Purchasing Property in Riverton?

Riverton History

This area was known to the Maori as Aparima (named for the Kati Mamoe mother of Hekeia, for whom the Longwood Range is named).

Anglo-Europeans who settled the area in the 1830s called the settlement Jacob’s River. The name Riverton was later adopted by the residents, and their choice was ratified officially in March 1858. One hundred and forty years later, with the passing of Section 450 Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the town was given the dual names of Riverton / Aparima.

On the grassed plateau above the estuary channel stands a stone memorial to the founder of Riverton, whaler and runholder, Captain John Howell, who, while in the employ of Johnny Jones, was dispatched with three ships to establish a whaling station at Aparima in either 1835 or 1836 to replace the abandoned station at Preservation Inlet. The settlement became known as Jacob’s River due to a local Maori living at the mouth whom the whalers called Jacob. Jones’s purchase of all that land from Colac Bayto the New River, and extending some fifty miles inland from the Ngāi Tahu chief “Bloody Jack” Tūhawaiki was formally acknowledged in October 1838. At about the same time Howell secured the Pākehā tenure to the area by marrying Kohi-Kohi the daughter of Patu and Pipikihau, the local Kati Mamoe chief based at Raratoka Island or Centre Island in the Foveaux Strait.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverton_/_Aparima

Riverton First Home Buyer?

More History of Riverton

The year 1850 is generally taken as the one in which settlers at Riverton/Aparima definitely changed over from ploughing the sea to ploughing the land. By that time whaling along the Southland coasts gave only a precarious living and the settlers of Riverton saw they would either have to take to the land or move to a more favourable locality. The settlers had their plots of land and as much stock as they could afford. This however immediately raised the question as to who really owned the land. As long as the whalers confined themselves along the Jacobs River estuary, it was not thought worth while to challenge their right to the small area they occupied.

With the intricate system of land ownership among the Maori, Captain Howell realised that he was not really the sole owner of those vast tracts of land which he believed were handed over to him at the time of his marriage to Kohi-Kohi. Fortunately the central government found out what was happening and sent Mr W.B.D. Mantell to negotiate with the southern Maori for the purchase of the area known as Murihiku. Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell arrived at Riverton on 27 December 1851, and began negotiations with the various chiefs of Southland. It was not until 17 August 1853 that the area of Murihiku (which encompassed Southland), was purchased from the Maori. The township being surveyed by the New Zealand Government in 1861.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverton_/_Aparima

Investment Properties in Riverton?

Activities in Riverton

From 1863 to 1879 a coach service from the town gave the inhabitants another source of communication with the outside world. Previously the mail had been carried by a Russian Finn, William Flint who carried the mail by foot from Invercargill. The coach-route followed the Oreti Beach to the Oreti ferry and then to Invercargill. Because of the changing nature of the quick-sands at the mouth of the Waimatuku Stream where many lives had been lost, there was jubilation with the advent of the railway to Riverton.

On 9 June 1879, a branch railway from Invercargill to Riverton was opened by the mayor Theophilus Daniel. Over the course of the next four decades further extensions were made as far as Orawia. The line became known as the Tuatapere Branch. The original railway (that eventually reached Tuatapere in 1909) crossed the estuary at Riverton using the bridge opened in 1875, the towns inhabitants sharing a road-rail bridge for twenty-six years. With the construction (1902–1905) of a combination of two Howe truss bridges and a causeway the Tuatapere Branch railway had a crossing of its own over the Jacobs River Estuary. The main bridge on the south end consisted of seventeen built beams of 9.2 metres and two Howe trusses of 18.3 metres span, giving a hybrid form of design. The supporting piers were of braced timber piles. This bridge provided a good illustration of the timber technology of the period, with its three elements of truss, built beam and piled piers (one truss can still be viewed behind the museum “Te Hikoi”). On 30 July 1976, it was truncated from Tuatapere back to Riverton and became known as the Riverton Branch. The railway bridges and causeway being removed in 2001.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverton_/_Aparima

Riverton Mortgage Financing

Historic Buildings in Riverton

Five buildings in Riverton are listed with the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga:

• Howell’s Cottage or Kohi Kohi Cottage on Napier Street dates back to 1837 or 1838. It may have been the first house built in Riverton, and is one of the few New Zealand colonial buildings pre-dating 1840.
• Daniel House on Palmerston Street is an example of a vernacular timber Georgian influenced, English-Colonial style residence.
• Palmerston Street Cottages on Palmerston Street represents mid to late nineteenth century box cottages.
• The former Riverton Court House on Palmerston Street was built in 1883 and typifies nineteenth century public works architecture. It is now incorporated into Te Hikoi, the Riverton Tourist and Heritage Centre.
• Saint Mary’s Anglican on Palmerston Street was designed by prominent Invercargill architect Edmund Richardson Fitz Wilson. It is an Anglican parish church in Carpenter Gothic style.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverton_/_Aparima