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LATER KENNEDY BAY
LUMBER AND GOLD
Mechanized lumber mills were built in the
region for sawn lumber rather than just masts
and yard arms. In 1862, a mill complex at the
deep water north side of the bay was built by
Alexander McGregor (of McGregor’s Bay in
Coromandel Town), Frederick Atkinson and
Charles Broadbent. The operation changed
hands a few times, eventually landing with the
Kauri Timber Company in 1888.
Milling ceased in early 1891, and after working
out the remaining trees, the tramway and
machinery up the Mataiterangi Creek were
removed, though a few kauri timber operations
still continued along the south side of the bay.
There were some gold mines in the Kennedy
Bay Block, but they do not seem to have
paid out much; and certainly the area did not
develop the complex of hotels, government,
and commercial buildings that sprung up
around Thames, Kuaotunu and Coromandel.
Today, Kennedy Bay is a laidback remote non-
commercial area, with strong Maori presence.
The region’s industry now? Harvesting mussels.
Kennedy murder
details revealed...
(continued from page 12)
The main streams were used by the lumber companies to float the huge kauri logs into the
estuary and then into Kennedy Bay’s deep north end where the tall ships were anchored for
loading. The bay’s beach is larger, with long expanse of sandy shoreline.
- Photo by Alan Duff
“Messrs. Smyth brothers’ tramway” at Kennedy Bay
around 1898. Another photo of the bay shows the tracks
running above the shoreline. In 1904, they found gold in
one of their driving streams, Omoho Creek, exposed by
the action of the floating kauri logs.
K
ennedy Bay lumber operations
reveal gold deposits
Evening Post, 25 June, 1913
KENNEDY MEETS VIOLENT END
In 1843, aboard
The Three Bees
, Kennedy
was robbed and then killed by three convict
crewmembers (a Frenchman, an Italian,
and a “Red-headed Geordie”). His body
was dumped overboard near Tiritiri Island
and the cutter scuttled. The killers escaped
in a dinghy and set it afire on the beach.
However, it did not burn completely, and
when discovered, it became evidence of
wrongdoing and the disappearance of
Kennedy and his cutter.
His wife Katerina was home with the children,
and when he did not return, she apparently
left her sons to be raised by others, and it is
assumed she returned to her tribe.
Back at Kennedy Bay, this tragedy did not
bode well for his family’s inheritance. Because
of Kennedy’s death, his land purchases could
not be verified. Eventually though, after some
time, the, the Kennedy boys were ceded
some 1250 acres at the north portion of the
bay, land they eventually sold.
One of John Kennedy’s sons, Joe, became
quite the master seaman, and in 1874,
was appointed habour master and pilot
at Gisborne. He also founded the firm of
Kennedy, Evans & Co, the “company comprised
of Timber Merchants, Carriers, Lightermen,
Shipping and Insurance Agents.”
In fleshing out the history, we stumbled upon
an
Evening Post
1913 article about details of
Kennedy’s murderers, published upon the death
of John’s son Joseph.
(See left.)
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COROMANDEL LIFE LATE SPRING/HOLIDAY
WOOD
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