In the early 1910s, nestled within the secluded reaches of Sinclair Valley in Wainuiomata, a short-lived but bustling work camp sprang up alongside a tramline terminus. Nicknamed “Navvy-town” by those who lived and worked there, the settlement served as the base for a large crew of labourers constructing what was then called Solomon’s Knob Reservoir, later renamed Morton Dam.
The settlement was mostly comprised of navvies, a term that originally referred to canal builders. As civil engineering developed, the word came to describe armies of labourers responsible for major infrastructure projects such as railways, roads and waterworks. Armed with little more than shovels, carts and sheer determination, navvies often toiled in remote and challenging terrain, carving progress out of the landscape by hand.
