Local lawyer helps the Kestrel come home

Call of the Kestrel: The call is out to take the Kestrel home to the Waitematā Harbour.

Where Fairburn Walked Ross Mullins 1987

Ferry me across the shining water
Take me home again
Rock me rock me gentle on the harbour
I will feel no pain

Warkworth lawyer Hugh Gladwell is helping revive another regional icon. Mr Gladwell and Peter Thompson were the prime movers in saving the Jane Gifford, by bringing her back to her homeport to be rebuilt.

The Kestrel won’t be coming to Warkworth, but she may spend some time in the Mahurangi, riding out the expected shortage of berths in the Waitematā during the rugby world cup.

She does not have a lot of significance for the Mahurangi but is surely worth preserving as the last of the big double-ended ferries afloat, which are a big part of Auckland’s history and development.

In the Kestrel’s early years, however, she was part of a maritime world with close connections to the Mahurangi. Warkworth was as dependent on its steamer service to Queen Street Wharf, as was Devonport on its steam-engined ferries.

The Kestrel was built Charles Bailey junior for the Devonport Steam Ferry Company and launched December 1905. She operated as a commuter ferry until 1994, then was used for excursions. Mr Gladwell says

She was in good condition when she steamed down to Tauranga eight years ago to become a floating restaurant. She has had regular maintenance while she is down there. The other options for her have involved taking her up onto a farm to be used as backpacker accommodation or taking her out to sea, burning her to the waterline and sinking her.

While use as a floating restaurant or backpacker hostel is arguably better than being scuttled, those are impoverished prospects compared with carrying passengers—the work for which she was so elegantly designed. Meantime

We are pursuing berthage for her in Auckland. We need initial funding. We are forming the Kestrel Preservation Society this week and opening a bank account. There may be readers of the Mahurangi Magazine who have practical skills or who know people who might be interested in joining the society or contributing in some way.

Ideally, she would resume the honest toil of ferrying folk—across a shining harbour.

Contact Hugh Gladwell, Dyson Smythe and Gladwell +64 9 425 8175.

Footnote Where Fairburn Walked was performed by Jennifer Eirena and the Prohibition Big Band at the 2007 Mahurangi Regatta prize-giving and dance, with songwriter Ross Mullins on keyboard, and kindly dedicated to the editor.