The real Robbie Williams talks about Port Motueka

May 26th, 2015
[by Coralie Smith]

When Tom Rowlings introduced his good friend Robbie Williams to an audience of over 40 people at the Motueka and District Historical Association meeting as the "real Robbie Williams" it was met with laughter and this set the tone of Robbie's talk.

The monthly meeting of the Association was aligned with the month-long Motueka 2030 programme of events, reflecting on not only the future of Motueka but also recognising and celebrating its past.

Thanks to the support and advertising of Vision Motueka a record number attended our May 2015 meeting.

Robbie Williams (pictured right) had holidayed here from Wellington as a schoolboy. His father Percy Charles Williams ended up here as harbourmaster in 1952. Robbie had already been at sea by then - when you come from a seafaring family what else do you do?

His grandfather George Peter Williams had taken the Motueka Harbour Board to court in 1914 for not having lights in place at the Old Wharf when they were supposed to be showing. So the Williams family had quite a history here over the years.

Robbie's father had been captain of the scow "Taupata" that had a regular run between Motueka and Wellington so he was very familiar with the channel of the Moutere Lagoon Wharf.

Robbie had only just signed up in 1950 when the watersiders strike occurred. It was both a strike and a lock out. The government had given a rise to everybody in New Zealand except the watersiders so they were locked out of working on the wharves. All the other workers on the wharves went on strike in support. It became a major event in New Zealand history.

Percy Williams loved living in Motueka, and his job as harbourmaster, but there was friction with the then secretary of the Harbour Board. There had been seven harbourmasters in five years so something was not right. His father holds the record for the most ships to come into Motueka in one month.

Robbie came to Motueka on the "Te Aroha" when his father was here and met his wife Val Relat. It was found his eyesight was not good enough for working his way up to get his masters ticket so he went ashore. He worked at the Bensemanns hop grader factory in King Edward Street before moving on to Buxton's hardware and then became their farm supplies rep.

In 1966 the opportunity came up to be harbourmaster/manager at Port Motueka.

Much to his surprise, when the NZ Gazette came out with new Marine Dept rules it showed that his position was equivalent to harbourmaster even though he didn't have the required Masters ticket that was the norm. So he was Motueka's Harbourmaster by Act of Parliament.

It was a job that meant you had to be available day and night and ready to load ships when the tide was in. The telephone and the manual exchange became a very important tool to get hold of your workers at short notice and Fergus Holyoake who ran the exchange was a boon to him.

There were 5 trucking firms then and 4 sawmills. Robbie was an agent for some of the shipping companies as well. Driven by the fruit industry, Motueka was advanced in loading technology having palletisation and forklifts long before other bigger ports.

Andrew Webley still worked for the Anchor Shipping Company then. He rode a bike to work and around the wharf but took any bike and yours could be anywhere when it came time to knock off.

Smokos were a great time when all the workers would get together and yarns would be spun and lies told.

The businesses still working at the wharf then were the Motueka Cool Storage Company, Irvine & Stevenson, Ace Canning, Talleys and Tibble and Parsons.

There was a shop at the corner run by Ron McKenzie and later Rae Gray was the man who kept the lights working and the batteries in working order. He was the maintenance man.

The watersiders had to be paid in cash which involved getting money from the bank, and making up pay packets after calculating the amounts. Robbie had married Val by this stage and she was a great help in going to town for stores for the ships and a myriad of other jobs. They lived in the harbourmasters house which is still there by Talleys storage warehouse in Everett Street.

The "Mamaku" was built especially for the fruit industry and there were a few incidents with her mooring as she only just fitted and no more. She had to put her bow into the wharf near the present fishermens wharf and swing with the tide.

We could have gone on all afternoon listening to Robbie and his time at Port Motueka. His knowledge will be invaluable to us as we get on with publishing a book on Port Motueka to celebrate 100 years since the Present Wharf was opened in February 1916.

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