Over the years the Grey river bar has been mentioned from time to time in The Fishing Paper, the bar is notorious and widely known as the most dangerous in New Zealand.
It is said to have had the most shipwrecks of any place around our country. Mind you Greymouth also has some other bars that can be a bit dangerous. There are a lot less these days, but in earlier times you’d find one on every corner, plus some halfway down the block for good measure. A bunch of them stood on what older Greymouthians called “the front,” an aptly named location because it was the waterfront and back in the day, the centre of most of the commercial activity for the town and the district. The Brian Boru, the Royal, the Albion, Masonic, think of a pub name and you’d likely find it along the front. Railways had the long rakes of Q wagons bringing coal to the waiting ships, there was timber from the mills to be loaded out and all this meant a lot of manpower. Naturally this meant opportunities for those desirous of purveying beverages of both a spirituous and foaming nature. The town (and the pubs) operated at all hours of the day and night, as shifts at mines, mills and the railways came and went. This gave rise to some legendary tales of the relationship between publicans, their patrons and the constabulary, all preceeded by the one long ring, as a uniformed finger pressed the button at the door to announce their presence.
Originally the Grey river bar would have changed with flood activity, a bit like the way a hose under pressure moves back and forth if you let it out of your hands. This has been observed over time at the Taramakau river a little further south of Greymouth. Being unmodified or constricted, the mouth has moved back and forth considerably since the 1970s when we first observed it while casting a line for sea runners. In the 1930s work began to build structures to protect the Grey harbour entrance and give a defined path for vessels entering and leaving port. Rock was taken from the quarry about a kilometre or so upstream and moved via a purpose built rail line, to be tipped in at the harbour entrance, thus building up a large seawall, augmented with huge blocks of concrete. Some of the infrastructure of the construction is still visible out on the breakwater. The location holds a fascination for both visitors and locals and on any given day, people drive out and park to watch the water and in rough conditons gaze in awe at the waves. Those connected with the fishing boats often head out there when its getting gnarly, to observe family members and friends negotiating the bar as they return to port.
It is no place for the inexperienced and it can provide quite the challenge for the plethora of visiting boats that come in for the winter tuna season, especially when there is no Coastguard service.
To underline this, there is a large memorial rock at the tiphead, which provides a sobering reminder of the ocean’s realities through it’s attached plaques ,showing the names of men and boats that have been lost in the area. The breakwater structure also provides a decent point break for the surfers who inhabit the tiphead. You’ll often see a pod of endangered Hectors Dolphin moving around the river mouth.
The Grey bar also holds a longstanding fascination for another group of locals, as it provides a seeming never ending variety of conditions for photography. Apart from those who take cameras out there on a casual basis, there are 3 skilled shutterbugs who are there regularly and whose work is a wonderful record of the fishing boats that traverse the bar and the stunning environment.
A final note, if at some stage you want to put to sea via the Grey river bar, be certain you have the experience, the knowledge, safety gear and the company of another boat – don’t go it alone.
Bob McAuliffe is a free lance photographer known for his recording of The Coast’s beautiful places (and there are plenty) along with his vast collection of fishing boats crossing the bar. He also captures wonderful wildlfe images, in fact anything that takes his fancy will be very well recorded. Bob was formerly a social worker and earlier, a nurse. The accompanying photographs bear testament to his care and skills.
Ann Knipe is another regular at the Grey River bar and she came to photography after a long and full- on career in nursing. An empathy with patients has extended into an understanding of her surroundings and she brings that skill to her captures at the Grey bar. The 19th November 2010 is a significant date for the Grey District and Ann – Pike River. She and her husband were looking at DSLR camera’s at Network Photo’s in Greymouth mid afternoon, when they heard the sounds of sirens rushing up the Grey Valley. Its a date that will remain with her for the rest of her life. She combined her passion for both Nursing and Photography until October 2022, when she hung up her Medals after 53 years in the profession.
Moe Bowes, along with Bob, Ann and others, is another keen recorder of activities on the everchanging bar.
I hope you enjoy their images, that go some way towards demonstrating the moods of this Greymouth harbour feature.
