Lyttelton: exploring its secrets
BOB RADLEY
Aerial pictures of Christchurch earthquake damage show the old WWII tunnel at the Port of Lyttelton.
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As an adventurous young lad in the 1950s I used to cycle with friends from Merivale to the old Christchurch railway station and get a 1/- (one shilling) Lyttelton return train ticket.
Once at the port we would ramble the wharves, fish, or go exploring.
Just around the corner from the inner harbour towards the heads there was some reclaimed land (the site of today's much larger Cashin Quay).
This area was known locally as Windy Point and it was there we made an intriguing discovery. Part way up the scarp face below the Sumner Road and the Time Ball Station we spotted a concreted opening in the hillside.
We scrambled about 25 metres up the steep slope and found a tunnel going out of sight into the hill. It went deep into the hillside. There were branch tunnels, some huge in size and in length.
The origin of the tunnels had always been a mystery, and recently my curiosity reawakened.
Information on the tunnels' history was still very sparse. Canterbury libraries and the Christchurch Archives New Zealand facility held no information.
A call to Lyttelton Historical Museum directed me to curator Baden Norris. He recalled seeing the tunnels being built during World War II. As a young lad he had seen the construction work under way from the harbour ferry as he crossed to Lyttelton to attend school. But this was secret wartime work.
Inquiries to the New Zealand Defence Force HQ in Wellington revealed a few small references to the tunnel project.
Defence Department records held this succinct summary:
"Additional facilities for fuel oil storage at Lyttelton was recommended by Chiefs of Staff in June, 1943. Two months later, War Cabinet approved the construction of two underground tunnels each capable of holding 6000 tons of oil. These were driven 500 feet into solid rock, the dimensions being 20 feet 6 inches (6.2 metres) wide and 32 feet and 9 inches (9.9 metres) from the floor to the crown of their arch. The work was about 37 per cent complete (excavation 70 per cent) when construction was stopped in September, 1944. The expenditure incurred amounted to [PndStlg]68,291."
Archives New Zealand in Wellington has a file of about 600 pages of information on the Lyttelton Fuel Oil Tunnels. These previously secret files are now declassified.
Apparently the project was first mooted by the Wartime Cabinet in 1942, but work only commenced in 1943.
It was felt that should the Pacific war theatre push southwards, Lyttleton would need to become the southern bastion for the Allied Naval Fleet. A 12,000 ton cache of ship fuel oil was thought necessary and it needed to be safe from enemy attack.
New Zealand was still strongly regarded as a Dominion of Britain and much of the tunnel project's planning was done in Britain. Considerable dialogue took place with the Home Office and the Royal Navy in England.
The New Zealand side of the operation was a joint effort between the Government, Office of the Navy, and Department of Public Works. The Christchurch works manager was the local operational director.
The records disclose the difficulty experienced in getting sufficient numbers of experienced tunnellers to build the tunnels.
The work was done by 25 tunnellers working three shifts and on two faces within the Lyttelton hillside.
It was hoped to finish the work in eight months, but work ran behind schedule and was heading towards taking 18 months.
Efforts to hire another 25 tunnellers were unsuccessful as work was also under way on the underground elements of the Tekapo Power scheme and on other work in Wellington.
Tunnel designs indicate the tunnels were planned to fuel ships by gravity flow through a 46cm (18") pipeline.
The tunnel floors are 38.24m (125.5 feet) above the survey datum point of the former Lyttelton Harbour Board. Gladstone Pier is 13.25m (43.5feet) above the datum point. This gave a fall of 25 metres (82 feet) for supplying fuel to shipping.
The old Lyttelton Harbour Board datum point is set at what is termed MLW Spring - or in other words at Mean Low Water in the Spring tidal range.
When work was halted in 1944, the tunnels were incomplete. The Allies were winning and the fuel dump was no longer likely to be needed.
The access tunnel pilot drive of 61.57 metres was complete and the first eight metres and portal area were concrete lined. This access pilot drive was 3.65 metres wide and with 1.22 metre walls running up the arched ceiling, which was also about 3.65 metres high.
Chamber No 1 was completely excavated for its full 152 metre length. The roof was 12 metres high and the width 6.7 metres.
Chamber No 2 was excavated for its full length, but only with a pilot drive prior to honing the full dimensions as in Chamber No 1. The initial pilot drive was 3.5 metres wide and 3.35 metres high.
Also uncompleted was concrete lining of the two storage chambers to the height of their walls.
They also lacked the piping that would take the fuel oil to the ships below. These pipes and pumps were standing by ready to be installed but were later disposed of.
When work stopped, 13,863 cubic metres of rock had been removed. To complete the works, 19,989 cubic metres needed to come out, so they were 70 per cent completed.
But despite being mothballed, the project was not yet dead.
Records several years later show that in 1951 and 1952 there was debate over whether the tunnel-based fuel storage project should be resurrected.
It appears that in the Cold War climate the government and Navy believed a need still existed to have strategic fuel oil storage.
Discussions took place with private businesses on completing the underground storage facilities.
Oil companies of the day, including Esso (Mobil today), Vacuum Oil (now part of Exxon Mobil), and BP were invited to indicate their interest.
But they decided it would cost too much to finish the job. To stop any risks to casual explorers, a grill was installed at the portal.
Lyttelton's World War II fuel storage tunnels were not unique.
After exposed Australian tanks at Darwin were bombed by the Japanese, more secure storage was created by building underground tunnels.
These are a tourist attraction today.
Similar facilities were installed elsewhere, including Auckland, New South Wales, Scotland, and a massive multi-purpose system by the Americans at Malinta in the Philippines.
All of these were concrete-lined tunnels with feeder pipes and pumping equipment.
Some have suggested the recent severe earthquakes may have destroyed the tunnels.
However, the way the Lyttelton rail and road tunnels have escaped relatively unscathed suggests the fuel tunnels have probably survived.
In the mining and tunnelling world, it is a basic precept that correct arching gives tunnels very good strength.
Cashin Quay is now generally out of bounds.
One harbour official has suggested that alternative access to the tunnel system could be achieved by forming a secure trackway down to the portal from the Sumner road above.
It was be interesting to see if people today can come up with creative ideas for using these hidden tunnels.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Newest First
Oldest First
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06:06 am Nov 04 2011
Great story. They would make a mean wine cellar! I remember growing up in Melbourne and goIng on camps at the old Lord Mayors Camp in Portsea, that was an old army barrick from the late 1800's I think, complete with concrete fortress on the headland designed to hold a disappearing gun, from the days when they feared Russian invasion. The whole bay is littered with thease forts, I bealeave the first shots of WW1 + WW2 were fired there, trying to stop German ships leaving Port Phillip after the announcement of war. Strange times. It was clearly all up to the British to decide the construction of these things, the empire is full of them.
@ Al #8
Diesoline:
The fuel to be stored was not "ships bunker fuel", which is very thick and heavy, but the fuel stored in the Lyttelton tunnel complex was to be fuel - light diesel for US Navy submarines - The same fuel as used with slight improvements in diesel trucks and vans today.
The submarine could come in to Lyttelton harbour at night, refuel and be away before anyone knew about the short visit.
Gravity feed for silence, and also in case of shore power failure during the refuel.
At Devonport, on Auckland's North Shore there was a similar tunnel drilled and blasted out, into the cliff at the rear of the naval dockyards, with the fuel still remaining in rusting tanks well into the 1990's.
After the public realised the fuel was ageing in rotting tanks, and there was risk of fire and explosion, there was an outcry, and the Defence Department purchased all the properties above the line of that tunnel, before the tanks were very carefully removed.
A friend who lived above the Devonport fuel tunnels had just completed an interior refurbishment of his house and landscaped the grounds, had a wonderful view across the Devonport naval base to Auckland city, and his property, along with others, was compulsorily purchased under some Defence Department legislation.
Fortunately he and his family obtained a good price, and purchased across the harbour, then they were looking back at their old house at the top of the cliff above the Devonport naval base.
As far as I am aware, those properties remain vacant.
During WW2 US Navy submarines did quietly call in to Devonport, and used that facility to refuel.
Kind Regards, Anony Mouse :-))
war tunnels there were war tunnels built into the side of the street in station st timaru. for years the hill was covered with perrywinkle but when this was cleared it exposed the tunnel entrance. not long after the bush and weeds were cleared the local council put mesh on the entrance to stop people entering. I used to work close by and before the mesh went up it was not uncomon to see police cars outside the tunnels. officers would go in and come out with some in cuffs. people living off the streets i guess or bikes or clothing.
B P Holden #7: The story tells you why - the refueling would be done by gravity feed - the same way our water pressure can be maintained by storage tanks on the hill.
If they were ever required, no power would be needed to refuel ships - the higher the head the faster the flow for a given pipe size and length.
BTW - Wonder what sort of fuel were they planning for? Heavy fuel oil, like on the Rena, sounds a bit viscous for this system..
My cousin and I clambered up there about 1980 .I guess as two young uns we had visions of old 303s and machine guns lying around abandoned in there for 40 years just for us waiting to scoop up and take to school to show and tell !!! What I have ALWAYS wondered over the years since first entering them is WHY the heck were they built up so high???? Can somebody PLEASE tell me why and put me out of my misery !! Im sure others have wondered this as well .
Thank you for the story. I grew up in Lyttelton, and remember exploring these tunnels in the late 1970's. I always wondered what they had been built for.
When my cousin lived in Lyttelton during the later 1950's, he and I explored those tunnels.
Nobody seemed to know what they were actually built for, at that time, although "it was something to do with the army".
Unfortunately our torches were not really equal to the task, with batteries failing we stumbled out into the light of day, glad to make it in one piece.
In those days we did lots of exploring, on one occasion climbing from the wharf to the top of Mt Pleasant in less than 35 minutes, which neither of us could do today.
At that time the wharf area was not ringed by security fences, and many dads and grandpas used to come down to the wharves and fish with their children.
Children today are denied so many opportunities to explore their surroundings - Nanny State has closed almost all of them off.
Thanks Bob for bringing back some memories.
Kind regards, Anony Mouse :-))
I am a Canadian living in Canada. I explored these tunnels in the early 1970s with a Kiwi friend. It is good to read the history of the tunnels. It was quite an experience as the pitch darkness easily overwhelmed the light from our poor flashlight. We could tell the caverns were huge but our meagre light kept the full extent hidden. We tried again a year or so later but the entrance was fenced off by then. One of my memorable experiences from living in Christchurch those many years ago. Now, I grieve the devastation of the earthquake. The city is dear to me having lived there four years.
I think it was somewhere between 1983 and 1986 that we explored these tunnels when attending training courses in Christchurch. I have a couple of photos of inside them somewhere. Must see if I can find them.
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I would suggest Anony Mouse #10 do as I did and read the 600 odd pages of records housed at Archives NZ in Wellington. The entire project was driven by the UK War Office and the Admiralty and there is not one mention of USA or their submarines. 12,000 tons capacity was to make sufficiency for naval fleet purposes, and somewhat beyond submarines. The facility was intended to cover the event of Pacific Fleet fallback if the enemy pushed far south. The fuel was to be ships fuel storage for naval shipping. The 1952 review was in similar vein in the then Cold War period. Large diameter pipes and pumping hardware including heating was actually procured and standing by, but never installed. The height was to be an additional aid to move the fuel with gravity assisting the pumps. The hardware was later sold ex Wellington.