The Auckland Waterfront Heritage Study PREPARED FOR Waterfront Auckland 11045 | October 2011 CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 HERITAGE STUDY 3 APPENDICES 19 1 Chronology 19 2 Bibliography 40 3 Maps and Plans 46 4 Auckland Waterfront Plans 50 - Maori Cultural Landscape - European Cultural Landscape – Eastern Waterfront - European Cultural Landscape – Central Business District - European Cultural Landscape – Western Waterfront - Port Development 5 Historic Images 56 Introduction Waterfront Auckland (An Auckland Council Organisation) has commissioned Salmond Reed Architects (SRA) to undertake research as the foundation for a heritage trail within their administrative area. This area extends from Teal Park in the east to Point Erin Park in the west and is bounded by Tamaki Drive, The Strand, Parnell Rise, Beach Road, Customs Street, Fanshawe Street, Halsey Street, Victoria Street West, Beaumont Street, State Highway 1, Sarsfield Street and Curran Street, Herne Bay. (as illustrated below) A number of heritage walks have already been produced by the former Auckland City Council, including walks for Ponsonby, Downtown, Midtown, Uptown, Original Foreshore, Princes Street University Quarter. In addition, a University heritage trail was produced by the University of Auckland Business School. It is anticipated that this report will form the basis of a waterfront heritage trail publication in the same hand-held format used for the existing walks. The study sits within a broader framework established by the former Auckland City Council before the Supercity amalgamation of 2010. Its publication: The Historic Landscape, Guidelines to a New Approach, outlines a methodology based on emerging national and international best practice to consider a holistic landscape view of heritage, rather than the current segmented and discipline-based view of individual heritage resources, which groups them into categories such as geology, archaeological sites, sites of significance to Maori, trees, ecological sites and buildings and structures. It acknowledges that heritage is a succession of closely inter- related layers and the approach is „…a tool to identify, assess and manage heritage resources and the inter-relationship of these resources across a range of heritage disciplines….‟ Following this policy approach Council devised a number of heritage themes or layers in the landscape: Linkages: restoring our natural connections Land and Water: forming and framing Ecotopes: representative and indigenous ecosystems Our Special Places: connecting our historic heritage Settlement of Auckland post 1840 Governance in Central Auckland Development and Growth of Central Auckland WATERFRONT AUCKLAND : A Heritage Study | 1 which were researched, mapped and presented in the Heritage Themes Mapping Auckland Central Area document. This was used as a reference source for this study; a heritage walk touches many of the themes articulated. Methodology This waterfront study was undertaken in a number of stages. Background work consisted of a chronology of development distilled from a number of sources outlined in the bibliography, and from early maps and photographs. A list was compiled of all known heritage resources including the heritage schedules of the Auckland City Council District Plan, both the Central Area and Isthmus sections, since the Waterfront Auckland area straddles both of them. The schedules included geological features, archaeological sites, Maori heritage sites, ecological sites, trees and buildings and objects. The New Zealand Historic Places Trust register was also consulted for archaeological sites, wahi tapu, buildings and areas. In many cases heritage items are both Council scheduled and NZHPT registered. This list of known places was expanded and augmented with many additional sites which came to light during the background study. The study was undertaken in several parts; Assemble and review existing information including material from SRA archives, maps and historic photographs from Auckland City Library and other sources. List and map scheduled and registered sites, buildings and areas. Prepare a chronology of development and important events. Prepare a bibliography of references, maps, plans and aerial photographs (see Appendices). Each of the bays and headlands in the Waterfront Auckland area was considered in turn, like beads on a thread, starting with Teal Park and moving westward to Point Erin. Acknowledgements Salmond Reed Architects wishes to acknowledge the assistance of historian, Kate Hill, in compiling the chronology of development, the bibliography and maps and plans. Also acknowledged is the assistance of Waterfront Auckland in preparing the mapping work. WATERFRONT AUCKLAND : A Heritage Study | 2 Heritage Study Area Auckland NZHPT Council TAMAKI MAKAU RAU The Auckland City topography is composed of an alternating sequence of bays divided by coastal headlands or points which were used by Maori as pa. The bays provided food and abundant cockles were to be found at Waiatarau / Waikokota (Freeman‟s Bay) with flounder and pipi at Horotiu (Commercial Bay). The Maori name for the Auckland isthmus was Tamaki makau rau, „The Bride sought by a hundred suitors‟. The land was highly valued and many battles were fought for supremacy. It had many settlement sites, including the fortified volcanic cones, and „…supported one of the most concentrated Maori populations in New Zealand‟. It is estimated, for example, that Maungakiekie (One Tree Hill) housed over 3000 people. (Auckland‟s Historical Background, Auckland City Council November 1976) The Waitemata and Manukau harbours contained extensive shellfish beds and birds, while the fertile soils of the volcanic field cropped well. The harbours, with their various portages, were the centre of an extensive water-based transport network. Natural watercourses were found in the valleys that separated the north / south oriented ridges and these too provided food. The Waihorotiu stream which ran down Queen Street was observed by early settlers to contain eel and native trout. This stream which later became the Ligar canal, was bricked in from the 1880s and now lies beneath Queen Street. Auckland‟s volcanic origins provide a permeable substrate of scoria and rock and underlying aquifers which fed a number of springs which bubbled to the surface and became streams. These were used by Maori and later by the colonists for drinking water and to irrigate their crops and gardens. The spring from the Domain was used by the Low and Motions mill and Robertson‟s rope factory in Mechanics Bay. On their arrival in the 1840s, the colonists found that the pa sites had been vacated and that the area was mostly covered in fern scrub and manuka. This natural landscape is now hugely modified, the points cut down, the bays infilled to provide wharves, the streams piped underground and the fledgling city developed to become New Zealand‟s largest city. JUDGES BAY / TAURARUA Teal Park Mechanics Bay Mechanics Bay was the Flying Boat base from the late 1930s - 1960s. Pan American World Airways and Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) flew to the Pacific Coral Route, USA, and Australia from here. Teal‟s solent–class flying boats, introduced in 1949, were the last trans Tasman aircraft to fly from the bay. Teal Park and Solent Street take their names from the early aviation industry established here. The Ports of Auckland Building (Sunderland Street)was formerly the engineering building for TEAL and was converted to offices 1974. WATERFRONT AUCKLAND : A Heritage Study | 3 CAMPBELLS POINT Campbells Point was named after Sir John Logan Campbell. His house, Kilbryde, stood on the point until its demolition in 1924. The Parnell Rose Gardens and the Fred Ambler Lookout are located on what is left of that point. Trees along the former cliffline, including the cut back portion of the point, are included in a Cliffline Tree Amenity Area. This confers additional District Plan protection on trees, especially indigenous trees, including coastal pohutukawa. The point was cut down in the mid 1920s to enable Tamaki drive to be formed, Gladstone Road to connect with The Strand and the Britomart to Westfield railway line to be constructed. This was the last passenger line to be built in Auckland, providing an alternative access to Auckland and passenger services to the eastern suburbs. ST GEORGES BAY – TE WAI O TAIKEHU Taikehu, ancestor for the ancient Ngai Tai tribe, arrived aboard the famed Tainui waka, naming a number of places in the region including the three peaks of Rangitoto, Nga Tuaira a Taikehu, the „dorsal fins of Taikehu‟ Initially named Coppers Bay after George Copper, the first Colonial Treasurer, then George‟s Bay and finally St George‟s Bay, St George‟s Bay Road originally ran into the bay and provided access to the water. Before reclamation of the bay in the early 1920s, boatsheds were found on the eastern (Campbells Point) side. The Strand Railway Overbridge, interwar reinforced concrete 1927. Former New Zealand Loan and Mercantile wool store, 124 The Cat B N / A Strand, Parnell, corner St Georges Bay Road. Now the Saatchi and Saatchi Building. ST BARNABAS POINT Originally named Point Dunlop after a British Naval Commander, it was later called St Barnabas Point after the Anglican Church constructed there in 1849 to the design of Frederick Thatcher. This church, originally intended for the Maori traders in Mechanics Bay, also served as a church for Parnell parishioners. However in 1877 when the point was cut back, it was moved by bullock wagon to the corner of Bellevue and Mt Eden Roads. MECHANICS BAY – TE TOANGAROA The Maori name for this bay, Te Toangaroa, „the dragging of waka a long distance‟ refers to the long haul required to drag waka to the beach at Beach Road and float them, if the tide was missed at Mechanics Bay. Early settlers depended greatly on produce grown by Maori which was often transported some distance from the Hauraki and Waikato areas to Te Toangaroa where the Waka Reserve and Waipapa Hostel at the foot of Constitution Hill stood. This hostel, built by Ngati Whatua for Maori traders, provided a gathering space for them as they bought their goods to the Auckland market.