Around 1873 a wooden causeway was formed between what is now Seabreeze Road and Dacre Park, directly linking the Devonport peninsula with the road to the north. The “proposed new road between Devonport and Lake District” had been surveyed for the Flagstaff Highway Board around July 1872.

In November 1875, the Flagstaff Highway Board approached the neighbouring Lake Highway Board to share the cost of that causeway and the direct road between Devonport and Lake Pupuke. Unsuccessful in their approach, in August 1877 the Flagstaff Highway Board laid road metal on that part of Lake Road to the north of the causeway and in October 1879 what had become Old Lake Road was reformed and also metalled.
A son of Devonport Steam Ferry Company’s Alexander Alison (1846-1923), Alexander Edward Alison (1874-1955), wrote in his unpublished ‘The scrap book of a ferryman’: “In the year 1881 the Takapuna Racecourse was formed on what was up to this period really an arm of Shoal Bay (Ngataringa Bay) then a solid roadway was put across from the gasworks – previous to this about half the road was on a wooden structure on piles, the road had a drain with a door to prevent the water returning after the flow had gone out at low tide, and with extensive draining the land gradually dried up and the course was formed."
From 1885 the Auckland Harbour Board took responsibility for draining what was described at that time as a swamp, with the newly formed land to the east of Lake Road remaining under its control. Part of the reclaimed land to the south was leased from that Board by the Alison family for a racecourse. At that time, the Alisons were heavily involved with the Takapuna Jockey Club. From 1888, there was then a process of the Auckland Harbour Board transferring ownership of reclaimed Shoal Bay land to the Devonport Borough Council.
In February 1899, the surveying firm of J W Harrison and A L Foster published an official map of Devonport Borough which included the racecourse site (around Ariho Terrace and Empire Road and parts to the north of that), the Auckland Harbour Board Reserve to the north of the racecourse and the Devonport Borough Council Reserve (now Woodall Park) to the east. 
More recently the enlarged racecourse site became the golf course, while the trees and plaques along Devonport Memorial Drive, at the southern part of the link road, commemorate those who lost their lives during the Second World War.
Edward Alison’s ‘The scrap book of a ferryman’ is a really interesting source for researching the history of Devonport. The Auckland War Memorial Museum liibrary holds a microfilm dated 1966, which was donated by Alexander Godfrey Armitage, a doctor of medicine and a descendant of Jessie Patience Alison (a sister of Edward). On pages 49 to 204 of that microfilm is a 30,000-word handwritten transcription version of 'The scrap book of a ferryman', originally authored by Edward Alison likely around 1941.
There are references to photographs and even a drawing not included in the microfilmed version and there are also one or two gaps where the transcriber appeared not to be able to read a particular word in the text. Also, both Edward’s obituary and date of death are included at the end. My attempts to locate the original scrapbook have not been successful. The Auckland War Memorial Museum offers an electronic copy of the microfilmed transcribed version of the scrapbook, upon request.

david.verran@xtra.co.nz