Find recalls whaling days

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32402, 15 September 1970, Page 12

Find recalls whaling days

(From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU. Workmen excavating in Te Weka Street, Timaru, recently unearthed a vertebrae of a whale. The segment, into which an iron spike had been driven, is a reminder of the days when Weller Brothers, of Sydney, operated a whaling station at Timaru—first at Whale’s Creek, which flowed across Caroline Bay, and later at Patiti Point. The abandoned huts and gear at Patiti Point remained for several years as a reminder of the whalers, one of whom was Samuel Williams, who inspired the Rhodes brothers to investigate the potentialities of the district.

Shore whaling stations existed at Timaru from 1836 until 1840, when the tiny bay at Whale’s Creek (the only semblance of an indentation on the 140 miles of coastline between Banks Peninsula and Cape Wanbrow) was abandoned. In the middle of 1840, whaling gangs were still being signed on at Otago and Banks Peninsula, and regular shipments of oil were being made from “Timoroo,” as it was known, to Otago. The recent find is of historical interest, in that it was discovered not far from the site of the main shore whaling station. Unfortunately, the whalebone was split into two pieces.