One way to look at the history of an area is to regard it as interaction between the environment (climate, geology, flora, fauna etc.) and settlement by different peoples.
Māori settled the East Coast Bays for hundreds of years and it is only from the 1850s that Pakeha began to settle in that area. The coal deposits noted by John Logan Campbell in Browns Bay were insufficient for mining and apart from some farming and gum digging in the bays, it is really only from the end of the First World War that the bays were subdivided, even if only for providing holiday baches. By the end of the Second World War there was a large amount of permanent housing, greatly enhanced with the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959.
Writing in the 1950s and 1960s, local historian Jim McKay recalls: “In the early days the country from Castor Bay to Okura River was thickly populated with Māori. All the high points and other strategic places were strongly fortified with deep trenches and strong points, look outs and so on. The remains of many of these fortifications remain to this day and heaps of old pipi shells mark Maori favoured feeding spots. The banks of the Okura River were favourite camping grounds for the Māori since the river gave safe shelter to their canoes and there was always good fishing and an abundance of pipis and cockles in that area…the land was covered with ti-tree except along the seafront, from Hauraki Road [in Takapuna] to Okura where grew considerable areas of flax and native rat-tail grass. This was another asset for the Māori who hand wove clothing, kits, fishing lines, etc.
…from reports, our North Shore to Okura Maori were attacked by Northern tribes, and fights took place; one force landed and attacked Milford [likely the Rahopara pa], and many were killed. It was the custom to bury the dead in the sandhills, and of late years [the earlier part of the twentieth century] several skeletons were unearthed there and at the Okura…
[In the latter part of the nineteenth century], when there was a feast at Orakei, boatloads of Māori came from Whangaparaoa to Browns Bay - it seemed to be a half way resting place and camped on the flat spot at the beach end of Browns Bay Road. Mr [Peter] Brown [the owner of Browns Bay] never antagonised the Māori, and was friendly towards all. So, they fished, gathered mussels, …etc, and cooked them in their steam ovens. They also had dried shark, which had an offensive odour. They packed the food into their boats and then onto Orakei… A pa [more likely a kainga or unfortified village] was situated on the hillside in Glencoe Road, and they made a garden in part of the paddock which was allowed to them. They fenced it and grew melons, potatoes (riwai) and kumara".
Māori settlement is also uncovered by archaeology. The chapter on Māori history in ‘and then came the bridge; a history of Long Bay and Torbay, compiled by Marie Gray and Jennifer Sturm’ (2007) describes various archaeological discoveries in the Long Bay and Torbay area, with Māori settlement in that area dating back to the mid-fifteenth century.
There has also been extensive archaeological work on the Rahopara pa site in Castor Bay. Māori settlement there dates back to a similar period and the site is now an historic reserve. Other parts of the North Shore also show evidence of long-term Māori settlement, including shell middens (historic rubbish heaps), adzes, hangi stones, terracing and pā sites.
By David Verran
