Before roads on Banks Peninsula were improved, most goods were shipped in and out of Akaroa by sea.
A Town Jetty, built in 1858-59, was replaced in 1888 by a new Town Wharf (see Town Wharf). In 1910 this roughcast building, with a Marseilles tile roof, was built as a wharfinger’s office at the base of the Town Wharf. It replaced a “rotten and insanitary” predecessor. The facility included a weighbridge, on which carts could be weighed so that the appropriate charges could be levied for use of the wharf. The weighbridge was removed after World War II. By that time, although fishing boats and other craft were still using the Town Wharf, most goods were coming and going by road.
The old weighbridge building eventually became a shop.
