George Albert Gutry

WHATIPU – BIRTHPLACE OF GEORGE ALBERT GUTRY [28 FEBRUARY 1879] Impressions of October 2003

Written by Gwenytha Emily Kentish [nee Simon] following a two day visit there with David Kentish and Jean and Peter Sims, 29-30 October 2003.

In the summer of 1948 Jean and I were taken on a day outing by car to Whatipu with Auntie May, Uncle Wilfred, Bernard and Everard Gutry. My memory is of a long, very windy, narrow road through native bush, with occasional glimpses of the sea. The old Lodge buildings were derelict. We made our way down to the beach, a long walk, but didn’t stay long. I don’t remember the occasion as particularly significant.

In 2003, the approach to Whatipu is still along a narrow, windy road, unsealed for the last 7 or so kms past the small settlement of Little Huia. The surrounding hills are still covered with native bush down to the roadside. The Auckland water supply catchment area in the Lower Nihotupu Dam is visible beyond Titirangi. Whatipu still has a sense of isolation, being at the end of the road, beyond cell phone contact, and with no connection to the electricity grid. A generator and hydro- power provide dim lighting from dusk to midnight and a hot water supply. The kitchen at the Lodge is well equipped with gas stoves. There is accommodation for up to 37 people. We had the facilities to ourselves apart from the 2 women who live there permanently to manage the property for the Auckland Regional Council. A telephone has been installed for use of the managers, but there is no mail or newspaper delivery. They have to drive about 25 kms to Titirangi to collect this.

This visit was more significant as we have recently read about the area, its history, and early settlement in Bruce Harvey’s book, “Whatipu - the story of Whatipu and early Huia”. Harold Gutry’s publication of George Gutry’s diary – Volume One, also holds valuable information about early days in Whatipu. We used our imagination to visualise what it must have been like when our great-grandparents, Charles Henry Gutry and Catherine Maria Sawyer arrived, by ship at Whatipu about 130 years ago.

The Certificates we have tell us that Maria Sawyer was a widow of William John Sawyer, carpenter, that her maiden name was also Sawyer, and that she came to New Zealand with her son, William John Sawyer who was about 11. William Sawyer Jnr was born in Holborn, London, and was also a carpenter at the time of his marriage to Annie Marriage on 11 Feb 1885 at St Matthews Church in Auckland.

Charles Henry Gutry was a bachelor and Full Mariner, travelling on the same ship as Maria and young William. We have been unable to find which ship they travelled on, or their names, on any shipping lists of passengers, assisted passengers or crew. Family oral history from our grandfather, George Albert Gutry, was that their ship ran aground on the bar to Manukau Heads and they were rowed ashore at Whatipu in a Maori waka. Our visit has thrown no new light on this puzzle, despite looking through a further NZ Shipwrecks book from the comprehensive library at Whatipu Lodge.

What we do know is that Charles and Maria met on board ship and were married at the Auckland Registry Office on 12 March 1874 after the obligatory 3 days residence in Auckland. William Sawyer was one of the 2 witnesses. Maria was in fact two years older than Charles, but recorded her age as 29, not 33. We have also been assuming they married soon after arrival in New Zealand. Their four children were presumably born at Whatipu. George, their third child certainly was. Charles Henry [1875],Catherine Maria [1877], George Albert [1879], Frederick Lewis [1884].

When milling began at Manukau Heads in 1867, five Maori crew and their families and some others were living in the area, possibly twenty or so people. Accommodation was the first practical requirement of this new milling community and Nicholas Gibbons, mill owner, built his homestead, a two-storied, six bedroom, gabled building of kauri planking with a verandah across the front. This is the building we stayed in, the main building of Whatipu Lodge. Several cottages were built alongside and others 100 metres or so to the north. When the mill at Whatipu employed quite a number of men, school was held in an old woolshed near the present Whatipu Lodge.It operated for 40 years until 1921. At one time the roll was 14 pupils and the teacher, sometimes a woman, travelled along the beach route on horseback from Karekare teaching three days alternately at each camp [I have emailed Auckland Archives to try and trace the school rolls.] Although Grandpa’s diary says that he started school at Beresford St School in Auckland, if the Gutry family lived at Whatipu until Charles Gutry’s death in the bush, Charles Jnr and Kate Gutry are likely to have attended the Whatipu School. If they are on the roll it will confirm the family’s residence in the area.

To quote from my mother, Mavis Simon [nee Gutry] in the taped oral history, “Charles family did not see much of him, as he was away ‘up north’ employed at the only available job, bush working. His son George Albert Gutry’s recollections of him were that he was a dark curly headed man who was full of fun. After one visit to his family Charles was not heard of ‘for a long time’ and eventually they were informed that he ‘died in the bush’. This was in 1887.

One and a half kilometres upstream from the homestead, as far as one can walk on the flat part of the Whatipu valley, the earth holding dam for the mill was built. This was the largest structure of its type constructed in the Waitakere Ranges. Charles Blomfield’s painting of 1880, hanging in the Lodge, provides interesting detail of the establishment.

Today, the forest has returned, and all that can be seen of the former bush mill is an earth embankment which was part of the earth dam. It took 25 minutes to walk from Whatipu Lodge to this area where the mill workers lived, close to the mill and dam. We walked through the Whatipu Stream valley, with a flat, open paddock where cattle now graze. Then through uneven, bush covered land, before entering the forested area at the head of the valley. The surrounding hills are steep.

The main access to Whatipu in the early days would have been by sea, so building a suitable wharf in the lee of Paratutai Island would have been a priority. Supplies for the new settlement would come in by sea in those days. Onehunga was only about an hour by boat from Whatipu. Interestingly, it took us about an hour by road today to reach Onehunga! We saw the remnants of the Whatipu wharf at Paratutai, about an hours walk from the mill site. With the build up of sand Paratutai is no longer surrounded by sea. Fifty years ago the sea lapped at the foot of the Lodge. Thirty years ago a great sand blow threatened to engulf one side of the valley. Now a build-up of new sand has pushed the shoreline away. Huge caves are to be found where the sand meets the cliffs at the foot of the Waitakare Ranges. We visited the largest cave, just north of the Lodge, containing remnants of a 1920s dance floor buried under about five metres of sand. We did not see the remains of a coastal tramway, which once carried logs from Piha and Karekare to the wharf at Paratutai. It was first begun in 1867 from Gibbons Mill at Whatipu to the wharf, then extended in stages up the coast. It traversed a difficult route over shifting sands, rocky ledges, trestle viaducts, a tunnel and a hair raising incline between Karekare and Piha.

On the return journey, we stopped at an excellent Museum at Huia. The exhibits and artefacts are about the local area, with some mention of Whatipu. There is an anteroom focussing on the HMS Orpheus shipwreck in the entrance to Manukau Heads in 1863 with the loss of 189 lives.

We are very glad to have had this adventure to remind us of part of our family’s history though we realise that we are still left with questions that may never be answered.

Gwen