Three photos of the culvert and outlet at Lake Ellesmere.
Caption: Three photos of the culvert and outlet at Lake Ellesmere.
Description: The natural outlet of Lake Ellesmere is blocked by a high shingle bank formed by the action of the sea and from the days of the first settlers, flood events have caused problems with vast areas of land adjacent to the lake being affected by rising water levels. In 1908-09, John Pannett, a Greenpark farmer, designed and built a timber culvert at Taumutu. An earlier 'permanent' outlet was built by A. Dudley Dobson, civil engineer in 1903-04. This earlier culvert had been undermined by heavy seas within seven months of its completion. The culvert was made through the shingle bank, being 10 chains in length, 30 feet wide and being built of iron bark timber on piles 34 feet in length. The top was covered in and the sides were planked to about half tide level. There was no bottom except for a length of 60 feet at the sea end. This culvert worked more or less satisfactorily until 1925 when it was wrecked by a heavy sea.
Related information: For details of how the culvert worked see p. 39, The weekly press, September 1, 1909.
Source: The Canterbury times, 16 June 1909, p. 40 & p. 41
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