The breakwater in Oamaru Harbour gets a lot of bashing about! The waves roar in from the east and smash into this long sea wall. It has stood the test of time:
In fact, Oamaru was one of the most dangerous anchorages in New Zealand in the 1860s and the early 1870s.
More than 20 ships were wrecked there and many more were stranded, but recovered. On one occasion four ships littered the beach at once. That all started to change in 1872 when work began on a huge concrete breakwater.
Oamaru Harbour is New Zealand's only surviving authentic Victorian/Edwardian deepwater port, paralleling the town's uniquely intact colonial architectural inheritance
Because the port closed to commercial shipping at the end of the conventional shipping era in 1974, it retains a unique assortment of heritage wharves, seawalls, sheds, rails and other features
