Opened 1900

After three years of construction, there was remarkably little newspaper coverage of the Karori tunnel opening. Perhaps the event was something of an anti-climax, as although the structure was complete, Karori Borough Council had to borrow a further £2,000 to complete the roads leading to the tunnel.

The tunnel was designed by Thomas Ward (of the map fame). It cut through a narrow waisted saddle in the ridge of what was known as Baker’s Hill. The construction was fraught with problems and the contractor was twice replaced. In 1899, James Fulton was bought in to assist Thomas Ward with the supervision of the tunnel’s construction.

It is Wellington’s oldest road tunnel and provided the necessary link to open up the then more rural area of Karori to residential development. The tunnel is approximately 75m long and the apex of the portal is 5.5m above the road.

‘After much tedious work and baffling delays caused by accidental “slips”, the Karori tunnel has at last been completed, so that traffic can pass through it, says the “New Zealand Times”. This tunnel, through what is known as Baker’s Hill, on the road from Wellington to the pleasant suburb of “beautiful Karori,” is designed to dispense with steep gradients and facilitate traffic. Its effect will be to bring Karori about a mile nearer the city in actual time’.
(A Tunnel Completed. Lyttelton Times, 3 January 1900, p5)

In August 1900, it was announced that the tunnel would be lit for the first time by electric lights. The New Zealand Electrical Syndicate was contracted by Karori Borough Council to provide fifteen lamps between the top of Tinakori Road and Baker’s Hill (the hill through which the tunnel passes). Of these, three were to be two candle power inside the tunnel.

Eventually the tram lines were extended from the Botanic Gardens through the tunnel to Karori. The area neighbouring the tunnel was divided up and sold, advertised as the new suburb of Northland. It would receive its own tunnel connection in 1929 with the expansion of the tram network.

References

https://www.wellingtoncityheritage.org.nz/buildings/objects/6-karori-tunnel?q=

https://www.wellingtoncityheritage.org.nz/buildings/objects/41-northland-tunnel

Local and General. (1900, February 12). Evening Post, 4.

Local and General. (1900, August 25). Evening Post, 4.

Spackman, Herbert, 1864-1949. Sharp album 1. Ref: PA1-o-465. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22424861