Frederick Place

Frederick Place is a cul-de-sac in Whalers Gate, named to commemorate local identity Frederick John Cowling (1886-1955).

Fred Cowling was born in New Plymouth and educated at what was then known as Frankley Road School. He was 25 when he married Mary Eleanor Rielly in 1911 and the couple went on to have three children, two girls and a boy. The family moved to a farm on Wallath Road (later this part was renamed Roto Street) in 1921, where Fred would spend the rest of his life.

The house and section surrounding it would come to be a showcase for one of Fred’s passions, his love of history. Concrete ‘heads’ on fence posts, mill stones, a German mine and relics gathered from the Taranaki coastline led to the farm becoming known locally as ‘curiosity corner’. The most spectacular creation was Fred’s five-step miniature pyramid, decorated with pāua shells, stones, a carved lizard and a plaque with the date it was built in Roman numerals – MCMXLIII (1943).

The shoreline relics in Fred’s garden came mainly from the wreck of the Gairloch which ran aground on Timaru Reef in January 1903. After the ship’s cargo was successfully salvaged, Fred was permitted to scour the wreck for anything useful, of which there was plenty for such a curious young man. An annual pilgrimage to the wreck became a family tradition, continued even after his death. 

Fred’s other passion was a love of native trees, best demonstrated by the 2000 kauri trees planted on a two-and-a-half-hectare block on his farm, later gifted to the Crown and now part of Rotokare/Barrett Domain. Fred also planted a smaller grove of native trees below his house, naming the plantation ‘Mary Rielly’ after his wife.

Fred died suddenly in 1955 while on a stone scavenging trip in Whanganui. His wife Mary played an important part in organising a memorial to be erected outside Fred’s kauri plantation. The stone seat was officially unveiled on 13 February 1966 in front of a large crowd including the mayor, Alfred Honnor.

Hurdon Cemetery on Tukapa Street was Fred’s final resting place, in a family plot where Mary would join him after her own death in 1970. 

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.