facing a secure future in unison.

In 1877, regular ferry services to Stewart Island began. The Bluff Harbour Board was established in 1878 and the Campbelltown Borough Council was incorporated the following year.

The came the developments upon which both the province and its ports would hinge - the Mataura papermills in 1876, the country's first dairy factory at Edendale in 1681 and the exporting of frozen sheep and lamb carcasses from 1883. In 1885, a freezer was established in Bluff by the Southland Frozen Meat and Product Export Company Limited. In 1892. the Campbelltown Mayor and Bluff Harbour Board Chairman, Joseph G Ward, opened the Ocean Beach Freezing Works.

By the turn of the century, province, port and port town could face the future with confidence.