OAMARU HOME OF

NORTH OTAGO'S FIRST RAILWAY

SOUTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND

In 1872 Messrs Walken and Peyman contractors who were building the Breakwater for the Oamaru Dock Trust, build a tramway from the Breakwater round under the cliffs to the landing area. The Oamaru Dock Trust stipulated that the line gauge was to be 3' 6" the same gauge as the mainline was to be build in New Zealand.

In June 1872 the line was completed but it was not until January 1873 that a locomotive was landed from the "Pretty Jane". The locomotive arrived in pieces as was ferried ashore by landing boats.

When the locomotive was assembled it was found that it would not fit the gauge as the line had been build with the measure been taken from the centre of one rail to the centre of the other whereas the measure should have been from the inside measurement between the rails.

Oamaru's first railway station was build in 1874 by Messrs J. Campbell of Dunedin at a cost of one thousand one hundred pounds and was situated at the botton of Wansbeck street. When the station was completed there were no passengers trains arriving or departing Oamaru so the building was used by the Public Works Department until it was required by the railways

The above shows the landing area with the rail running around the bottom of the cliff and the roadway on top. The building in the middle left is the Immagatioin barracks. The white building right of middle appears to be the Railway Station at the bottom of Wansbeck Street as it was build by 1875.

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