AUCKLAND WATERFRONT

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 80, 6 April 1926, Page 6

AUCKLAND WATERFRONT

A CHANGED TOPOGRAPHY.

ALONG THE EASTERN SHORE,

REMINISCENCES OF OTHER DAYS.

Purely utilitarian is the railway embankment which is steadily lengthening from the city round the eastern waterfront in the direction of Orakei. It is not a thing of beauty, although a necessity in these days of congested traffic and the rapid development of a province, and it has assisted to change the topography of the area which it bounds, likewise mar the appearance of several harbour indentations, which to old Aucklanders were regarded with pride on account of their pictresqueness and beautiful little beaches. Yet railway development has merely played one part in the metamorphosis of the eastern waterfront, for nearer the city commercial needs have resulted in a transformation scene, and where placid tides once ebbed and flowed there is reclaimed land and modern buildings.

The earliest Aucklanders were familiar with a waterfront where Fort Street now is, and could recall seeing Maori canoes moored near the site of the present Parnell railway bridge. That much is of interest, as it was in those days that the metamorphosis of the eastern waterfront commenced, and it has gone steadily on.

Passing of the Bays. Mechanics' Bay is a more recent memory —a land-locked sheet of water at high tide and holding-place of big rafts of timber; at low water a dreary expanse of mud flats and derelict hulks, for the bay was Auckland's "Rotten Row" for a long period. From the rock retaining wall at the western end a small wharf jutted out. This was one of the landmarks of early Auckland, for the Wynyard Pier was the recognised point of embarkation when the majority of Auckland's white-winged yachting fleet moored in the offing, although in latter Years it became a rendezvous of the fishing craft, and the structure was often festooned with the brown nets hung out to dry. ' Further to the east was St. George's Bay, now merely a name, but once a real bay of sandy beaches, where the young Parnellites of the period spent halcyon day 3. With the spread of the city east in the past 30 years. Mechanics' Bay and St. George'e Bay have metamorphosed into places merely adjacent to the harbour, and now Judge's Bay and Hobson Bay are being threatened with at least partial extinction.

Historic Bathing Spot.

Part of the new railway scheme has been to sheer off the end of Campbell's Point, a bold headland and vantage spot esteemed by the many in bygone years to view the manifold aquatic attractions on the harbour. The work of demolition has removed a historic bathing spot nearby. This was locally known as "Parkety," a shelf of rock like a table at the Dase of the cliff, and at high tide m approachable only from the land side by a ssnii-vertical track on the cliff-face with. precarious handholds on the papa at intervals.

Even in those far-off days there were some bathing restrictions in the matter of suitable garb for the briny, and although, the official edict required little more than the equivalent of a loin cloth, the youthful Parnellite of then thought that compliance with authority was infra dig., and accordingly bathed as Psyche is reputed to have done. "Parkety" was both a bather's Mecca and a stronghold, albeit a source of worry to a suburban constable who had the morals of that section of the waterfront in his charge. Being wise in his generation, he did not essay the perilous path that led to "Parkety," and thus Ms opinions—and blessings—showered from the heights above, were lightly disregarded. To-day "Parkety" is but a memory of other days. It has paid the price of utilitarianism.

Fate of Judge's Bay. The fate of Judge's Bay hange in the balance. It has already been marred from the aesthetic viewpoint, for even a tidal lagoon can never be full recompense for the most beautiful harbour indentation close to the city, a bay of wondrous beauty when sunlit water lapped right up to the foot of pohutu-kawa-fringed cliffs.

The new railway embankment Is also a girdle for the major portion of Hobson Bay, a wide expanse of unpicturesque mud flats except when the tide was sufficiently in to give it a temporary marine aspect. Not many regrets will be spared for the transformation of this part of Auckland's foreshore. True, in past years it was a happy hunting ground on dark nights, when exuberant fishermen ventured forth with lamp and spear ill quest of flounders, and when Wilson's Beach, a scimitar of sand set on one of the minor headlands within the bay was, until Auckland's big sewer leading to the outfall at Orakei overlapped ft, a quiet little haven much beloved by picnickers.