District Plan Hauraki Gulf Islands Section - Proposed 2006

(Notified version 2006)

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Appendix 3 - Character statements for conservation areas

Character statement for Rocky Bay conservation area

Rocky Bay on Waiheke is a rare and pristine example of a surviving 'foundation settlement' - a small, nuclear residential cluster founded away from other urban areas, and retaining intact the crucial physical and social components of the 'place'.

Rocky Bay began as a Maori settlement and there are still remnants of gardens, stone-working areas and a kainga (village). The current settlement began as a subdivision in the early 1920s (land sales were first marketed in 1923) isolated from the rest of the island's roading system, and accessible only by sea via the original purpose-built wharf, but complete with its own internal street network largely concentrated within two valleys inland of the historic centre itself.

Simple in its focus, this 'centre' contains the essential basics - the store; the community centre and hall; the war memorial flagpole; all sited behind the sheltered bay with its boatsheds and wharf remains (the original having been demolished in 1961) and the Rocky Bay Memorial Cruising Club building.

The iconic structure of the settlement remains effectively intact, and untouched by time and urban intensification. Comparable early centres of settlement have elsewhere been long since absorbed into growing suburbia, even on Waiheke.

The natural environment is still a very important facet of the character of Rocky Bay. Lowland forest covers Glen Brook Reserve along the ridge between Rocky Bay's two valleys. Pohutukawa is still prominent along the shores and there are two valued geological sites on this coast. One is an argillite outcrop in Omiha Bay and the other is a chert stack at the end of Pohutukawa Point, which has one of the best exposures of folded chert in Auckland City.

The essential qualities of the Rocky Bay conservation area are thus made up of the centre itself with its major component items, the central bush-clad reserve, the shoreline of Pohutukawa Avenue from the centre to the site of the original wharf and its remains, and the opposite shoreline eastwards towards Goldie Point.

Rocky Bay's conservation area sits in the sheltered bay on the picturesque Waitemata Harbour, with the verdant streets radiating like tree branches into the valleys behind. Its conservation values are a composite of its accurate survival, its ability to demonstrate early settlement patterns, the clear and simple social structure of its central components, its charming landscape context, its geology and archaeology, its exemplary quality of being an isolated but dedicated and self-reliant community, and its significant associations with important island personalities.

Notwithstanding now having road access to the remainder of the island, Rocky Bay's current residential population retains a strong community spirit, and commitment to the heritage values and importance of their historic, intact home settlement.

Relationship with other parts of the Plan

This character statement should be referred to in conjunction with the following parts of the Plan:

1. Appendix 1c - Schedule of conservations areas - inner islands, which contains a map showing the extent of the Rocky Bay conservation area
2. Part 7 - Heritage which contains the objectives, policies and rules applying to conservation areas.