Symonds Street Cemetery

Symonds Street Cemetery D Key St Martins Lane Bishop Selwyn’sKarangahape RoadPath Walkway Waiparuru Nature Trail Symonds Street Trail guide for the lower Anglican and General sections, and the Informal route bush of Grafton Gully Bishop Selwyn’s Path Waiparuru Nature Trail E Hobson Walk C 1 Site in this trail guide 14 B Cemetery entrance B 13 Known grave Grafton Cycleway/ walkway Upper Queen Street 12 Grafton Bridge11 View of Grafton Gully with Symonds Street Cemetery on the left, c1840s. John Mitford, Alexander Turnbull Library, 10 Ref: E-216-f-041. 9 F Symonds Street A green heritage trail in the 8 15 central city This trail guide will help you explore the lower part of 7 the Anglican and General/Wesleyan sections of the Symonds Street Cemetery (yellow markers), and the Waiparuru Stream in Grafton Gully (green markers). To walk these trails will take about one hour. You can access these trails by extending Hobson’s Walk (the blue 6 markers, describedSo in a seperate Trail Guide), from either uth side of the Grafton Streete rBridgen or by starting from St m M a Martins Lane. o 16 e to r rw 1 t a S y u The lower paths are steep in places. Make sure you wear r u 2 r appropriate footwear. a p 3 5 ai There is also a trail guide for the Jewish, Presbyterian W and Catholic sections of the cemetery on the other side of Symonds Street – the Rose Trail. You can access more This trail starts at the information on our mobile app (see back page). far end of the Hobson Walk (blue markers). 4 S o u th e Alex Evans St rn M Symonds Street o to rw a y St Martins Lane Karangahape Road Symonds Street Upper Queen Street Grafton Bridge Symonds Street SoBishop Selwyn uth ern The upper contour walk (yellow markers) is named for George m M a o e Augustus Selwyn,to the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand, r rw t a 1 S who applied for land andy consecrated this cemetery in 1842. u r u r a As a young man, he was a strong swimmer and oarsman, 2 p ai representing Cambridge University in the inaugural Oxford– 3 5 W Cambridge boat race in 1829. The post of Bishop of New Zealand was first offered to his elder brother, who declined. A week later Selwyn himself accepted it. Selwyn arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on 30 May 1842 aboard the brig Bristolian. On arrival, Selwyn impressed local 4 Māori, he had started to learn their language on the voyage. View from above Grafton Gully showing graveyard and Government S He immediately took a six month tour of New Zealand, o House, Auckland. 1843. Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: E-216-f-111. u 2 Aussie import covering 3,700km, one third walking, the rest by ship, th e This impressive Illiwarra or Port Jackson Fig (Ficus rubiginosa) Alex Evanshorseback, St boat and waka. rn Mis probably 100 years old. It was certainly planted here, Early Māori use He became a competent sailor and in Symondshis small Street schooner, the possiblyo to mark a grave of a person with Australian Undine, he visited all of New Zealand, including the Chatham to Karangahape (The Call of Hape) is named for the Tainui connections.r Islands, and Ruapuke and Stewart Islands. “To see the Bishop w ancestor who stood on the ridge and called to his kinsmen on a handle a boat was almost enough to make a man a Christian,” Now thesey figs are regarded as a pest tree in Auckland. the beaches below as they arrived from Hawai’iki. Hape, also They are pollinated by a species of wasp, which has recently known as Rakataura, is a significant figure in the histories of a sailor once said. When he left Auckland in 1868, the streets were full of well-wishers, and a public holiday was declared. become established New Zealand, and can reproduce here many Auckland tribes. more easily – hence the concern about them spreading. The Symonds Street Cemetery is located in an area of intense He died at Lichfield in the UK on 11 April 1878. It is said that Māori occupation and use. Seasonal fishing villages at the base his last words were in Te Reo Māori, and that they meant 3 Katherine Blanch Daveney - typhoid victim of Queen Street and Grafton Gully allowed Ngāti Whatua, ‘It is all light’. Katherine Blanch Daveney’s distinctive church-shaped grave in Marahutu and Hauraki tribes to dominate the produce To start this trail, make your way along the Hobson Walk, to the Anglican section lies at the corner of the Hobson’s Walk, markets of early Auckland. These markets at Waipapa, now the place where the unformed track meets the walkway. the base of Constitution Hill, were a vital trading link for early where the paths turns down into the glade. Pākehā settlers to the area. 1 Leaning trees Her descendant Dr Roslyn De Avene provided these family notes: Māori walked up from the coastal villages and along Looking back along the paths you can see most of the trees Rangipuke (the Symonds Street ridge) to reach Maungawhau leaning down the slope. Trees have self seeded or been close “My great-grandmother, her husband Captain Burton John Pā (Mt Eden fortified village), or followed the westwards track planted and have grown at odd angles to avoid each others Daveney (of the military) and two little sons were on a along the Karangahape ridge on the long journey to Cornwallis canopies. The first oaks to be grown in the cemetery were shipwreck off the New Zealand coast in1868. My grandfather (also called Karangahape) near the mouth of the Manukau inter-planted with conifers to encourage them to grow was born the in 1869. Harbour. straight and tall. “Katherine in fact, was an The dense vegetation in Grafton Gully provided birds to These conifers were later aristocrat by birth – Lady preserve and eat, and supplied building materials. The removed. Some of the trees Katharine Blanch Springett freshwater streams, including the Waiparuru (Murky Waters) have massive branches out into – but her life followed no which flows at the base of the Cemetery on the eastern side, the canopy space. even course. After leaving provided a water source for drinking and washing. family in England, she and her Arborists regularly check Auckland Māori traditionally buried or interred their dead husband lost everything in the the health of the trees and shipwreck... after their own customs, often in volcanic caves, rather than in undertake pruning to prevent formal European-style cemeteries such as the Symonds Street. them become unbalanced and “Katherine died of typhoid fever Iwi throughout the region however now maintain urupā, prone to falling over. at the young age of 28 years on similar to European cemeteries, on their tribal lands. Many of the old oak trees are Dr Roslyn De Avene at her leaning. Some eventually fall over. great-grandmother’s grave. St Martins Lane Karangahape Road Symonds Street Upper Queen Street Grafton Bridge symmetrical elements, the picturesque style tends towards kererū, the New Zealand pigeon – meaning the Symonds ‘variety, movement, irregularity, intricacy and roughness.’ - Street Cemetery could become an inner-city Hussey, C, The Picturesque, 1967, Frank Cass Publishing Co. wildlife sanctuary. Symonds Street 8 ‘Naturalistic’ here means a mixed forest. Many of the indigenous trees here were also planted, by 6 Regeneration king volunteers from as early as 1876. The oldest pōhutukawa and pūriri trees are estimated to be at least 120 years old . Kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum) appears to dominate the 7 regenerating areas of the Grafton Gully bush. The holes in the An article in the New Zealand Herald, 20 August 1922 reported leaves are made by an inchworm called the kawakawa looper on “two beautiful pōhutukawa” being felled in the cemetery. – a species that appears to have immunity to the plant’s ability The report went on to defend other notable (and exotic) trees: to poison other pests. The fruits are a great snack for kererū “These oaks mean a great deal to those whose people lie and geckos. Leaves of this plant make a peppery tea. beneath them.” 6 So Take the left hand track from here, to skirt the base of the 7 Fungus farm uth ern graveyard. The lower trail heads down into the bush-clad gully. m M a o e to r rw t a S 5 Native bush in the city y u 1 r u r a This small urban forest has some botanical items of note. 2 p ai There are some of the biggest titoki and rewarewa to be 3 5 W found in Auckland city here. This secluded site is suited to titoki, which need well-drained soils and shelter from the wind. Rewarewa also prefer well-drained, friable soil – but will search for plenty of sunlight. Kohekohe trees in the gully show extensive possum damage 4 Stereum hirsutem. Trametes versicolor. Cylcomyces as the leaves are especially palatable to them. It is remarkable S tabacinus. o that these introduced wild pest animals are found in this urban u about 1 May 1874. “She was blessed to have a lovely grave, a There are three types of fungus that grow on oaks at the t h Selwyn Church design grave, no doubt a very expensive grave setting. There are old specimens of porokaiwhiri (pigeonwood) cemetery. They are not edible. The multiple small bracket/ e here. They are recognisable by their coppicing habit, which Alex Evans St rn in those days, and it has stood the test of time.

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