section - Gisborne Photo News - No 95 : May 17, 1962

Time was when the Taruheru river was a broad waterway along which barges and small ships plied their trade, but a look at the river today would certainly not indicate this. With the passing years it has shrunk to little more than a creek, and only when the tide flows over the extensive mudflats in the lower reaches does the Taruheru attain anything like its former glory.

The picture, brought into our office for publication, shows the view looking downstream from the Nelson Road bridge in the palmy days of the freezing works, when anything up to half-a-dozen vessels of various kinds were to be seen tied up at the wharf.

We visited the site the other day with a camera, and the picture shows all that is left of the wharves.....an old boiler lies close to the last two capstans, beyond which a solitary pile stands in the shallow water.

Near the remains of the wharf an old steel hulk lies rusting.

Further upstream, near Mr Wilson's farm, a Wairoa contractor is at work deepening and widening the stream-bed.

The only building of any consequence left at the freezing works site is this one, now used as a joinery factory.

Old picture from Mr W. T. Wilson shows Taruheru river as it used to be above the Nelson road bridge

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