Browns Island (New Zealand)
| Browns Island, Motukorea | ||
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| Waters | Hauraki Gulf | |
| Geographical location | 36 ° 50 ′ S , 174 ° 54 ′ E | |
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| Highest elevation | 68 m | |
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Browns Island or Motukorea ( Māori "Oystercatcher Island " ) is a small island in New Zealand . Located in the Hauraki Gulf , north of Musick Point , it is one of the best preserved volcanoes in Auckland Volcanic Field . The 68 m high island is part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park .
history
Emergence
The exact time of the eruptions that led to the formation of the island is unknown. After centuries of human settlement, the island is largely free of natural bush, with the exception of remains on the northeastern cliffs, so that the volcanic subsoil is easily visible. The island consists of a cinder cone with a deep crater, a small remnant of a tuff ring in the form of cliffs on the northeast side and the upper part of lava flows , which then extended further, but are now covered by the sea in the lower part.
Settlement by the Māori
The history of the island before the arrival of the Europeans is hardly documented. Today's sources contain various theses on the origin of the rule of the Ngāti Tamaterā over the island and their right to sell the island in 1840, but few question them. Phillips mentions that the Tainui Waka canoe stopped at the island on the way from Wakatiwai on the Firth of Thames to Rangitoto Island , where it met the Arawa Waka canoe .
The mainland around the island came under the control of the Ngāti Paoa , the lands in the west belonged to the Ngāti Whātua , and the island itself was still controlled by the Ngāti Tamaterā . Why this was the case is controversial. Phillips puts forward the thesis that the island came to the Ngāti Tamaterā in return for support in the war , Monin, however, sees the settlement and sale of the island as evidence of a larger scale penetration of tribes from Hauraki into the inner part of the Hauraki Gulf .
Motukorea's location at the mouth of the Tamaki River was strategically important as it allowed control over the access with canoes upstream and the transfer points at Otahuhu and Karetu over to Manukau Harbor . Archaeological finds point to intensive settlement in pre-European times, there are indications of stone processing, seafaring, horticulture and unpaved and fortified settlements. Three locations of fortified settlements ( Pā ) were identified by Simmons . "Archaic" artifacts such as man-made moa bones, fishhooks cut from one piece, and off-island stones such as chert , basalt , argillite and obsidian , which are found on islands in the Hauraki Gulf and others Locations as far as the Coromandel Peninsula and Great Barrier Island .
Brown & Campbell
From 1820 Europeans including Richard Cruise, Samuel Marsden and John Butler visited the island, the latter two to trade with the Maori. Dumont D'Urville visited the island in 1827 and found it uninhabited, possibly as a result of the Musket Wars . Already abandoned by the Ngāti Tamaterā and at a considerable distance from their tribal area in Coromandel, Te Kanini of the Ngāti Tamaterā and the sub-chiefs Katikati and Ngatai were ready to sell the island when William Brown and John Logan Campbell showed buying interest on May 22, 1840 . Brown and Campbell settled on the west side of the island from August 13, 1840, making it one of the earliest European settlements in the Auckland area . They built a house out of Raupo and raised pigs. They planned to use the island as a base for establishing and supplying the city of Auckland as soon as land was available on the isthmus.
Not long after Brown and Campbell took up residence on the island, the chief of the Ngāti Whātua persuaded Apiha Te Kawau, Hobson, to choose Auckland as the new capital of the colony. A flagpole was erected on the summit and the island was claimed for the crown. After learning of this, Brown and Campbell returned to their island and asserted their right to the island. They were briefly successful, but in 1840 Governor Hobson refused to grant a Crown Grant (land title), which Brown had applied for in August 1840. The official reason was that the purchase by Brown and Campbell came after George Gipps banned direct land purchases from the Maori in 1840. That didn't change until FitzRoy became governor in 1843. This gave them a Crown Grant for the island on October 22, 1844 .
Campbell left the island in December 1840 to trade in the newly formed Auckland settlement. Brown stayed on the island until February of the following year to run the pig farm and probably also to represent her interests. In 1856 both men left the colony and appointed an administrator. Campbell eventually bought Brown's shares in their business, including Motukorea. For this he paid £ 40,000 in May 1873. Brown refused to return from Britain to regain control of his businesses. This transaction was made through William Baker, who appeared to act as an agent and owned Brown's shares for 2 days before executing the transaction. In 1877 Campbell wanted to grow olive trees on Motukorea, 5000 seedlings were raised in a tree nursery on One Tree Hill , but were never planted on the island. Campbell sold the island in 1879 to the Featherstone family, who built a larger house on the northeast side. This burned down in 1915. and was still seen as a ruin in the 1960s.
Devonport Steam Ferry Company
In 1906 the island was sold to the Alison family, who ran the Devonport Steam Ferry Company . During their ownership, the hulls of several paddle steamers on the coast were abandoned. Browns Island is also important in aviation history: the Barnard brothers from Auckland undertook what were probably New Zealand's first gliding flights on the upper slopes of the volcanic cone in 1909. A survey plan from 1922 shows a house on the northwest level, probably a replacement for the house that burned down in 1915.
Public property
The Auckland Metropolitan Drainage Board bought the island in 1946 and planned to build a sewage treatment plant. The resulting controversy forced the plan to be abandoned. The island was bought by Ernest Davis , who gifted it to the Auckland residents in July 1955. Ernest Davis was chairman of the Devonport Steam Ferry Company for 20 years , which explains his connection with the island. The Auckland City Council administered the island until 1968 when it became part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park . Administration was given to the Department of Lands and Survey and in 1987 to the Department of Conservation . After the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park Board ended its work in July 1990, the Auckland City Council took over the administration again and then transferred it back to the Department of Conservation.
Access
As there is no ferry, private boats are the only way to get to the island. There is no jetty or other easy access for larger boats. Small boats usually land on the more sheltered north side of the island, where there is a 100 m long beach in front of steep cliffs. Navigation is difficult here because of a rocky reef that runs 70 m parallel to the coast. The reef is marked by a boat.
The interior of the island is accessed from there via a steep path to the small cape at the north end of the beach. In front of the flatter areas in the west there are mussel beds that extend up to 100 m into the sea, which severely obstruct access.
Others
There are remains of three fortified aboriginal settlements on the island, the largest of which on the slopes of the main cone.
The mineral motukoreaite was discovered on the island in 1977 and named after her.
literature
- L. Bercusson The Hauraki Gulf: From Bream Head to Cape Colville , Shoal Bay Press 1999
- L. Homer, P. Moore, L. Kermode: Lava and Strata: A guide to the volcanoes and rock formations of Auckland , Landscape Publications and the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (pp. 28-29) 2000.
Web links
- Historic Browns Island ( Motukorea ). Department of Conservation ,accessed February 10, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b F. L. Phillips: Nga Tohu a Tainu , Landmarks of Tainui : Historic Places of the Tainui People. Vol. 2. Tohu Publishers, Otorohanga 1989
- ↑ a b P. Monin: The Islands Lying Between Slipper Island in the South-East, Great Barrier Island in the North and Tiritiri – Matangi in the North-West , report on behalf of the Waitangi Tribunal 1996
- ^ C. Frederickson: Description of a lithic assemblage from Motukorea (Brown's Island). in: Archeology in New Zealand 34 (2): 91-104 1991
- ^ RA Cruise: Journal of a Ten Month's Residence in New Zealand. Longmans, London 1823
- ↑ JR Elder (Ed.): The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden 1765-1830. Otago University Council, Dunedin
- ^ O. Wright: New Zealand 1826-27. Wellington 1950
- ↑ a b c d J. L. Campbell: Poenamo: Sketches of the Early Days of New Zealand, Romance and Reality of Antipodean Life in the Infancy of a New Colony. Williams and Norgate, London 1881. pp. 229-253, 300-308
- ↑ Deeds CT 364/284
- ↑ a b R.CJ Stone: Young Logan Campbell. Auckland University Press, Auckland 1982.
- ^ V. Rickard: Motukorea Archaeological Survey. unpublished report from the Department of Lands and Survey, Auckland. Archaeological and Historical Reports No.11 1985.
- ↑ NAMaffey: Auckland Maritime Society Excursion to Brown's Iceland - 2 December 1972. manuscript in the Auckland Public Library. 1972
- ^ R. Brassey: Motukorea (Browns Island) , unpublished manuscript from 1996.
- ↑ G. Bush: The Brown's Island Drainage Controversy. Dunmore Press, Palmerston North
- ↑ Graham WA Bush : Davis, Ernest Hyam . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Volume III . Auckland University Press , Auckland 1996 (English, online [accessed September 12, 2018]).
- ↑ NZ Gazette 20/6/1968 No. 38 p. 1035.
- ↑ Motukoreaite . Mindat. Retrieved June 6, 2012.