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Places within Tryphena:- Mulberry Grove, Tryphena
Building and Voyages of the brig Tryphena 1841-45 Where did the name 'Tryphena' come from?
Tryphena is named after the brig Tryphena which in turn was named after the daughter of one of the owners, which may have been either one of the Abercrombies, William or Charles, or an unknown person.
Captain Robert Menzies reminisces about the building of the Tryphena in Australia. The Great Barrier Murder A Singular Coincidence A correspondent (Mr Robert Menzies, shipbuilder) of Coromandel, sends the following note: “It is rather a strange co-incidence that Penn, who is at present under charge of murder, should have been arrested at the very spot where a vessel which gave the name to Tryphena Bay, Great Barrier, was built by the late Mr Gillies and myself in 1841. We built a brig which was called the Tryphena, after the daughter of one of the owners, and I came over to the bay, now called Tryphena at the Barrier in her in 1842.” Source: Star 9th November, 1886 p3 Captain John Gillies sells an unnamed brig in Sydney 12th August, 1842. To close a Partnership account Peremptorilly. Mr Thomas Brennand will sell by public auction, on Friday next, the 12th instant, at twelve o’clock precisely. An entirely new Brig of about 160 tons register (old and new measure). She has just arrived from the M’Leay River; she was built by Captain John Gillies, and in respect of model, finish, and fastening, she is equal to any vessel yey built in the colony. Her dimensions are: length, eighty-two feet six inches; depth of hold, twelve feet; extreme breadth twenty-two feet; and is well found in sails, cordage, two anchors, chains &c., &c.; there is on board a sufficient quantity of patent metal for coppering her, which will be sold with the vessel. The whole may be inspected on board the brig as she now lies, at Captain Thom’s Wharf. Terms at sale. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday, 10th August, 1842. P3.
First appearance of the Brig Tryphena in Sydney September, 1842. Coasters Outward September 7 - …..Tryphena, 131, Abercrombie, for Newcastle, in ballast…. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday 8th September, 1842 p2
First voyage of the Tryphena to New Zealand October 1842. Projected Departures Tryphena for Auckland this day Source: The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser Tuesday 11th October, 1842 p2
The myth prevalent in various publications that the brig Tryphena was built in Tryphena has no foundation at all. The above is much more probable as a source of where the brig Tryphena was built. -Don Armitage.
In the past, the harbour has been called 'Port Tofino' as you can see for yourself in the following extract from page 69 of the NZ Pilot of 1856:
"GREAT BARRIER ISLAND.
.... PORT TOFINO is the southern harbour, and bears S.S.E., 2 1/2 miles from Okupu bay: the coast line between is straight and bold, with 15 fathoms a quarter of a mile distant; a small islet lies a quarter of a mile from the shore, half a mile before reaching the north head of the port: close off the north head is a high peaked islet, and immediately over the head a remarkable conical peak. The north and south heads lie W.N.W. and E.S.E, from each other 2 miles apart; when abreast the inner north head,--a high cliffy peninsula, --the entrance contracts to 1 1/2 miles in width, the harbour running for the same distance in a N. E. b. N. direction; three quarters of a mile inside the peninsula, a flat rock lies a quarter of a mile off the north shore, connected with it by a reef; between this rock and the head of the harbour, there is good anchorage on the north shore in 6 and 7 fathoms, with all northerly and westerly winds; from easterly or S E. gales, a cove in the S.E. corner of the bay affords excellent shelter in 4 and 5 fathoms mud bottom; this cove is immediately to the westward of a high rocky peninsula point on the south side of the harbour, and small vessels might anchor far enough in to be sheltered from S.W. winds. Inside a line between the peninsula point on the south shore and the Flat rock on the north, the depths are from 9 to 4 fathoms, and outside it from 12 to 18 across the entrance. Port Tofino is a favourite anchorage with the coasters; the ebb tide however, which runs to the S.E. along this side of the Great Barrier island, sets strongly out of the harbour, and a vessel working in from the southward, unless with a fresh breeze, is liable to be drifted out,-- the water being too deep to anchor--and swept through the passage between capes Barrier and Colville. South of the southern head of Port Tofino half a mile distant, is a rock which does not always break, and between it and the shore another sunken one; 20 fathoms will be obtained a very short distance outside, these rocks. Cape Barrier, the S.E. extreme of the island, is 2 1/2 miles E. by S. from the south point of Tofino harbour, and midway between projects what appears a peaked island, but is connected with the main by a low neck;. rocks extend a cable's length off cape Barrier, and two detached and breaking, lie 3 cables' lengths to the eastward of it, there are 28 fathoms sand bottom a mile off the cape, within that distance the bottom is rocky. Vessels rounding this cape are recommended to give it a berth of two miles."
The possible origin of the name Tofino The Spanish Malaspina expedition of three ships which visited the South Island in 1791 is the most likely explanation for the name 'Tofino'. The commander Don Alessandro Malaspina's chief navigator was Don Felipe Bauza, who made a chart of the part of New Zealand they visited (part of the South Island only) and that chart made its way into the Admiralty in London, England. Bauze gave many Spanish names to various places but they have since been lost. Captain Vincente Tofino de San Miguel was a Spanish hydrographer and no doubt was well known to Bauza. Either Bauza or more probably someone else, early on, named the present day Tryphena as Tofino, but with the coming of the brig Tryphena to Great Barrier Island on a regular basis during the mid-1840s the name was dropped and the very similar sounding name of Tryphena took precedence, although in the New Zealand Pilot of 1856 Port Tofino was still in use.-Don Armitage November 2009 1909
23rd October, 1909 Tryphena boy dies in accident.
CASUALTIES
A Fatal Fall
[Press Association].
Auckland, October 24.
A youth named W.Taylor, 17 years of age, fell on a stump at Tryphena, Great Barrier Island,
yesterday, a shoot penetrating his eye, with fatal results, the lad dying the same night.
Source: Hawera and Normanby Star 25th October, 1909 page 5. (Papers Past).
29th November, 1909 Turtle caught at Tryphena
On Friday, 29th October, a turtle, which weighs between 2 cwt and 3 cwt, and whose shell measures 36in by 28in, was captured by Mr. A. Blackwell, at Tryphena, Great Barrier. The correspondent to the New Zealand Herald states that the creature is quite tame, and eats from the hands of its captor.
Source: Evening Post 9th November, 1909 p6
Tryphena Harbour from Needle Rock on the high point above the road between Tryphena and Medlands.
Compare this photo taken March 2005 with the one below.
Photo- Don Armitage
 View of Tryphena and Tryphena Harbour, Great Barrier Island, 8 June 1959
Whites Aviation Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference Number: WA-51152-F (http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=97552).  View of Tryphena Bay, Great Barrier Island, [ca 1910]Price Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference Number: 1/2-000097-G Part of: Price, William Archer, d 1948 :Collection of post card negatives, Reference Number PAColl-3057 (http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=42212).  Parkland House, Tryphena Bay, Great Barrier Island, [ca 1910]Price Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference Number: 1/2-000129-G Part of:  View of Tryphena Bay and Parkland House, Great Barrier Island, [ca 1910]Price Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference Number: 1/2-000132-G Part of:
 View of Pa Point, Tryphena Bay, Great Barrier Island, [ca 1910]Price Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference Number: 1/2-000133-G Part of:
Money-Market and City Intelligence “Great Barrier (New Zealand). “The company have despatches including copy of the provincial surveyor’s report to the Colonial Government on the Crown Lands, of which the following is a copy:- “With the operations of the Great Barrier Company advancing the land about Tryphena harbour and Okupe [sic] will before long be required for settlements, and I have prepared the report and map with a view to having data ready…..The most valuable portion of the Great Barrier Island lies around Port Abercrombie, and is owned by the Great Barrier Company. In the bays of this harbour and of Port Fitzroy are located settlers, who hold their farms on lease from the Company, and keep stock on shares of the increase and produce. The grass cultivation of some of these farms are very luxuriant, and the enterprise appears a successful one.” Source: The Times (London) Monday, September 15th, 1862. p5. |
 The authoritative site about the human and natural history of Aotea Great Barrier Island. |
Tryphena
Subpages (1):
Mulberry Grove, Tryphena
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