ROCHFORT, JOHN (1832-94) was born and educated in London, and apprenticed to civil engineering under Sir Isambard Brunel. He had some experience on the goldfields of Australia before coming to Nelson in 1858 in the Marmora. He settled with his family at Motueka. He became a competent Maori scholar and as a surveyor made good use of native guides. While carrying out a contract for the Nelson government to make a survey on the West Coast he lost all his stores in the Buller, but managed to carry on for months, subsisting on what food the forest yielded. On this expedition Rochfort discovered coal seams at Mt Rochfort and traces of gold in the Buller. In 1859, with two men, he surveyed the Nelson-Canterbury boundary, passing down the Teremakau to Lake Brunner, and by the Arnold and Grey rivers to the coast and then to the mouth of the Buller. James and Alexander Mackay, crossing from Canterbury, met him at Lake Sumner (Mar 1860), and while travelling together Mackay saved Rochfort from drowning in fording a river.

According to Harrop it was Rochfort who first used the name 'Westland' (in 1859). In 1863 he accepted a position in Canterbury, and had charge of one of the parties sent out by the Canterbury provincial government to cut tracks on the West Coast. He reported on the Karamea pass. In 1864 he surveyed the coastline of south Westland. Rochfort laid off the town of Greymouth (Jul 1865). In 1869 he entered the service of the General Government. In 1872 he was engaged in laying off the Rimutaka line and in 1874-76 he was engineer to the Timaru and Gladstone board of works. In 1883 he commenced the first engineering reconnaissance of the North Island main trunk line, between Marton and Te Awamutu. In spite of much opposition from chiefs of the King party, he completed his task in 1884. He also made trial line surveys for the Wellington-Masterton railway, and constructed two large traffic bridges in the Waimarino. Rochfort's last years were devoted to surveys in Westland, mineral investigations in Nelson and projects in south Auckland. Physical attributes and an eye for physiography made him an ideal explorer. He died in 1894.

Nelson P.C. Proc.; Royal Geog. Society's Jour., v. 32; N.Z. Railways Magazine, Oct-Nov 1983 (p); N.Z. Soc. Civ. Engineers, Proc., 1922-23; Hindmarsh; J. Rochfort, The Adventures of a Surveyor (1853); Reid; Harrop; Dobson; Jourdain; Nelson Examiner, 24 Aug 1859; Westport Times and Star, 28 Dec 1926; Wellington Independent, 27 Jan 1860.

Reference: Volume 2, page 128

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