Motukorea
Motukorea (Māori) | |
---|---|
Geography | |
Location | Hauraki Gulf |
Coordinates | 36°49′50″S 174°53′41″E / 36.8306°S 174.8948°E |
Highest elevation | 68 m (223 ft) |
Administration | |
New Zealand |
Motukorea or Browns Island is a small New Zealand island, in the
Geology
Motukorea erupted approximately 24,500 years ago.
After dry, fire-fountaining eruptions built the several scoria cones around the main crater, the sea rapidly eroded the tuff on the northern side of the island, and together with shell deposited the extensive flats on the south and west of the cone. A shallow reef extends 200m offshore.
During the
History
Maori occupation
The history of Motukorea prior to European arrival is not well documented, and while many of the sources available speculate as to the origins of Ngāti Tamaterā mana whenua and their right to sell the island in 1840, few dispute it. Phillips makes mention of the Tainui canoe stopping at the island after leaving Wakatiwai on the Firth of Thames, before proceeding to Rangitoto where she met up with the Arawa canoe.[5]
In the intervening years, the general area came to be controlled by
Motukorea's location at the mouth of the
Brown & Campbell
Starting from 1820, early European visitors included Richard Cruise,
Not long after Brown and Campbell had taken up residence on the island, Ngāti Whātua chief
Campbell left the island in December 1840 to set up a trading business in the newly established settlement of Auckland, The derelict house was still on the island until the 1960s.
Devonport Steam Ferry Company
In 1906 the island was sold to the Alison family who operated the Devonport Steam Ferry Company, and during their ownership the hulks of 4 coal powered low draught paddle steamers were abandoned on the low western end of the island.[21][22] Browns Island is also significant in aviation history, with the Barnard brothers of Auckland carrying out what may have been New Zealand's first glider flights from the upper slopes of the cone in June 1909.[23] In the 1920s the Devonport Steam Ferry Company regularly brought picnickers to the island landing them on a substantial wooden wharf about 120 ft long on the north side of the island.[24] A 1922 survey plan shows a cottage in on the north western flat presumably built to replace the one that was lost in 1915.
Public ownership
The Auckland Metropolitan Drainage Board purchased the island in 1946 proposing to build a sewage treatment plant. Controversy surrounding the proposal forced the plan to be abandoned and the island was eventually purchased by Sir Ernest Davis, who presented it as a gift to the people of Auckland in July 1955.[25] Ernest Davis had been the chairperson of the Devonport Steam Ferry Company for 20 years which may further explain some of his affinity with Browns Island.[26] The Auckland City Council administered the island until 1968 when it became part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park.[27] Management control was vested in the Department of Lands and Survey and in 1987 this was transferred to the Department of Conservation. After the demise of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park Board in July 1990, the Auckland City Council was again the designated administering body, and passed back the responsibility for management to the Department of Conservation.
In November 2018 a woman became stranded on the island. She was rescued after a fire she lit to attract attention started burning out of control.[28]
Features
Browns Island is part of the
The mineral motukoreaite was discovered in 1977 on the island and named for it.[29]
Other features include a collapsed Lava cave depression which can be seen on the northwestern flats of the island.
Access
The island is not served by ferries, so private boats and seaplanes are the only means of access.
There is no wharf or easy access to the island for larger vessels. For small craft the best landing is on the more sheltered northern side of the island where there is a 100 m (328 ft) long beach, backed by a steep cliff. Navigation is difficult as there is a 70 m (230 ft) long rock reef parallel to the beach. The reef is marked by a beacon. Inside the reef there are small isolated rocks but there is sufficient water between them for a small (up to 6 m or 19.7 ft) craft to move. A crew member should be placed in the bow to give instructions to the skipper.
Access to the rest of the island is via a steep, unformed path up the small headland at the north end of the beach. The path is only suited to fit, agile walkers. The flatter areas to the west have very large part submerged mussel beds which extend out 100 m (328 ft) from the shore preventing easy landing.
The closest mainland boat ramps are at Bucklands Beach or Half Moon Bay Marina.
See also
Notes
- ^ Hayward, Bruce (2019). Volcanoes of Auckland: A Field Guide. Auckland University Press. p. 65.
- hdl:2292/51323.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-86962-1513.
- ^ "Estuary origins". National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
- ^ Phillips, F. L. (1989). Nga Tohu a Tainui. Landmarks of Tainui: Historic Places of the Tainui People. Volume 2. Tohu Publishers.
- ^ Phillips 1989:3
- ^ Monin 1996:42
- ^ Frederickson 1991
- ^ Cruise 1824:200-204
- ^ Elder 1932:312-313
- ^ Wright 1950:156-7
- ^ Campbell 1881:229-253
- ^ Campbell 1881:239ff
- ^ Campbell 1881:300ff
- ^ Monin 1996:42-3
- ^ Deeds CT 364/284
- ^ Campbell 1881:330
- ^ Stone 1982:88
- ^ Stone 1987:117
- ^ Rickard 1985:11
- ^ Maffey 1972
- ^ Auckland.R Wolfe.p234. Random House.2002. Auckland.
- ^ Brassey 1996:3
- ^ Auckland. p234.
- ^ Bush 1980
- ^ Bush, Graham W. A. "Davis, Ernest Hyam 1872-1962". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
- ^ NZ Gazette 20/6/1968 No.38 p.1035
- ^ "Woman stranded on island lit fires, police say". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ^ "Motukoreaite". Mindat. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
References
- Bercusson, L. 1999 The Hauraki Gulf: From Bream Head to Cape Colville", Shoal Bay Press
- Brassey, R. 1996. Motukorea (Browns Island) unpublished MS
- Bush, G. 1980. The Brown's Island Drainage Controversy. Dunmore Press, Palmerston North
- Campbell, J.L. 1881. 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. pp. 229–253, 300-308
- Cruise, R.A. 1823. Journal of a Ten Month's Residence in New Zealand. Longmans, London
- Elder, J. R. (ed) The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden 1765-1830. Otago University Council, Dunedin
- Frederickson, C. 1991. Description of a lithic assemblage from Motukorea (Brown's Island). Archaeology in New Zealand 34(2):91-104
- Homer, L., Moore, P. and L. Kermode. 2000. Lava and Strata: A guide to the volcanoes and rock formations of Auckland, Landscape Publications and the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (pages 28–29)
- Maffey, N.A.. 1972. Auckland Maritime Society Excursion to Brown's Island – 2 December 1972. MS in Auckland Public Library
- Monin, P, 1996. ‘The Islands Lying Between Slipper Island in the South-East, Great Barrier Island in the North and Tiritiri–Matangi in the North-West’, report commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal
- Phillips, F.L. 1989. Nga Tohu a Tainui. Landmarks of Tainui: Historic Places of the Tainui People. Volume 2. Tohu Publishers, Otorohanga
- Rickard, V. 1985. Motukorea Archaeological Survey. Unpublished report to the Department of Lands and Survey, Auckland. Archaeological and Historical Reports No.11
- Stone, R.C.J. 1982. Young Logan Campbell. Auckland University Press, Auckland
- Wright, O. 1950. New Zealand 1826-27. Wellington
- Volcanoes of Auckland: A Field Guide. Hayward, B.W.; Auckland University Press, 2019, 335 pp. ISBN 0-582-71784-1.
External links
- Browns Island (Motukorea), Department of Conservation (includes link to map)
- Aerial photo, GNS Science.
- Details of motukoreaite
- Photographs of Brown's Island held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.