Mount Roskill

Mount Roskill or Puketapapa

See also Mt Roskill Puketapapa - Visit

Taken from: Clough, R. and Bickler, S.. 2007. Mt Roskill Cycleway: Archaeological Assessment. Unpublished report prepared for Auckland City Council.

History

The Mt Roskill area has been the site of human habitation from pre-European times. The volcanic cone (Figure 6) pa of Mt Roskill, known to Maori as Puketapapa, meaning flat-topped hill, was occupied from around 1450 AD and is recorded on the NZ Archaeological Association (NZAA) Site Record file as R11/19. It has extensive evidence of settlement with numerous terraces and pits covering the mountain. Prior to the mid 18th century this pa and many others on the isthmus were occupied by the Waiohua of Tamaki. Around the middle of the 18th century the Waiohua under Kiwi Tamaki were defeated by Ngati Whatua and the pa of the area were subsequently abandoned. However, archaeological investigations carried out in the 1960s (Shawcross 1962) provided no evidence to suggest that Puketapapa was occupied at this time, or much beyond 1700AD. In the traditional evidence set down by Fenton, Puketapapa is not mentioned as one of the pa belonging to Kiwi Tamaki in the mid 18th century (Fox 1979:59). The archaeological features visible in the early aerials and excavated by Shawcross (1963) are typical of the volcanic cone pa on the Auckland isthmus. They include evidence of habitation and food storage and consumption within a defendable location. Gardening is likely to have taken place on the slopes and areas below, although there is now little direct evidence of this (see Sullivan 1972). <googlemap lat="-36.912568" lon="174.736927" zoom="16">-36.912328, 174.737377, Mount Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand</googlemap> In 1841 the Crown purchased land including Mt Roskill from Ngati Whatua. In 1844 the Crown sold land at Mt Roskill to Alexander Kennedy (SO 1358C, Figure 5), New Zealand Manager of the Union Bank of Australia. At this time, the mountain was known as Mt Kennedy (McConnell 1983: 1; Figure 6). In 1849 Kennedy sold his land holding of 429 acres to Joseph May (LINZ CT Vol. 38, Folio 295 (see Appendix)). May built a substantial dwelling on his estate, just east of the mountain. In 1868 May became the founding chairman of the Mt Roskill Highway Board and later entered parliament where he represented the Franklin electorate (McConnell 1983:1). By 1891, May had died, and his heirs sold 420 acres of land at Mt Roskill, including the homestead, to George Winstone (McConnell 1983:1). This block of land was bounded by May Rd, Richardson Rd and Mt Albert Rd and extended east to enclose the present Akarana Golf Course (LINZ CT Vol.122, Folio 143, see Appendix, Figure 7, Figure 8).

The population of the area remained small until the 1930s, when many of the larger estates were subdivided. Mt Roskill was donated as a public reserve by George Winstone and tennis courts and croquet lawns were subsequently built at the foot of the mountain. Much of the rest of the Winstone estate was purchased by the Labour Government for state housing in the 1930s (Figure 9). More land was purchased in the 1940s and 50s and state houses were built on it. The former Winstone homestead became the clubhouse of the Akarana Golf Course but was demolished in the 1990s. (McConnell 1983: 16, 29; pers. comm. Clive of Akarana Golf Club 7 April 2000).

By 1959 (Figure 12) these had grown substantially and additional trees are visible in the eastern end of the track in the area later developed as a carpark. The most substantial change to Mt Roskill occurred during the 1960s. In 1962 a large concrete reservoir was built in the crater of Mt Roskill, altering the original shape of the mountain (Mt Roskill Borough Council: 31, Figure 13). Prior to its construction, the affected area was the subject of an archaeological investigation by the University of Auckland (Shawcross 1962; Fox 1979). Finds included adzes, storage pits, stone-lined cooking hearths, midden, and rows of postholes suggesting that the pa was defended by a double palisade. Adzes recovered during the excavation were manufactured from greywacke (from Motutapu) and basalt (probably Tahanga basalt, from Opito, Coromandel). Another adze from the mountain was made of argillite (typically from the South Island). Burials were also present. Dating of charcoal from various features indicated that the main period of occupation of the pa was between 1430 and 1620 AD.

Photographs from the 1960s showing the work in the crater for the reservoir provide clear evidence of the the extent of changes to the mountain at this time. The road to the summit was substantially increased and much of the surface of the main part of the site was modified by the works. Below the road, it is not clear to what extent the works affected the site, but the trees planted in the 1940s-1950s are still present so it is unlikely that too much was done here.

Fox’s (1979) plan of the site shows only a few features in the area of the proposed cycleway, including some fairly poorly defined features in Zone C. Sue Bulmer of the HPT (1988) also identified the recreational versus historical parts of the Mount Roskill (Figure 15) based on features that were visible then and cycleway lies within the recreational zone. However, this map does not recognise the heritage items post-dating 1900 as ‘historical’.

Recent works for the SH20 extension have impacted on the northern area of the site. The northern scarp has now been excavated and in Zone B this is very close to the current path where the cycleway is to be located.

References

Bulmer, S. 1988. Letter to Mrs H. McNeal Mt Roskill Borough Council. Management plan drawing no 1257 for the Winstone Park Management Plan.

McConnell, P. 1983. People and Progress: A Study of Place Names in the Mount Roskill Borough, Auckland,

Fox, A. 1979. The Pa on Mt Roskill, Auckland (N42/11): Dating evidence from the 1961 Excavations. Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum. 16:-45-61.

Cox, G.J. (1989) Fountains of Fire: The Story of Auckland’s Volcanoes. William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland.

Mount Roskill Borough Council, Roskill. 1984. An Illustrated History of New Zealand’s Largest Borough, Auckland.

Shawcross, W. 1962. Excavations on Mount Roskill, Auckland. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter. 5: 81-3.

Sullivan, A. 1972. Stone walled complexes of Central Auckland. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter 15(4):148-160.