The Historic North Head of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour

Aug 20, 2011
Brian Cross

South Battery and Auckland Harbour - Photo by Brian Cross

Maunguika to the Maori, North Head stands guard over the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour, the ideal place to look out over New Zealand's largest city.

Take the short ferry ride from downtown Auckland and the 20 minute walk through picturesque Devonport, and you come to North Head Historic Reserve. Sitting where the City of Sails meets Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park, North Head is one of over 50 extinct volcanic cones that dot the landscape of the Auckland isthmus. The promontory's form and location have seen it play an important military role from the earliest times of human occupation.

Early Maori Occupation of North Head

For the first Polynesian migrants arriving in their ocean-going canoes, the narrow stretch of land they called Tamaki Makaurau was a transit point rather than a place of settlement. Before moving southward Maori tribe Tainui put a stake in the ground, when a tohunga (priest or scholar) named Taikehu ascended Maunguika and gave the hill its name.

By the time the Endeavour visited in 1769 - Captain Cook did not sail among the islands of the inner gulf but surmised correctly that sheltered waters lay beyond them - the Tainui tribe Ngati Paoa had moved in and taken possession of North Head. In the early 1790’s Ngati Paoa were defeated in battle by Ngati Whatua, who would establish themselves as tangata whenua of the isthmus. But with the enemy defeated Ngati Whatua had little use for North Head, and soon abandoned it as a pa site.

An Aid to Navigating Auckland Waters

The arrival of the Europeans would effectively obliterate the record of North Head’s Maori occupation. To the early settlers of Auckland, the promontory was the natural choice for a pilot station, the first of which was built in 1836. The service wasn’t always effective. On 8 October 1842 the Duchess of Argyle arrived from Glasgow, intending to be the first ship to land an organised party of immigrants at Auckland. After 16 weeks at sea the Duchess of Argyle ran aground below North Head in sight of dock. While her passengers waited for the incoming tide to float her off, the Jane Gifford sailed by to claim the distinction of first into port.

North Head's Important Military Role

There has been debate over exactly when the first gun emplacements went in at North Head. Certainly by 1870 the perceived need to protect Auckland had prompted the government to expand the its use to include military purposes. In the 1880’s tensions between Britain and Russia drove the government to strengthen its defences around the country, and three forts were established at North Head. Two were on the slopes - one looking north over the Rangitoto Channel, the other southward to guard the harbour entrance - and one was on the summit. The emplacements housed 8-inch 'disappearing' guns, which when fired would recoil into the concrete cover for rearming.

At this time construction began on North Head’s tunnels for use as storage and transport of armaments, as well as protection against attack. In 1885, the first barracks were built to house the Armed Constabulary.

As with the Russian scare, the First World War passed without the North Head guns being fired in anger. But North Head’s value as a coastal defence site was undiminished, and by World War Two the site was bristling with military fortifications. The forts were strengthened and modernised, and the barracks expanded in preparation for the latest potential threat facing Auckland from the sea. North Head overlooked the boom defence system that stretched across the Waitemata Harbour entrance, and the army store at Torpedo Bay.

North Head as a Place of Education and Recreation

Since the Second World War, North Head’s guns have been used on occasions for ceremonial purposes, such as in 1953 when a 21-gun salute to Queen Elizabeth II rang out from the South Battery. In 1972 North Head became a public reserve and was included in the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park.

Today many remnants of North Head’s military history remain, and considerable preservation has been conducted. An easy self-guided walk is clearly marked with signboards and educational aids along the way. Stop first at the Department of Conservation office at the top car park, and pick up the brochure that gives a grand overview of North Head’s history for reference along the route.

North Head is an important historic site that all Aucklanders should visit and whiich will be of interest to visitors from near and far. Not only that, but the views of Auckland, the Waitemata Harbour, Rangitoto Island and the inner Hauraki Gulf are spectacular.