Northcote, Auckland
Northcote is a suburb of Auckland in northern New Zealand. It is situated on the North Shore, on the northern shores of Waitematā Harbour, northwest of the Auckland City Centre. The suburb includes the peninsula of Northcote Point where the northern approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge are located, and Northcote Central, the commercial centre of Northcote. Northcote features two volcanic maars.
Northcote was settled by Tāmaki Māori in the 13th and 14th centuries, and Te Onewa Pā was constructed as a headland pā to protect the wider communities. Europeans settled Northcote in the 1840s, and a community developed around the ferry terminal. Early industries included the brickworks, sulfur works and orchards, and by the 1880s Northcote beaches had become local attractions. By 1908, the area had grown enough that Northcote became a borough. After the Auckland Harbour Bridge opened in 1959, Northcote Central rapidly developed, while Northcote Point became isolated.
Northcote Borough was merged into the North Shore City in 1989, which in turn merged into the Auckland "super city" in 2010. In the late 2010s and 2020s, Northcote began an urban regeneration and housing intensification project.
Etymology
Northcote is named after British Conservative politician Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, an idea put forward by resident Major Benton. The name that dates from 1880 when the post office and school committee decided to use the name. The first name used for the peninsula on European maps was Rough Point, named after Captain David Rough, first harbourmaster of Auckland, in 1841. In 1848 it was renamed Stokes Point, after Captain John Lort Stokes of the survey vessel HMS Acheron, who named the peninsula after himself due to another location named Rough Rock near Rangitoto Island. Stokes Point was the common name for the suburb until it was renamed in 1880. The name Stokes Point remains in use for the southern headland of the peninsula.Geology and natural history
The North Shore is primarily uplifted Waitemata Group sandstone, that was deposited on the sea floor during the Early Miocene, between 22 and 16 million years ago. There are two volcanic craters found on the eastern coastline of the suburb: Tank Farm, also known as Tuff Crater or Te Kōpua ō Matakamokamo, joined to the south by Onepoto. Onepoto and Tank Farm erupted an estimated 187,600 and 181,000 years ago respectively.Prior to human settlement, the inland North Shore was a mixed podocarp-broadleaf forest dominated by kauri. Pōhutukawa trees dominated the coastal margins of Birkenhead. Smiths Bush in the Onewa Domain is a remnant native forest, dominated by kahikatea and taraire trees.
Geography
Northcote is composed of two suburban areas: Northcote to the north, and Northcote Point, the peninsula south of Onewa Road. The suburb is bound by Ocean View Road and Northcote Road in the northwest, the Auckland Northern Motorway in the northeast, and Shoal Bay in the east.The highest point in the suburb is an hill to the west on Pupuke Road, referred informally by residents in the early 20th century as Clay Hill. The hill is the location of the Pupuke Road Reservoir and Pump Station. The southern headland of the Northcote Point peninsula is called Stokes Point.
Onepoto Stream flows east through the suburb from Birkenhead, entering Shoal Bay south of Onewa Road. Hillcrest Creek flows east through the north of Northcote, entering the Waitematā Harbour at Shoal Bay, east of the Auckland Northern Motorway. Until the 1970s, the upper reaches of the creek were primarily swampland. A traditional recorded name for Hillcrest Creek is Wakatatere "The Drifting Canoe", a name which recalls an incident where a tapu waka drifted into the stream at high tide. A tributary of Hillcrest Stream, Awataha Stream, flowed through Northcote Central until the 1950s, when the stream was undergrounded. In 2019, work began to daylight the stream.
Two beaches were formerly located in Northcote along the western shores of Shoal Bay: the City of Cork Beach and Sulphur Beach. These locations were reclaimed in the 1950s, and are now located beneath the Auckland Northern Motorway.
Little Shoal Bay is found to the west of Northcote Point, which is the location of Halls Beach.
History
Māori history
Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries. The Tainui migratory canoe visited Northcote, stopping at Ngā Huru-a-Taiki, a sacred tree on the cliffs south-east of Tank Farm. The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū, and many of the early Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as Ngā Oho. The Shoal Bay area was used to harvest shellfish, and the volcanic soil at Northcote allowed for kūmara cultivation.The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore. After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new hapū. His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is the namesake of the North Shore, Te Whenua Roa o Kahu. Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu.
Te Riri a Mataaho
Northcote is part of the setting of Te Riri a Mataaho, a Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki traditional story that describes the creation of the two volcanic craters of Northcote, Tank Farm and Onepoto, collectively called Ngā Kōpua Rua. Two tupua, Matakamokamo and his wife Matakerepo, lived on Te Rua Maunga, a mountain located at Lake Pupuke. The couple argued over some flax clothing that Matakerepo had made for her husband, and the argument became so heated that the fire outside their dwelling died out. Matakamokamo cursed Mahuika, Goddess of the Fire, for allowing this to happen. Mahuika was furious at the couple, and asked Mataaho to punish them. Mataaho destroyed their mountain home, and in its place left Pupuke Moana, while at the same time he formed the mountain Rangitoto. The couple fled to the newly formed island, where Mataaho formed three peaks on the mountain, so that the couple can view the ruins of their former home. Matakamokamo and Matakerepo later returned to the mainland, which led to Mataaho further punishing them. He turned the couple into stone and caused them to link beneath the earth, forming the two volcanic craters.Te Onewa Pā
Te Onewa Pā, also known as Whareroa, is a defensive pā that was located at the Stokes Point headland. The name Onewa refers to the ditch that separated the pā from the mainland, and is also the name of a dark grey stone tool used for digging trenches. The site has traditional importance to Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Te Kawerau ā Maki and Ngāti Paoa, and was located on the opposite shore to Point Erin, where a pā called Okā or Te Koraenga was located. Both pā sites were used as bases for summer fishing, especially shark fishing.Te Onewa Pā site was originally occupied by Tāmaki Māori who descended from the Tainui migratory waka and developed the tribal identity Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. It was prized for its strategic location and view over the Waitematā Harbour, and protected fisheries and kūmara gardens of the nearby volcanic soil. The pā was repeatedly attacked in the 17th and 18th centuries. Ngāti Paoa attacked and took ownership of Onewa, who in turn were attacked by Ngāti Whātua. After Ngāti Whātua's conflict with the Waiohua paramount chief Kiwi Tāmaki in the mid-18th century, Te Onewa Pā was occupied by the Ngāti Whātua chief Tarahawaiki.
During the early 1820s, most Māori of the North Shore fled for the Waikato or Northland due to the threat of war parties during the Musket Wars, and Te Onewa Pā was left unoccupied. Some members of Ngāi Tai returned to the Northcote area in the 1830s, led by Hetaraka Takapuna. The pā was occupied until the mid-1850s, and Hetaraka Takapuna's descendants lived on the shores of Tank Farm into the 1890s.
Early European settlement
The Northcote area was a part of the Mahurangi Block, an area purchased by the Crown on 13 April 1841. Land at Northcote Point was subdivided into eight lots in 1843. The Callan family settled in the same year, and Phillip Callan established a brickyard at Sulphur Beach. In the next few years, other settlers including James Kelly, William Nicholson, Patrick Heath moved to Northcote. While some settlers relocated from other parts of Auckland, many of the new settlers moved from Hokianga. The greater Northcote area was purchased by the New Zealand Company in 1844, intending to develop a colonial settlement. As there was little interest in the settlement, the individual land blocks were sold. From 1848, a soap and candle factory was established on Sulphur Beach, and other early industries included timber milling and kauri gum digging.In 1848, the Catholic Church purchased of land near Northcote, building St Mary's School and the Awataha Catholic Mission. Opening in 1851, the school taught Māori and Pākehā students from across the country.
In 1852, the Crown granted land at Barry's Point / Awataha to Ngāpuhi chief Eruera Maihi Patuone, in order to create a shield for the City of Auckland against potential invasion from Ngāpuhi and other northern tribes. Patuone's people lived in the area until the 1880s.
The Northcote ferry service began in 1854, run by James Reed. The regular ferry service led to the development of Northcote. In 1859, Philip Callan constructed the Northcote Tavern, likely using bricks from his Sulphur Beach brickworks. The hotel became an early focal point of the community, and led to Northcote becoming a gateway to the north. Many people would leave their horses at the tavern while visiting Auckland city. The first ferry service from Northcote Wharf began operating from May 1860. Three months later, St John's Anglican Church was established as the earliest church in Northcote, serving both the Northcote and Birkenhead areas. The church is the oldest currently existing building on the North Shore.
In 1878, Auckland Chemical Works was established at Northcote, on the beach next to the brickworks. The factory processed sulfur from Moutohora Island in the Bay of Plenty, but was unprofitable, as the amount of sulfur estimated to be on the island was overestimated.