The Mystery of the Windmill

Above is a photograph of local Dutchman Frederick Charles Ottaway with the windmill he built overlooking Wainui Beach along Wairere Road, circa 1906. Below is a photograph of a second windmill on the Moana Road beachfront at Okitu, much larger but built of similar materials. And it appears to be the same white-bearded man standing beside both of them. There was little information accompanying these photographs in the autumn of 2009, so I asked the readers of Beachlife magazine to supply more detail about the two structures, and the man who built them.

Frederick Ottaway with would appear to be a domesticated cow and a pet cockatoo posing for a photograph beside his windmill on Moana Road.

An eccentric Dutchman or a German spy?

(This story was published in the 2009 winter issue of Beachlife.)   

Around Wainui Beach older residents often speak about the "old windmill" that used to be a feature of the beachfront many years ago. So I made a visit to the Tairawhiti Museum and, with the help of Dudley Meadows, I obtained a couple of old photographs that I copied and then set out to try to unravel the mystery of the Wainui windmill.

It has became obvious that the photographs I had taken copies of from the museum archives were of two totally different windmills. And so the mystery deepens. 

The smaller windmill above is thought to have stood on the dunes overlooking Wainui Beach, half-way along Wairere Road.

It was built before the First World War (possibly as early as 1895) by an eccentric Dutchman, Frederick Charles Ottway, and over the years there have been many suggestions as to what he may have used it for.

Some said he used it to grind up shells for the chickens he kept in a shed nearby and to supply the local market with "fowl grit". 

One of the more bizarre interpretations was whispered that during the war he was actually a German spy and used the angles of the sails to signal coded messages to German warships off the New Zealand coast.

Maybe the ingenious machine, made from salvaged driftwood and flattened kerosene and benzine tins, had multiple uses but the most commonly accepted explanation is that he used it to run the circular saw, that can be seen in the top picture, to cut driftwood into firewood. 

At the time the photograph was taken Ottway was said to be 71 years old. He also kept a cockatoo and other animal pets. Later photos dated around 1926 show the smaller mill as a ruin and no longer in use. 

But what of the much larger windmill (I asked readers in 2009)? There was a strong clue. Looking at the hill shapes in the background this mill was most likely opposite the Chalet Rendezvous site along Moana Road. There were questions: Was the old bearded gentleman with the dog Ottaway? Did he build a second windmill? This larger windmill doesn't appear to have a wood sawing attachment, so what was its use? Hopefully we can solve the mystery in our next issue. 

Above left: In November of 1960 the Gisborne Photo News published this image of the first windmill in its Pictures From The Past department. It was sent in by a Mr Chas S. Platten, of 231 Stout Street, who appears on horseback in the picture, which was probably taken about 1916.
Right: A woman and a young girl are photographed alongside the earlier and smaller of Ottaway's windmills.

Not one but two windmills

(This story was published three months later in the 2009 spring issue of Beachlife.)   

It is becoming more evident that there were in fact two windmills built on the beachfront at Wainui during the early years of last century. Old windmill photos sent in and unearthed from various sources make it obvious that there was a larger and a smaller windmill and they appear to have been built at separate ends of the beach.

The smaller of the windmills, which had a wind shelter structure protecting a wood-cutting bench saw, seems mostly likely to have been the first of the windmills and most likely erected on the Wairere Road sand dunes. A caption attached to a photograph from a national magazine states: “One of New Zealand’s first recyclers is how Mrs D. Goodhue of Auckland, describes her grandfather Frederick Ottaway. Frederick built this windmill out of flattened kerosene tins on Wainui Beach, near Gisborne. The photograph was taken in 1895 although the windmill remained a landmark for many years after that. When times were lean Frederick would cut up driftwood to sell for firewood and grind maize into flour.”

A Photo News caption accompanying a photograph of the larger of the two windmills states: “Mr Frederick Charles Ottway built this windmill around 1917 on the seaward side of the road and opposite the present Chalet Rendezvous. It was built from timber and flattened kerosene tins and stood for some time after the death of its owner. It was used for grinding flour, cutting wood and appeared on marine charts at the time as a navigational aid.”

BeachLife is assuming that Ottaway built his first and smaller windmill on the vacant dunes along Wairere Road some time before 1895, long before any subdivision of the area. He may have later needed to abandon this windmill after the Wairere Road dunes were developed for subdivision by the then landowner William Cooper in 1903. However, it wasn’t until the 1930s that the first baches started being built along the beachfront so Ottaway would have had plenty of time to move on.

This writer therefore guesses that Ottaway, who is seen as a much older man in the large windmill photos, shifted his makeshift operation to the uninhabited sand dunes along Moana Road some time before 1917, and using the same kerosene tin technique, built a second and larger windmill. 

Early William Crawford photos of the Okitu beachfront show no sign of a windmill there around 1908. There is no archived mention of Ottaway being given permission by W.D. Lysnar, who then owned the Moana Road dunes.

Elder Wainui resident Keith Redstone says he can remember the windmill along Moana Road. He is sure it was on the high point of the dunes a little north of where Douglas Street meets the highway. He and his friends used to cycle out from Gisborne around 1939 and would explore the then ramshackle old windmill which was surrounded by boxthorn, the ground littered with broken bottles. He thinks it was eventually dismantled during the Second World War. Keith says he once spoke to Mary Lysnar, formerly of Lysnar Street, who confirmed there had been two windmills built by Ottaway. The first being opposite the entrance to Ocean Park on the Wairere Road dunes.

However, we would still like to find more about Ottaway. Where did he live? Was he a squatter? Did he have family? The mention of his grand-daughter, Mrs D. Goodhue of Auckland, is a clue that someone may be able to follow. The “Mystery of the Windmills” file is still open and Beachlife is keen to find out more.   

School children became emboldened enough to wade into the blood red sea and touch the dieing animals.

The man behind the mystery

We have been able to shed some light on the background of the man who built windmills in the Wainui Beach sand hills around the turn of the 20th century.

In earlier issues of Beachlife we revealed that Frederick Ottaway built two windmills – one along Wairere Road around 1895 and then another larger one opposite where the Chalet now is around 1917.

Both windmills were built from recycled materials, mostly from flattened kerosene tins which were painted with tar and coated in sand.

Older Gisborne residents remember the Moana Road windmill still remaining in a dilapidated state up until the early 1940s.

Recently BeachLife was contacted by Mr Ivan O’Connell who’s wife Lilus is the great-great-grand daughter of Mr Ottaway through Ottaway’s daughter Hilda. It is now believed Frederick had two children with his wife Elizabeth, the other a son named Alfred.

Of interest is that Lilus and Ivan’s daughter Rachael is married to local man John Lewin and living in Murdoch Road. Their two daughters Grace (7) and Gemma (5) who attend Wainui School are therefore great-great-great grand children of the man who built the windmills.

We also now know that Frederick and his wife Elizabeth lie side by side in a substantial plot in the Taruheru Cemetery. Fred died on 14 December 1928 aged 81 and his wife died aged 70 on 23 January 1930. It is thought Frederick was of Norwegian origin but details of what he did for a living and where the family lived are still unknown. 

Another descendent of the Ottaways, Ernie Hart, still lives in Ormond Road. Although Fred died just after Ernie was born, Ernie can remember going on family outings by horse and buggy to visit the windmill which still had its sails attached in the very early 1930s.

Mr Trevor Ottaway who used to be a cobbler who ran the shoe repair business in Bright Street was also a direct descendent.

The photograph above of the second windmill built by Frederick Ottaway shows its site on the sand dunes overlooking the beach along Moana Road and (bdlow) allows us to align the hill shapes in the background and superimpose the windmill to give an almost exact location.