Jack Chambers used to be a skinny little rat but just right for being winched with the wool bales on to lighters heading off Tokomaru Bay s wharf.
He d dressed up in his old man s boots and coat to get a job as a casual wharfie when he was 15.
In those days the wharf at the northern end of the bay was humming.
There was a freezing works, wool store and shipping company nearby, feeding goods out onto the concrete and wooden structure via a small railway.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
It was bustling even at night, Grant Dargie remembers. He lives in the old harbour master s house now where there s a fine view of the crumbling wharf below.