Jackson Bay

Jackson Bay / Okahu
Ōkahu (Māori)
Jackson Bay / Okahu
Jackson Bay / Okahu
Location	Westland District, West Coast Region
Coordinates	43°58′S 168°37′E / 43.967°S 168.617°E / -43.967; 168.617
Part of	Tasman Sea
River sources	Arawhata River, Okuru River, Turnbull River, Waiatoto River
Basin countries	New Zealand

Islands	Open Bay Islands

Jackson Bay / Okahu (Māori: Ōkahu)^[1] is a gently curving 24-kilometre (15 mi) bay on the southern West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It faces the Tasman Sea to the north, and is backed by the Southern Alps. It contains the settlements of Hannahs Clearing, Waiatoto, Neils Beach, and the fishing village of Jackson Bay at its western end. The bay is the southernmost terminus of the West Coast's roads.

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Toponymy

Jackson Bay was named Open Bay by Captain Cook; the origins of its current name are obscure. Possible namesake sources include: Port Jackson, New South Wales; James Hayter Jackson, a local whaler; or William Jackson, a sealer said to have been part of a party that was marooned in the area in 1810.^[2] In the early years of settlement, the bay was known as Jackson's Bay, later losing its possessive. Following the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the bay was officially altered to Jackson Bay / Okahu.^[3]

History

Jackson Bay and the mouth of the Arawhata River was home to a Māori settlement for hundreds of years. Māori harvested fish and seals, and gathered the valuable pounamu (greenstone) that originated in the Red Hills inland.^[4] When the explorer John Boultbee visited the bay in 1826, the settlement's population was about 300, but it had declined by the time Europeans began to settle the area, and was abandoned in 1866.^[4]

In 1842 the whaler Thomas Chaseland set up a shore whaling station at Jackson Bay, a spot he knew from his days as a sealer, to target migrating whales such as southern right and humpbacks.^[5] On the foreshore of Jackson Bay is a grave and marker for Claude Ollivier of the schooner Ada, who died in Jackson Bay on 27 August 1862.^[4]

Jackson Bay was chosen in 1874 as the site of a government-supported settlement under the assisted immigrant programme.^[4] A plan for a seaport named Arawata was drawn up by Westland chief surveyor Gerhard Mueller. The plans included a network of streets crossing the peninsula and hugging the cliffs, and a waterfront esplanade. The vision for the settlement was a thriving port that would support fishing, forestry, mining, and the farming and settlement of the nearby river flats.^[4] The immigrants (Poles, Irish, Italians, Scandinavians, Germans, and English) arrived in 1875, and immediately ran into difficulties. Flat land was hard to come by and was infertile and frequently flooded; the rainfall, sandflies, and isolation took their toll; and there was no wharf or road.^[4] Within three years, most of the settlers had departed.

A wharf was finally built in Jackson Bay in 1938, so road-building machinery could be landed for the construction of the Haast highway. A road was built from Jackson Bay to Haast, and then upriver over the Haast Pass. The wharf allowed a timber and fishing industry to start, but milling proved uneconomic as there were still plenty of forest being felled closer to the main timber markets.^[4]

After Cyclone Fehi in 2018 the Westland District Council added a rock wall to the esplanade,^[6] and the wharf was upgraded in 2021 as part of a $150 million of West Coast targeted funding from the Provincial Growth Fund.^[7]

Geography

Setting

This bay is the only sheltered harbour between Greymouth, 270 km (170 mi) north, and Milford Sound, 100 km (62 mi) south (although "sheltered" is a relative term, as it is fully exposed to northerly storms). The waters off the coast are particularly productive, marking the convergence of the cool West Wind Drift and the warm Westland Current.^[4]

The westernmost point of Jackson Bay is marked by the headland Jackson Head; in the northeast the end of the bay is less well defined, but corresponds roughly with the mouths of the Turnbull and Okuru Rivers. The small Open Bay Islands Taumaka and Popotai lie 5 km (3.1 mi) off the coast at this point.

The bay marks a major change in the terrain of the west coast. To the north, narrow fertile plains lie between the mountains and the sea, allowing for dairy and deer farming. To the south, the coastal plains disappear as the land becomes steeper and more mountainous. Within 60 km (37 mi), the first of the deep glacial valleys that further south become the fjords of Fiordland start to become evident, with Lake McKerrow at the foot of the Hollyford Track.

From the junction with State Highway 6 at Haast, 32 km (20 mi) to the northeast, a small road travels southwest, crosses the Okura and Waiatoto Rivers, turns northwest after crossing the Arawhata River|Arawhata (or Arawata) River, and terminates at the settlement of Jackson Bay.

Economy

The settlement of Jackson Bay is New Zealand's closest harbour to Australia, and supports a fishing industry of small boats catching mostly tuna and spiny lobster (known in New Zealand as crayfish or koura), although not many of the fishers live in the bay.^[4] The settlement contains about 30 dwellings, but few permanent residents, and in the summer so many recreational fishers come with their boats from Central Otago or Queenstown for a weekend's fishing that local iwi Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio have discussed setting up mataitai (marine reserves).^[8]

Located on the foreshore is The Craypot, a fish-and-chip stand and one of the main tourist attractions of the settlement. Originally constructed in Timaru as a pie cart, it was moved to Cromwell to support the construction of the Clyde Dam in the 1980s. The Cromwell pie cart was sold c. 2001 to a Haast local, who towed it over the Haast Pass behind a tractor and set it up on the Jackson Bay waterfront.^[6]

Important bird area

The stretch of coastline from Jackson Head for about 10 km (6.2 mi) westwards to the mouth of the Stafford River has been identified as an Important Bird Area because it supports a breeding population of Fiordland penguins.^[9]

Gallery

References

^ "Ōkahu". Kā Huru Manu. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
^ Reed, A. W. (2002). The Reed Dictionary of New Zealand Place Names. Auckland: Reed Books. ISBN 0-7900-0761-4.
^ "Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998". Retrieved 28 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Kerry-Jayne Wilson (2017). West Coast Walking: A naturalist's guide (2nd ed.). Christchurch: Canterbury University Press. ISBN 978-1-927145-42-5. OL 29806566M. Wikidata Q98762244.
^ Prickett, Nigel (2008). "Trans-Tasman stories: Australian aborigines in New Zealand sealing and shore whaling". In Clark, Geoffrey Richard; O'Connor, Sue; Leach, Bryan Foss (eds.). Islands of Inquiry: Colonisation, Seafaring and the Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes. ANU Press. pp. 351–365. ISBN 9781921313905.
^ ^a ^b "Restaurant's new owners can't wait to re-open". Greymouth Star. 20 June 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
^ Naish, Joanne (8 January 2021). "$150m lolly scramble funding ambitious West Coast projects". Stuff. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
^ Murdoch, Helen (25 March 2021). "Iwi may act to prevent overfishing". Greymouth Star. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
^ "Important Bird Area factsheet: Jackson Head". BirdLife International. 2012. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.

Westland District, New Zealand

Seat: Hokitika

Populated places

Northern Ward	Jacksons Kokatahi Kumara Kumara Junction Otira Rimu Ross Ruatapu
Hokitika Ward	Blue Spur Hokitika Kaniere
Southern Ward	Bruce Bay Fox Glacier Franz Josef / Waiau Gillespies Beach Haast Hari Hari Jackson Bay Jacobs River Ōkārito Okuru Pukekura Te Taho The Forks Whataroa

Facilities and attractions

Government

v t e Landforms of Westland District, New Zealand
Alpine passes	Arthur's Pass Browning Pass / Nōti Raureka Copland Pass Haast Pass
Bays	Bruce Bay Jackson Bay
Canyons, gorges and waterfalls	Fantail Falls Gates of Haast Hokitika Gorge Otira Gorge Roaring Billy Falls Thunder Creek Falls
Glaciers	Agassiz Glacier Douglas Glacier Fox Glacier Franz Josef Glacier Garden of Eden Ice Plateau Olivine Ice Plateau Volta Glacier
Headlands	Abut Head Awarua Point Gillespies Point Knights Point
Islands	Open Bay Islands
Lakes and lagoons	Abel Lake Alpine Lake / Ata Puai Lake Ellery Lake Gault Lake Ianthe Lake Kaniere Lake Mahinapua Lake Mapourika Lake Matheson Lake Moeraki Ōkārito Lagoon Lake Paringa Saltwater Lagoon Lake Wahapo
Mountain ranges	Butler Range Southern Alps
Mountains	Mount Adams Aoraki / Mount Cook Mount Aspiring / Tititea Mount Dampier Mount Graham Mount Haast Mount Hopkins La Perouse Lendenfeld Peak Mount Rolleston Mount Sefton Silberhorn Mount Tasman Mount Vancouver Mount Whitcombe
River flats	Pleasant Flat
Rivers	Adams River Arahura River Arawhata River Balfour River Barlow River Barn River Bettne River Big Wainihinihi River Burke River Butler River Callery River Cascade River Clarke River Clearwater River Cook River / Weheka Copland River Cropp River Deception River Donald River Douglas River Drake River Duncan River Edison River Fork River Fox River Gorge River Gunn River Haast River Hacket River Hall River Hapuka River Harman River Hinatua River Hokitika River Hope River Jackson River Jerry River Kaniere River Karangarua River Kokatahi River Lambert River Landsborough River Lord River Macfarlane River Mahitahi River Jacobs River Manakaiaua River Maori River Martyr River Mikonui River Moeraki River Morse River Mueller River Mungo River Ngatau River North Barlow River Ohinemaka River Ōhinetamatea River Ōkārito River Okuru River Ōmoeroa River Oneone River Otehake River Ōtira River Ōtoko River Paringa River Perth River Poerua River Rolleston River Rotokino River Ruera River Ship Creek Smoothwater River Smyth River Stafford River Strauchon River Styx River Taipo River Taramakau River Te Rahotaiepa River Toaroha River Tōtara River Totarakaitorea River Troyte River Tuke River Turnbull River Waiatoto River Waiho River Waikūkūpa River Waipara River Waita River Waitaha River Waitangitāhuna River Waitangiroto River Wanganui River Whakaikai River Whakapohai River Whataroa River Whitcombe River Wilkinson River Willberg River Williamson River Wills River

This page was last edited on 13 April 2024, at 07:23

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