RECLAIMED FORESHORE ITS EXTENT IN AUCKLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18707, 13 May 1924, Page 11

RECLAIMED FORESHORE ITS EXTENT IN AUCKLAND

v' : : . ' 1.1-v,;:.-.. ,-:-:; • • v* ' • HISTORY OF THE " MADE LAND." ' , - 4 START IN PROVINCIAL DAYS. '' - * / !"./ •' * • " . i■ 4 V;; ) " : ; ——— ■; RECOVERIES FROM HARBOUR - The extent to which the business portion of Auckland City has been formed by, re- • .' clamation from the harbour is \ probably.; realised by few people outside the rapidly diminishing number of pioneers who have seen the process of " making land" in actual operation.- Briefly, however, it may "j; be stated that all the blocks at tho eastern side of Queen Street, from Fort Street* :. outward, and, extending .as far east as Breakwater Road—which, by the way, was formed over Auckland's first, breakwater—have been recovered, from the sea; and so also was the section of the city ' between the King's Wharf and the rise to : Parnell, ' In the westerly direction the water's edge ran from Queen Street, along the foot of high cliffs, about the line of Customs and F&nshawe Streets, to the deep ■ indent known as Freeman's Bay, now Victoria Park, which has now four blocks.' of building sites between its present outer boundary and the harbour-front. Practically the whole of the are:; outside theso lines has been formed by tho enterprise of the Auckland Harbour Board., ; ; r ; Beginning of Reclamation. The very earliest reclamation work done on the shores of the Waitemata, according to the testimony of Mr. James Stichbury, - one of Auckland's oldest surviving citizens, ■ was the cutting down of tho lower : portion of Albert Street early in the "six- : ties." Originally, the street ran out to 'a bluff, and ended some 20ft. above its present'level. The old Foresters' Arms Hotel' building, which adjoins the warehouse of J. M. Mennie, Ltd., on the eastern side of the street, bears- evidence from the way in which tho bottom . . story, in brick, has been placed tinder the V original wooden portion—of the extent to which the lowering process was carried in that locality. From tho old Black Bull Hotel, which stood about where the Kemp - thorne-Prosser " warehouse now. is, and i down through the bluff that overlooked the old solid rock bath, Albert Street, was v graded -to the beach. 4 The work was done under the auspices of the then City Board, of which Mr. Thomas McCready—who was, owner of . the land on which the Star Hotel,. now .stands— then, chairman.; ; ; : • . From an early stage r in the infancy,'of/f; the city, ;the management of -the harbour . Iwas s vested in the Provincial •- Government, 1 which had its own staff of nautical officers. . 4 As:'regards reclamation, its - operations seem to • have .been ■ confined to the . for- ; mation, immediately eastward of : Point Britomart, of so much level land ,as was -' ; necessary for the original railway station, ; : . which stood close to Wynyard Pier, at the foot of what is now Short Street. Inside, the railway embankment, there was left a low-lying area, which had to be filled in :by ; the Harbour Board in later years. f Another early job was 'the formation by Mr. / Peter Grace, as \ sub-contractor under Brogden and, Co., the first' big railway constructors, ; of: the grade from the mouth j- " i of \ the Parnell tunnel to the. flat. *4 For this work Mr. Grace utilised the spoil that,,/, he threw out in the piercing of the tunnel \ Disappearance at.srliomart. When the Auckland Harbour Board took over the. administration of the port in' "> 1871, Messrs. Jones . and Ware i had lately | erected J for,the Provincial Council a high f > | : sea-wall ;in r connection-with the reclama- :K- ---| tion rat the Original ; railway station. The 1 r f. board continued the reclamation work, I ; • letting a contract to : Mr/.PjiefcerLanigan > - , for" the, fillin,s-in" between th« railway em- •; bankment and the Beach Road of to-day. i The next wo'k of importance, says Mr. E. | t W. Burgess—who, as chief t clerk of the • ; Harbour Board at the time and long $ afterwards, is a 'mine 3 of information on f. Juestions of the kind—was the cutting / own of St. Barnabas' Point, under Par- ; nell, at the far end :of Mechanics' Bay, ( which was done by : Messrs. Martin D;ina- ' , her and Pierce Lanigan; 1 - contractors. 1 » Next ; came the cutting away of Point ,< Britomart, the bold bluff which form ■4 ran out at the l foot of Princes I Street;;' at? I not a great deal less elevation than the 11, present Museum site, and had upon it tbe»K|; t first St. Paul's Church, the Br item art j- Barracks, arid r their old fortifications, and %f'i numbers of private properties. This "nose" | of the point projected into the harbour be- - * [ yond the line of Quay Street, about 'to tho \ farmers' of the pro-sent works in . j Farmers' Freezing Company, ending in i what old 'residents describe as" the ( same 1 k sort of slippery papa rock 1 that you find all -.' r; round the coast." In cutting down ; the !-- promontory, the , first stage was the carving of a gap r j through it, about the present position of ;- 'i Beach Road, leaving outside the line of 5 cleavage a large " island," which was if then gradually whittled away, and tho|s;; . inner side /carried back to Princes Street s with, eventually, the -batter' we know to- £ day in Emily Place. The contractors! who j carried out different parts of this exten--3 sive earthwork included Messjs. p. Fallon, . Allan Magcire, and Jones and Ware. 1 Harbour Board's Activities. 8 | From 1873 to 1877 the Harbour Board - \ was engaged in the construction of Cus- ; | toms Street East, for the support of which 'J- L 'I a stone wall was by Messrs. W. and '? ■; • G. Winatone; the block outside Customs || Street East, including.the sites of the pre- ! v :$ sent railway, station and Post Office, and . extending out to Fallon's Wall," on the outer side of Quay Street, was reclaimed ■ ' by Mr. Allan Maguire. In the same period- , the board had extensive works in progress west ;of Queen Street, including the re- || clamation of the block oh which its own , building, stands. Gradually, through the ;r "seventies" and "eighties," the beard . extended the westward j reclamation. _ The old Graving; Dock, quite lately/ filled up, e at the shore end of > the new Prince's v e Wharf, was also | built by Messrs. Jones .£< }'<< i.'nd Ware, and ; was in its day the" pride !;y s of Auckland. Of the old-time contractors,. ', most' have « long ago passed jto the Great = , 4 Beyond. One of the tew,' survivors is Mr.' R, Whits, of Wellington Street; who was : ' foreman at- the construction of the original„• Railway; (now King's) Wharf, and ~ after-' - 1 e; wards sub-contractor. under Mr. J. Derapi- sey for '.•reclamation works opposite * the ; »- foot of i Nelson Street, and again; contractor ~. for other reclamations,' extending from the. present Ferry Buildings site to the old £ dock. In later years-came the filling-in of, ' Freeman's Bay, to' form Victoria Park, and , the creation of another/.huge block opposite what*had been its mouth. An | important- part of the work this locality " s §1 was 1 the fformation of 1 " Julian's 'Wall'' | named, after its constructor—which marks ; IS the eastern line of this reclamation,;separd ating it from the basin opposite the saw1. mill sites. After this came other enorm-, eons ;f works i" opposite the L " abolished" ; > . Mechanics' Bay, out to the line of the i- King's Drive. The latter job was, to a - J large extent, done by arrangement. with i the Government, which wanted space for • ' t the enlargement its railway yards. | I " Evolution in Methods. .... .. i The primitive method of reclamation in\f s Auckland consisted in cutting down cliffs a and throwing them into the sea. • In courset - 3 ; of,; time, the Harbour Board's engineers i#rad6ptaiiithi:!« improved plan of i bringing in' silt from the floor.rv ;^ ,of the liar hour and depositing z it in i k wholesale quantities in the bays j and intakes The material recovered 'by } means of Priestman grab dredgers was, I ? from an early stage, utilised in this way a on a small scale by means of silt punts. 5 As ' regards :' the big bucket ': dredgers, howi' ever, the time 'is still within the memory 1 i of the majority of AucManders when it fc. was the practice ; for thereto steam out to i sea when full, anddeposit their loads I somewhere *in/HaurakiiGulfA,-IJnder£Mr»> : 1 ;? Hamer's engineership that w&3teful me-& thod has been discontinued. His practice L has been to have the di edging picked up 1 < . bv suction dredgers, and pumped to tho places where they mo required r ■'