The first New Zealand ‘railway’ was a private mining line at Dun Mountain near Nelson. It opened in 1862, but its wagons were hauled by horses rather than locomotives.
The country’s first steam-powered public railway was a 7km line from Christchurch to Ferrymead on the Heathcote River. This was built by the Canterbury provincial government and opened on 1 December 1863. It used tiny British-built tank engines and a broad 1,600mm gauge track. Meanwhile, work had begun on a far more ambitious project – a 2.6km tunnel through the Port Hills linking Christchurch with the deep-water port of Lyttelton. This tunnel was opened in December 1867.
Early rail in Southland The Southland provincial government was another early rail pioneer. It imported a locomotive from Australia in 1863 and by October 1864 had completed a 12km railway between Invercargill and Makarewa. In an effort to save money, this line was laid using thick wooden rails. Unfortunately, these became slippery in wet weather and were crushed by the locomotives. In dry weather sparks set the tracks alight. A more successful iron-railed line to Bluff, built to the standard 1,435 mm gauge, was completed in 1867, but the effort bankrupted Southland province.
Travelling on these early railways was an adventure. Journeys were slow and often uncomfortable. A journalist visiting Southland recalled an occasion when he and fellow passengers were “politely requested by the guard to leave the carriage and help to push the carriage and engine to the summit of the bank. This we did with colonial cheerfulness, and on returning to our seats the guard promptly collected 2s. 6d. apiece from us as our fares!”
A slow startIn 1870 New Zealand had just 74km of railway, all of it on the eastern and southern plains of the South Island. By comparison, the United States had almost 50,000km.
Still emerging from the turmoil of the New Zealand Wars, the North Island provinces lacked the gold or pastoral resources of their southern counterparts. Northern settlers looked to central government to deliver rail’s promise of progress and prosperity.