Image sourced from Alexander Turnbull Library. This photograph, taken by Frederick James Halse on 1 April 1888, captures the bridge on Moores Valley Road spanning the Wainuiomata Stream. The vantage point for the photo was Smith’s Whare (also known as Stock’s Whare), which overlooked the Wainuiomata River. The bridge was eventually replaced by a culvert which was later upgraded in 2007. In the background, you can see the Sinclair Sawmill Hut.
Moores Valley takes its name from George Moore, a Wellington merchant who owned land there in the nineteenth century. The original wooden bridge on Moores Valley Road was built in the 1860s and replaced in 1967 with a road laid over a large corrugated iron pipe. That structure failed during a major storm on 15 February 2004, when debris blocked the pipe and the road was washed out. A temporary bridge was installed within two days and remained in place until 2007, when twin concrete culverts were built by Riverside Construction Ltd. The current two lane bridge, with a footpath on the east side, is owned by Hutt City Council and is recorded in official documents as Heaths Bridge, likely named after Bryan Hargrave Heath, a long serving local farmer and county councillor.
