The popular free monthly walking tours conducted by Heritage Tairāwhiti continues on Saturday with a walk along the Taruheru River while speakers talk about early European settlers, the river and the development of Tūranga and Gisborne.
The popular free monthly walking tours conducted by Heritage Tairāwhiti continues on Saturday with a walk along the Taruheru River while speakers talk about early European settlers, the river and the development of Tūranga and Gisborne.
Stories about early European settlers John Harris, Thomas Halbert and George Read abound in a free guided talk being held on Saturday beside the Taruheru River.
Heritage Tairāwhiti has run the free monthly tours since June and continually attracts people new to the stories of the river, says chair SheridanGundry.
“This week, Marty Reynolds, Coralie Campbell-Whitehead and I will tag team to talk about the river, its origins, early use and resources, and the development of Tūranga and Gisborne.
“Our community has many descendants from these early personalities, including the offspring of Halbert and his six wives [such as Kate Wyllie and her half-brother, Wi Pere], Harris and his sons Edward and Henry, Robert Espie, William King and William Wilkinson Smith.”
Other personalities include George White, later known as Barnet Burns the tattooed trader, and Gisborne’s first mayor, photographer and brewer William Crawford, whose collection was recently added to the Unesco Memory of the World register.
“These were different times when the European population, at least in the 1850s, was dwarfed by that of the Māori about seven to one,” Gundry said.
This Saturday is also the last day to view an exhibition of photographs – including some of Crawford’s – relating to the 150th anniversary of the Poverty Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Association.
William Crawford took 5000 historic photographs of Gisborne-Turanga between 1874 and 1912. Some of those images feature in Saturday's final showing of a photographic exhibition about 150 years history of the Poverty Bay A&P Show.
This is being held at the Centre for Heritage, the former Plunket Building in Palmerston Rd, which is open from 10.30am to 2.30pm.
This image of the 1979 Poverty Bay A&P Show is one of many photographs to feature in Saturday's photographic exhibition at the Heritage Centre.
The Taruheru River exhibition of historical photographs remains in the foyer, along with a map of Tapuwae Tairāwhiti Trails Trust’s proposed shared path from Derby St to Campion College.
The free Taruheru tours start from the centre at 11am on the last Saturday of every month.
“The last for the year will be held on December 27 – an ideal chance for family and visitors to town to come and hear the stories," Gundry said.
