Makarora Jack & His Family
Jack came from a well-known Makarora family line – his maternal grandparents were Caleb Pipson (aka Strathallan Jack) and his wife Ann Jane nèe Hendry. Caleb was one of the first settlers at Makarora and his wife was the first woman settler in Makarora. They had 12 children, one of which was Nora, b. 1876. Norah married John (aka Jack) Lange Snr (son of another John and Broda Lange) in 1904 and 4 months later gave birth to Jack and his twin sister, Mary, at Makarora. Makarora Jack ’s father had been working on Minaret Station prior to the marriage but lived with Nora and the children for a short while in Makarora before moving to Hāwea Flat where Jack Snr was a labourer and then a shepherd.
At some point, Jack Snr became the puntsman at Albert Town. A newspaper article about a function “to mark the passing of the punts and the advent of the bridges” on 27 June 1931 stated that Jack Snr had been the puntsman for 15 years. This is confusing as he does not give his occupation as “Ferryman” until 1938, 7 years after the punt ceased operating. Thereafter, until his death, he gave his occupation as “Ferryman” so perhaps it was something of a status factor. The newspaper reported that during the 15 years he “made many friends amongst those who liked to occasionally stay out late, but had no desire to spoil a happy evening by being compelled to swim the river in order to reach home.”
But he could be bribed! This story is told in Roxburgh’s Wanaka Story: “The story told, while Jack (Snr) Lange, who succeeded Templeton, was in charge of the punts, the quickest way of encouraging Jack to operate after hours was to produce a bottle of whisky; if you volunteered the whisky, then Jack volunteered to work the punt. It was not that the punt was difficult to operate; a child could do it. This was proved on at least one occasion. One lazy Sunday afternoon, when punt business as usual had ceased between 2pm and 4pm, and apparently all civilised people were supposed to be taking their siesta, the puntman was also setting the example; he was asleep in his hut in front of Templeton’s smithy, and woke as if he had been dreaming that a child was taking the punt across the river, he awoke to find that it was true. No doubt the youthful puntman enjoyed his brief hour of command, but it must have been less pleasant for him when he returned the punt to the south side of the Clutha later that afternoon. The lad responsible is now G.L.Norman (Gordon Leslie Norman?).”
Maungawera children had to cross and re-cross on the punt every school day. On occasions the punt was put out of action by a flooded river. Then the children had a holiday. Some recall the day when, before their eyes, the punt with the puntman aboard was carried away by a high river, and Jack Lange, the puntman, calmly took out his pipe and enjoyed a smoke while his craft was swept along in the current (what else could he do against the mighty Clutha?). Luckily it came to a rest against a bank a quarter of a mile below the staging.
Jack and Nora had two unfortunate occurrences in 1931. On 16 November, their son Douglas aged just 26, (brother to Makarora Jack) passed away at Cromwell hospital. Seven days later, the body of Alva Gordon McCausland aged 24, was found dead in their home. It was an apparent suicide, and one wonders if the two deaths are somehow connected. How Alva came to be living at John and Nora’s is unknown, but he did come from a broken home - his mother remarried when he was just 6 years old, then remarried again later on.
But so much for Jack Lange Snr. Young Makarora Jack worked as a musterer, farmhand, labourer and cattle drover before getting a surfaceman’s job in 1948 on the gravel road from Wānaka to the Haast Pass. His equipment was a bicycle, wheelbarrow, pick and shovel. His job was to clear slips on the 25km stretch of road along the shores of Lake Wānaka between Makarora Station and the saddle (The Neck) from Lake Hāwea.
He continued for several years after the Haast Pass Highway was opened officially in 1965. On his retirement, the Ministry of Works allowed him to set up a home at Boundary Creek.
For some years, this residence (basically three huts put together in the bush) had the only telephone in the area and Jack made many calls for stranded motorists.
Jack and his cat outside his home
In January 1994 a major flood brought huge landslides down across the highway and sent water and gravel through the property. After an anxious night, Jack was persuaded to leave his camp by Sir Tim Wallis, who dropped by in his helicopter while searching for people cut off by the raging creeks. The house was damaged beyond repair and Jack moved to a retirement lodge in Wānaka.
In 1995, he went back to Makarora to unveil a plaque to mark the completion of the sealing of SH6.
The last stretches of the road to be done, were along the lake where he had spent 25 years filling potholes.
Jack passed away on 8 June 1996 aged 92 and was buried in the Wānaka Cemetery. Interestingly at death, his name was recorded as John Hendry Lange. He used his grandmother’s maiden name as his second name from time to time.
