The rediscovery of the site of the old Little Huia Wharf is one of the exciting early finds from Auckland Council's Heritage Unit survey of the southern coast of the Waitakere Ranges.
Often the team has limited information available to them. Much of the area from Whatipu to Green Bay hasn’t been surveyed since the 1970s.
They used this old photograph to help find the wharf.
Originally built in 1907, it was a landing place for passenger ferries crossing the Manukau Harbour.
It’s just one of 60 sites staff have visited to date. So far they have located middens, stone walls, pits, old bridges and houses in the area where humans have lived since the earliest Māori settlement of Tāmaki.
The Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act recognises the national significance of 27,700 hectares of often bush covered, rugged land in west Auckland.
The current survey is just the beginning of surveying the area’s historic heritage sites in order to best conserve the heritage of the region.
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