Auckland Heritage Festival

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Auckland's founding history

Archive picture of the intersection of Queen and Wellesley Streets.

Archive picture of the view from Three Lamps along Ponsonby Road.

Archive scetch of the Government Store (Shortland Street Post Office).

The settlement of Auckland was founded on 18 September 1840, and many events that occurred on this day hold the key to why and how we celebrate our heritage today.

Soon after the first signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Te Kawau the paramount chief of Ngati Whatua ki Tāmaki invited Governor Hobson and the Crown to share their land.

Te Kawau believed that by having the most powerful European in the country and his government living on the Waitemata, he would gain a powerful military ally, secure access to markets for Ngati Whatua produce and gain literacy and medicine for introduced diseases.

Ngati Whatua agreed to transfer use rights to Hobson over 3,500 acres of land for a township to be established. The boundaries of the block of land were:

Mataharehare (Hobson Bay) in the east and west
along the then coastline to Opou (Cox's Bay)
and inland from both points to the summit of Maungawhau (Mt Eden).

This land makes up the modern day CBD and inner suburbs of Auckland.

On September 18, just after midday in beautiful weather, sailors and officials joined the Ngati Whatua chiefs and 100 of their supporters on a small headland, soon to be named Point Britomart. The point no longer exists, but it would have been located somewhere near Emily Place.

Once the deed was signed the British flagstaff was raised to the cheers of bystanders and a round of salutes was fired from the ships Anna Watson and Platina anchored nearby. This signalled Auckland as the new capital of New Zealand named after George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, a patron and friend of Sir William Hobson.

The afternoon's festivities took the form of a waka race and a regatta, Auckland's first, which in 1842 was moved to late January when it is still celebrated as Auckland Anniversary Day.

Over the next eight months, preparing Auckland as a government settlement involved intense labour and the Maori contribution was immense. In addition to land, Maori provided labour, food, raw materials and lodgings and provisions for officials, government mechanics and private settlers. Maori quickly became skilled stonemasons, woodworkers and international traders.

The first session of parliament was held in Auckland in 1854 on a ancient pā site called Te Reuroa. At present, the site where parliament stood is commemorated by a bronze plaque and the original buildings' footprints are recreated by a low basalt wall behind the Supreme Court, bounded by Anzac Avenue and Parliament Street. The Old Government House, completed in 1856, still remains on the corner of Princes St and Waterloo Quadrant.

Auckland's founding is now proudly celebrated during the Auckland Heritage Festival. 167 years on it is important that as Aucklanders we remember the making of this city was a bi-cultural affair and it remains so today.

Updated July 2007