Ferrymead

• European settlement of the area dates from the arrival of the early colonists in 1850. Farming was the major industry of the area from its early years and parts of the Heathcote Valley are still in agricultural production.

• Ferry services began about 1851 firstly as a cattle punt. James Townsend (1788–1866) operated the punt service from 1852. When he sold up, the new owners called his house Ferry Mead Hotel (the meadow of the ferry) and this gave the name to the suburb.

• These ferry services continued until the completion of the Heathcote Bridge in 1864.
• Shipping at this time was also able to travel up the Heathcote River as far as the Christchurch Quay adjacent to the present Radley Street Bridge. Later the Steam Wharf was opened by the present Tunnel Road intersection with Ferry Road. The Railway Wharf was opened in December 1863 along with the Ferrymead Railway.

• Shipping on the river was very costly, around 2 pounds per tonne, more than it cost to bring cargo from the UK, and the ships were very small. Later on, steamships brought the cost down, but the difficulties of bringing ships over the bar of the Estuary and up the river itself were a considerable inconvenience. River shipping only outlasted the advent of the railway by a few years.

• On 1 December 1863 New Zealand’s first public railway line was opened from Ferrymead to the central city. It closed in 1867 after the opening of the Moorhouse railway tunnel to the port of Lyttelton.