Description Comments

First Ashhurst Punt Operator - portrait with his wife

Description: Prior to the opening of the first Lower Gorge Bridge, near Ashhurst, on 8 November 1886, travellers relied on punt-like ferries to cross the Manawatū River. Commencing in February 1872, Robert Stanley was the ferryman. The position was subsequently held by George Boyd, John Harms and lessees Falloon and Harvey. Thomas Lowes worked the punt from 1884 to 1886, before becoming proprietor of the Manawatū Gorge Hotel in Ashhurst. After the Lower Gorge Bridge was damanged in floods in 1895, a ferry service was reinstated. This continued until 1909, when the new bridge was completed.
This image is derived from a copy negative made from a photograph loaned for copying. The original photograph is not held by the Ian Matheson City Archives.