View of the damage in early 1884 to the Wainuiomata dam after the flood of October 1883.
In 1883, the Wainuiomata dam sustained significant damage due to flooding, prompting an inspection by members of the Wellington City Council and other officials. The visit was organised to assess the extent of the damage and determine whether to grant an extension to the contractor, Mr G. H. Bayliss, for completing the project. Upon arrival, the party observed a large gap in the concrete face of the dam, where part of the wall had been washed away by the powerful floodwaters. Additionally, the filling at the back of the dam, intended to support the overflow of surplus water, had been completely washed out. This area had been near completion before the flood, and the damage could have been avoided if the filling had been coated with boulders and cement earlier. The force of the flood was so strong that it not only removed the filling but also gouged out a hole several feet deep in the solid rock at the base of the dam. You can read more about this event in an old Post article dated 25 October 1883.
In another article dated 24 January 1884, it says that the “The workmen’s huts very narrowly escaped being washed away by the irresistible torrent”. This photo shows two buildings precariously perched on the edge of a bank carved out by the flood. If these are indeed the huts in question, this may be the only existing image of the dam worker huts.
Another interesting detail is the building on the very left. Both this building and the workmen’s huts near the flood damage seem to have almost disappeared in photos taken a few years later. However, the building on the left is in a similar location to an old frame just visible in the left side of a photo taken in March 1888 that is looking in the opposite direction (east).
