Here’s another old one for you. This photo was recently added to our archives, courtesy of Aunty Win Williams, whose husband Trevor was a member of this Russell senior rugby team when he was still a student at Kawakawa District High school.  On this day in 1946 they played against Kaikohe, at Kaikohe, and were beaten 36 – 6. However they had some guns lined up against them – the Kaikohe team included JB and Peter Smith, Stan Young, Charlie Stirling and a number of Bay reps. The Russell lads wore old Russell School jerseys: thick wool, no collar, blue and white hoops. Trevor recorded these details on the back of the photo. In the photo are, from left to right: Back row –  Morrie Larkin (coach), Mac Hau, Jack Maioha, Merv York, Alan Grant, Sid Irving, Sam Maioha (sec); Middle row –  Lionel Williams, Ces Ollerenshaw, Don Brooker, Neil Wark, Bob Irving ; Front row – Mattie Rivers, Dean Moyle, Trevor Williams, Alwyn Rotherham(capt), Colin Moyle, Ron Simpson.

The Avalon, built in 1927, is seen here taking time out from her usual pursuit of chasing big game fish in the Bay of Islands – officiating in another Russell tradition, the Regatta. The Regatta began in 1912; it was held each summer until the 1950s and included races for yachts, launches and dinghies. When Mr GT Forbes, who had been on the Regatta Committee in its last term of office, sold his business and left Russell in 1960, he handed two books to the Russell Museum Committee to be stored. He saw the need for storing the records so that they could be consulted in the future and to prevent the possibility of them being destroyed. They are still there, waiting. The Avalon though was eventually to leave Russell for good. Originally skippered by Peter Williams for Zane Grey in the 1920s and 30s, both here and in Australia, Avalon was sold to the RNZ Navy in the 1940s. Les Blomfield bought her back after the war and Avalon came home. Les fished in her until he had a stroke and was unable to continue fishing – son Ritchie took her over, finally selling to someone in Auckland. Eventually Avalon was restored to her original state, in Opua, but is now on display at the International Gamefish Association Museum in Florida – a long way from home.

Scouting in Russell has been through many incarnations. “The Northland Gazette”, a supplement of Kawakawa’s  Bay of Islands Luminary reported on Tues Sep 23 1947, that a Sea Scouts investiture had been held the previous week. Only three months after the establishment of the troop, it had a membership of 27 boys. That evening, in the Town Hall the boys gave demonstrations of semaphore signalling and the tying and use of knots. Russell once had its own Guide and Scout Hall, on York St, near the present Town Hall. It was built in 1932 and erected on Town Council land, on condition that, if the various troops and packs ceased to operate, the hall would become the responsibility and property of the Town Council.  It became very dilapidated and the Town Council demolished it in July 1984.  Guides, Scouts, Brownies & Cubs had disbanded some years before but reformed in 1988. At the time organisers understood the original Russell scout troop was formed in 1913 – five years after the movement started in New Zealand. Scouts continue to meet weekly in the Parish Hall.

Who needs sunblock when you’re wearing these outfits? Ankle length, long sleeved frocks, wide brimmed hats, white stockings and closed shoes left only faces and hands exposed to spring sunshine. These ladies were photographed on  the opening day of Russell’s Croquet Club, November 1922. Prior to this day the “genteel”  game of croquet had been played on two private lawns. Croquet players were mainly women;  women were excluded from playing bowls so they played croquet instead. Just across the road, a year later, the men of Russell laid down a bowling green. They didn’t have their own pavilion though, so they crossed the road – which was more of a track then – and used this pavilion for afternoon tea on tournament days. Subsequently it was acquired by the bowling club when they occupied the area for a second  green in 1950-51. Women were still not allowed then, to be bowling club members, but did play – on week days, on payment of a special fee – and in November 1955 the Russell Women’s Bowling Club was formed.  R to L Mrs H C King, Mrs Bertie Cook, Mrs Russell, Mrs Vipond, Miss Flo Williams.  Left background Mr Tommy Williams House, Right Mr E B Clarke’s house  (where Triton Suites is now) on Wellington Street.

It was a tough life, chasing whales, so it’s not surprising that visiting whalemen sought a little R&R in the grogshops of Kororāreka. Rest & relaxation quickly turned to revelry and one January day in 1851 the revelry became a riot. Then 19 year old boat-steerer  Nelson Cole Haley, of New Bedford whaleship the Charles W Morgan left an account of the day’s events: ” We took on wood and water, painted ship, and then started to give liberty. The other ship’s crews were having liberty at the same time which caused a large number of men to be on shore each day; and it made the two or three policemen on duty in this small place almost crazy to keep any kind of order among so many wild sailors, some being full of fighting rum…when two different ships’ men got at it, the whole circus would be in sight, for others from more ships would join in, and fighting would be the order of the day from one end of the beach to the other…drunken fools lost all idea of what they were fighting for…The poor unfortunate policemen at such times would be dancing around the outside like performing monkeys, brandishing their clubs and shouting ‘Order, in the Queen’s name!’ and getting tumbled head over heels by some of the crowd… that were improving the shining Sunday hours to see who could hit the hardest.” The arrival of a squad of soldiers with fixed bayonets finally quelled this disturbance. The jail was soon full so the Morgan’s crewmen were locked in an old building. Once sober they broke out and long before daylight every one of them was back aboard. Haley continues: “The next afternoon an officer came on board to find out the names of those who had been on shore the day before; but strange to say he could not find any…”

The Charles W Morgan made many visits to Russell. A model of the ship, currently on loan to the museum, is on display in the ship wing –  not far from the anchorage where young Haley sat and watched the “circus”.

Source: Whalehunt: The Narrative of a Voyage by Nelson Cole Haley, Harpooner in the Ship Charles W. Morgan 1849 – 1853. Robert Hale Ltd. London. 1950

Te mahi a tēnā ika, a te marakihau, he hurihuri i ngā waka māori. What that sea creature, the marakihau, did was overturn ordinary canoes.

Such is the legend of the marakihau, mythical sea denizens said to possess colossal ngongo, long tube like tongues with which they sucked up their prey. They would harass and swallow shore-living people or sea-travellers and their canoes, as well as fish. Ancient stories tell of men or women transformed into marakihau, a particular form of taniwha, after death.

Russell’s Pauline and James Yearbury created this stylised impression of the marakihau. The incised rimu panel is the latest of their works to be added to Russell Museum’s collection.

Sources: Best, Elsdon (1982). Maori religion and Mythology Part 2 pg 1477-8 / Williams, H.W. (1975) A Dictionary of the Maori Language. p180.

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[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]It lay on the seabed in Whangamumu harbour for who knows how long, was discovered by a snorkeller, retrieved and taken to Auckland by launch in 1995, conservation treated , then put on display in the finder’s house, for many more years. Last month, this harpoon was presented to Russell Museum where it joined several other whaling artefacts. Its return prompted questions, not all of which have yet been answered.

Not long after the Whangamumu whaling station became part of the nation’s conservation estate, DOC staff also found a harpoon, identical to this one, submerged in  the bay. It was retrieved, treated for rust by Kelly Tarlton, and mounted on the whaling station site as a “permanent” display. Staff were surprised, in 1989, to find it gone. Who would remove it and why?  Had the replacement fibreglass head been mistaken for bronze?   Upon arrival here we found that the thread on the bomb head already in our collection  fitted the thread on this harpoon  perfectly. Together the two parts would have been fired by the powerful bow gun of the whaling steamer “Hananui”.

Is it the same harpoon? We will probably never know.

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If you’ve been watching Maori Television’s series Behind the Brush recently, you might have wondered if the Lindauers of Russell were connected with the famous artist, Gottfried Lindauer (1839 – 1926). They are. Gottfried and his wife had two sons, one of whom ended up in Russell. Victor Lindauer was principal of Russell School from 1932 – 1939 and again from 1947 – 1956. Not only was he a teacher –  he also became a world authority on marine and freshwater algae. He enlisted his family and students as fellow collectors  (standards 5 and 6 had many “nature study outings” to the rocky shores around Russell) and inspired many young naturalists. One of his finds, at Long Beach, was a previously unknown form of Gigartina alveata – found after many years of searching. Much of his collection, now at Te Papa, can be viewed online in his original mounts. Lindauer was also responsible for organising the Junior Progress League to plant and care for the pohutukawa along The Strand. As one of his pupils said, “…he was marvellous. He did such a lot for Russell. And I don’t think he ever got the credit he should have got really… we thought he marvellous…he was a successful teacher… we had Proficiency in those days and I don’t think he had any failures.” Victor and his wife Elsie had four children: Linty and Peter were both Russell oyster farmers, Claudia still lives here and Rebe supplies a family perspective on the man “behind the brush”.

Sources: Taylor, Lindauer Eds, (1989) Russell School 150 Years of Education in Russell 1839-1989; http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/Party.aspx?irn=2322: http://www.lindaueronline.co.nz/artist/the-artist-gottfried-lindauer

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Otehei Bay’s wharf  – it’s on many a picture and postcard. Iconic? Arguably so. Ironic? Maybe. A witness to change? Definitely. Constructing the wharf was one of the first tasks of a private company, registered 14th October 1926, the Zane Grey Sporting Club Ltd. Its objects were ” To carry on in the Dominion of New Zealand  the trade or business of deep sea fishing, game shooting, ship owners, launch owners, accommodation, carriers, etc., and general incidental.”  The club’s visitors book is on display at Russell Museum. It includes the signatures of many visiting fishermen and women, including Zane Grey’s on his second visit, January 28th 1927. On his first visit Grey camped at Otehei and wrote about it in his Tales of the Angler’s Eldorado.“…We worked all day at this pleasant and never-wearying task of making a habitation in the wilderness. Never am I happier than when so engaged. This nomad life is in the blood of all of us, though many comfort-loving people do not know it. After dinner we climbed the high hill on our side… Seven thousand miles from California! What a long way to come, to camp out and to fish, and to invite my soul in strange environment…Then I heard an exquisite bird song…They sang until after dark; and in the gray dawn, at four o’clock they awoke me from sound slumber. I knew then I had found a name for this strange new camp. Camp of the Larks!” What birds, I wonder, would he hear singing if he could camp there today?

Source: http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz : Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 98, 22 October 1926, Page 11