Great Barrier Island History

" Environmental and social history of the island.

The History of Great Barrier Island

There are many vessels on the island, among them the Bark Stirlingshire. The Great Barrier Island was also the site of more than 30 wrecks, the most famous being the SS Wairarapa. An overview of Kaikoura Island - information about the Maori and the Egyptian population. ?Kaiaraara Kaiaraara Dam - Three embankments were constructed from the Kaiuri tree trunks over the upper reaches of the Kaiaraara stream, just below Mt Hirakimata.

New Zealand National Library (Alexander Turnbull Library). Saw mill and wharfage in Whangaparapara, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, around 1910: New Zealand National Library (Alexander Turnbull Library).

The History of Great Barrier Island

There are many vessels on the island, among them the Bark Stirlingshire. The Great Barrier Island was also the site of more than 30 wrecks, the most famous being the SS Wairarapa. An overview of Kaikoura Island - information about the Maori and the Egyptian population. ?Kaiaraara Kaiaraara Dam - Three embankments were constructed from the Kaiuri tree trunks over the upper reaches of the Kaiaraara stream, just below Mt Hirakimata.

New Zealand National Library (Alexander Turnbull Library). Saw mill and wharfage in Whangaparapara, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, around 1910: New Zealand National Library (Alexander Turnbull Library).

The History of Great Barrier Island

New Zealand National Library (Alexander Turnbull Library). Saw mill and wharfage in Whangaparapara, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, around 1910: New Zealand National Library (Alexander Turnbull Library). The Kaiaraara Cauri DamThree hydroelectric power plants were constructed from the cauri tree trunks over the upper reaches of the Kaiaraara stream, just below Mt Hirakimata.

Historical Great Barrier Island Aotea

The spectacular p? and other archeological places have survived all over the island and bear witness to its long history. At M?ori the island was called Aotea (white cloud). As Europeans came, they found a wealth of natural resource to use: cetaceans wandering along the coastline were chased for their flesh and oils; coppers, golds and silvers were extracted from the island's cliffs; the giant cowrie bushes that capped the island were cut down for its magnificent wood and then plundered for its precious rubber; other species of tree-hunter.

Remains of all these exploitative industry can be seen today, among them imposing wooden embankments that once served to push kaiuri boulders down the Kaiarara River. The Aotea is an important place in the history of tradition M?ori Ng?ti Rehua, Wai's Ng?ti Wai, who are living on the island today, can retrace their connection over many cultures.

The island's many archeological monuments, usually on the coast, bear witness to its long history. Copper mine's primary compartment is 75 meters long, 25 meters broad and 50 meters high. Also the wood processing industries caused great changes on the island. Some areas of the pristine cauri forests have been preserved, and much of the rest has now been restored and is publicly owned and preserved by the Department of Conservation.

Between 1976-1987, the NZ Forest Service replanted about 150,000 cauri seeds. The Kaiaraara embankment (the "Lower Cauri Dam") on the Kaiara stream below Hirakimata (Mt. Hobson) was one of the most famous historical symbols of the island. Constructed in 1926 by George Murray of the Cauri Time Company, its size is imposing (40 metres in width and 14 metres in height, one of the biggest of the approximately 3000 wooden embankments in New Zealand).

Lumberjacks constructed floating barrages to drift large amounts of cauri downriver. Constructed without the help of blueprints or technical computations, they formed a barrier against many tons of kuri and significant amounts of kai wood and were able to resist the combination power of these trunks when the embankment was triggered and the trunks were pushed down stream through the dock.

Kaiarara embankment was a guy known as the "rafter dam". Instead of having a massive door, it was constructed with vertical bulkheads - a design that is unparalleled in New Zealand. In 2014 the embankment was damaged in a windstorm, but the embankment's basis can still be seen in the brook on the Kaiaraweg.

A further memento of the timber felling era are the remnants of the Kauri Timber Company in Whangaparapara. It was once a very large saw mill processing wood from the Coromandel, Northland and the island by ship. You can also see the remnants of the last New Zealand based whale sanctuary in Whangaparapara.

Catching whales began in New Zealand in the 1790'. In 1839, the top year for whale hunting, with 150 US whalers and 50 from other countries in and around New Zealand. The decimation of cetacean populations and a more informed management of sea animals has resulted in a ban on fishing in New Zealand water.

Whangaparapara was only constructed in 1955 and was shut down in 1962. Harataonga homestead (around 1906), administered by the Department of Conservation but rented by private lease, is one of the few preserved early farmsteads on the island. There is a small graveyard near by, where members of the Alcock clan, one of the first settlers on the island, are inhumed.

A wealthy English family's dark-skinned Dr Hanson worked in the mine warehouse and is said to have been entombed above the Oreville stamp bank as his work colleagues drank away the cash his wife and daughter had sent for his funeral. Some of the vessels were destroyed on the jagged coast of Great Barrier.

Some 140 were submerged, making it one of the most devastating wrecks in New Zealand's seafaring history. Because of the remoteness of Great Barrier and the island's remoteness from the shore, it was hard to save the people. The majority of the bodies were returned to Auckland, but some of them are still on the island in two small graveyards, which can be seen in the historical reservations of Onepoto and Taupwij.