Wellington Harbor

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Wellington Harbor
( Port Nicholson )
Māori: Te Whanganui-a-Tara
Geographical location
Wellington Harbor (Port Nicholson) (New Zealand)
Wellington Harbor (Port Nicholson)
Coordinates 41 ° 16 ′  S , 174 ° 51 ′  E Coordinates: 41 ° 16 ′  S , 174 ° 51 ′  E
Region ISO NZ-WGN
country New Zealand
region Wellington
Sea access Cook Strait
Data on the natural harbor
Port entrance 1 500 m wide
length around 12.0 km
width Max. 10.1 km
surface around 78 km 2
Coastline around 50 km
Water depth Max. 28 m
Catchment area 725 km 2
places Wellington , Hutt City
Tributaries Hutt River and numerous small streams (brooks)
Islands Matiu / Somes Island , Mokopuna Island , Mākaro / Ward Island , Barret Reef
Industrial port CentrePort Wellington
Marina Wellington : Chaffers Marina, Port Nicholson Marina, Evans Bay Marina ,
Hutt City : Seaview Marina
Jetty Petone Threw
Ferry dock Wellington Terminal : Bluebridge , Interislander
Photography of the natural harbor
Wellington Harbor, New Zealand, Nov. 2009.jpg
Aerial view of Wellington Harbor from 2009, in front Wellington with the airport, in the background Hutt City
Eastern bank with a view of Hutt City

Wellington Harbor is a natural harbor in the Wellington Harbor region ofthe North Island of New Zealand .

Origin of name

The natural harbor was renamed Wellington Harbor in 1984 . Before that, European settlers only knew the waters under the name of Port Nicholson , for whose name, according to one version of the story, the leader of the expedition of the first New Zealand Company to New Zealand, James Herd , was responsible. When Herd first entered the natural harbor with his ship in 1826, he is said to have given this name. Another version gives Captain Barnett as the originator of the name Port Nicholson . There is also evidence that he entered the harbor with his ship, the Lambton , in 1826 , made a map of the water with depth information and is said to have named the water after the harbor master of Sydney , Captain John Nicholson .

The local Māori named the natural harbor Te Whanganui-a-Tara (The great harbor of Tara ), who was an ancestor of their tribe.

geography

The 78 km 2 large Wellington Harbor is located on the south end of the North Island of New Zealand, between the cities of Wellington in the southwest and west, Hutt City in the north and the mountain range of Remutaka Range on the east side of the water. To the south, the natural harbor opens up via an approximately 1.5 km wide access to Cook Strait between Hinds Point on the east side and Point Dorset on the west side. With a length of around 12 km and a maximum width of 10.1 km, the coastline of the body of water extends over around 50 km.

While the coastline of Wellington Harbor runs straight in the west and north, the southern part is characterized by the two large bays Lambton Harbor and Evans Bay . The east bank, provided with small shallow bays, runs on a line in a south-south-west direction to the port entrance.

The only significant tributary to the natural harbor is the Hutt River , whose estuary is in the northeastern part of the harbor. All other tributaries around Wellington Harbor are categorized as streams . All together drain an area of ​​725 km 2 .

In the middle of the natural harbor are the two islands Mokopuna Island and Matiu / Somes Island , the latter being by far the larger of the two with a length of 1.1 km and a width of 0.53 km. Mākaro / Ward Island is about 3.5 km further south and the almost 1 km long Barret Reef is in the port entrance, 1.1 km east of Palmer Head and the Gibraltar Rock .

geology

Wellington and the western part of Wellington Harbor sit on the Wellington Fault , a tectonic fault that runs southwest to northeast and is part of the plate displacement between the Australian and Pacific plates . The plates move against each other at a speed of around 3.5 cm per year.

Another fault that significantly determines the geology and topology of the natural harbor and its surroundings is the Wairarapa Fault , which runs approximately 17 km to the east almost parallel to the Wellington Fault . The fault became known through the earthquakes in 1855 and the two earthquakes in 1942 . The earthquake in 1855 demonstrably changed the soil and the bank landscape of the natural harbor considerably. An elevation of the landscape of up to 6.4 m is documented. The result was a reduction in the port area. For example, the shoreline shifted around 300 meters eastwards at the level of the pier at Lambton Quay .

Māori tradition speaks of the fact that Wellington Harbor originally had two port entrances. The Te Motu Kairangi / Miramar Peninsula is said to have been an island in the past and an earthquake in the 15th century connected the passage, known by the Māori Haowhenua , to the island with the western mainland by raising the ground. Today Wellington Airport is located on the newly reclaimed land .

history

At the beginning of 1840 the first settlers, recruited by the New Zealand Company , came to the area of ​​what is now Wellington and initially anchored their ships in Petone Bay , at the northern end of Port Nicholson , now known as Wellington Harbor . But the anchorages were in the shallow water area, and the settlement area of Petone was in swampy terrain, which could also be quickly flooded. So the settlers looked for more suitable places and in April 1840 they moved to what is now Lambton Harbor . The water was deeper there and the anchorages were better protected from the winds. In 1865 Wellington became the official headquarters of the fledgling New Zealand colony. As the port on Lambton Quay developed, so did the city. The Lambton Harbor was a long time trading center for goods of all kinds and ferry terminal for the ferry to Picton on the South Island of the country. With the conversion of goods transport to containers in the 1970s, the goods handling points moved a little further north of Lambton Harbor , where more space was available for the development of an industrial port.

1877 was the north Wellington Harbor the Hutt County established that at that time the two settlements of Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt included. In 1891 Lower Hutt got the status of a borough and in 1941 that of a city . In 1989 the places Petone , Wainuiomata and Eastbourne were incorporated into Lower Hutt . Upper Hutt got its own city council in 1908, became a borough in February 1926 and a city in 1966 .

Port use

Due to its geological structure and its sometimes adverse weather conditions, the few beaches, which are almost exclusively on the eastern shores of the natural harbor, are rarely used for swimming or water sports. The four marinas, three in Wellington and one in Hutt City , allow sailing trips in the port area.

CentrePort

The commercial part of the harbor in the southwest of the natural harbor is of great importance for Wellington and the region. This is where the port operator CentrePort Wellington handles the handling of sea freight for the entire region. Furthermore, the operator is responsible for port security, safe ferry operations and the handling of cruise ships. The importance of the port for the economy of the country as a whole is shown by the fact that the port industry accounted for 25.8% of the country's gross domestic product in 2017 . 1.4 million passengers were handled and goods worth NZ $ 22 billion were  handled.

Ferry service

With the two ferry companies Interislander and Blue Bridge, there are two operators of ferry connections between the port of Wellington on the North Island and that of Picton on the South Island. The ferries, which serve the 92 km long route with a journey time of around three hours several times a day, not only handle passenger and vehicle transport, but also all general cargo traffic between the islands.

There is also a daily passenger ferry service between Wellington , the districts of Petone and Eastbourne from Hutt City and the island of Matiu / Somes Island , which is operated by the company EastbyWest .

See also

literature

  • JW Brodie : A note on tidal circulation in Port Nicholson, New Zealand . In: New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics . Vol. 1 No. 4 , 1958, ISSN  0028-8306 , p. 684–702 , doi : 10.1080 / 00288306.1958.10423176 (English, online [PDF; 4.2 MB ; accessed on January 30, 2018]).
  • Brian Hooker : Finding Port Nicholson: A new Look at European Discovery and Naming Claims . In: The Mariners's Mirror . Vol. 79, No. 2 (May) , 1993, ISSN  0025-3359 , pp. 179–191 (English, online [PDF; accessed January 30, 2018]).
  • DW Rodgers, TA Little : World's largest coseismic strike-slip offset: The 1855 rupture of the Wairarapa Fault, New Zealand, and implications for displacement / length scaling of continental earthquakes . In: Journal of Geophysical Research . Vol. 111, B12408, 2006 (English, online [accessed January 30, 2018]).
  • CentrePort Wellington (Ed.): CentrePort Wellington - Annual Report 2017 . 2017 (English, online [PDF; 4.9 MB ; accessed on January 30, 2018]).

Web links

Commons : Wellington Harbor  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Homepage . Wellington City Council,accessed January 30, 2018.
  • Homepage . Hutt City Council,accessed January 30, 2018.
  • Homepage . Greater Wellington Regional Council,accessed January 30, 2018.
  • Homepage . CentrePort Wellington,accessed January 30, 2018.
  • Homepage . Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency,accessed January 30, 2018.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hooker : Finding Port Nicholson: ... . In: The Mariners's Mirror . 1993, p.  179 .
  2. ↑ Lionel Carter : Port Nicholson (Wellington Harbor) . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , June 12, 2006, accessed January 30, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Darren Reid : Muaūpoko - Early history . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , February 10, 2015, accessed January 30, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Brodie : A note on tidal circulation in Port Nicholson, New Zealand . In: New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics . 1958, p.  685 .
  5. ↑ a b c Topo250 maps . Land Information New Zealand , accessed January 30, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Coordinates and length determinations were partly made via Google Earth Version 7.1.8.3036 on January 30, 2018.
  7. ^ Wellington Fault . GNS Science , accessed January 30, 2018 .
  8. ^ Wellington's Shaky Foundations . GNS Science , accessed January 30, 2018 .
  9. ↑ How often do earthquakes occur along the fault? . GNS Science , accessed January 30, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Rodgers, Little : World's largest coseismic strike-slip offset: ... . In: Journal of Geophysical Research . 2006, p.  2 .
  11. ↑ Eileen McSaveney : Historic earthquakes - Wellington Harbor (Port Nicholson) and City . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , March 28, 2011, accessed January 30, 2018 .
  12. ^ Maritime Heritage Trail . (PDF 977 kB) Wellington City Council , accessed January 30, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Chris Maclean : Lambton Harbor . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , March 1, 2016, accessed January 30, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Our History . Hutt City Council , accessed January 30, 2018 .
  15. ^ Early Upper Hutt . Upper Hutt City Council , accessed July 4, 2016 .
  16. ↑ CentrePort Wellington - Annual Report 2017 . 2017, p.  9 .
  17. ↑ CentrePort Wellington - Annual Report 2017 . 2017, p.  8 .
  18. ^ The Cook Strait Ferry Journey . Kiwi Rail , accessed January 30, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Homepage . EastbyWest , accessed January 30, 2018 .