Puketutu Island

Te Motu a Hiaroa (Puketutu Island) is a volcanic island in the Manukau Harbour, New Zealand, and is part of the Auckland volcanic field. European settlers called it Weekes' Island, but this was eventually abandoned in favour of the historical Māori name.

Te Motu a Hiaroa
Puketutu Island
The motu (island) today, from Mangere Mountain
Highest point
Elevation65 m (213 ft)
Coordinates36.965186°S 174.747248°E / -36.965186; 174.747248 
Geography
LocationNorth Island, New Zealand
Geology
Volcanic arc/beltAuckland volcanic field
Te Motu a Hiaroa Island
Te Motu a Hiaroa is located in Manukau Harbor

The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "tutu shrub hill" for Puketutu.[1]

History

In the 1950s, several of its scoria cones were heavily quarried for fill to extend Auckland Airport nearby. The island's highest point, 65 m high Pinnacle Hill, was retained. The charitable trust now owning the forested island has proposed a scheme whereby biosolids from the nearby Mangere wastewater treatment plant (which surrounds the island, covering 600 ha on the landward sides, and served around 600,000 people in the 1990s)[2] could be used to reshape the older form of the island. While the process could take up to 35 years, the final goal is envisaged as becoming a park for the Auckland Region. [3] Watercare then bought a long term lease of the island and then transferred its ownership to the Te Motu a Hiaroa (Puketutu Island) Governance Trust. A trust with 12 iwi trustees. [4]


The island was also used as the site for several pā (Māori earth fortifications usually guarding a settlement or important site) throughout the last centuries, though these were deserted by the time of the arrival of European colonists in the area.[5]

  • Puketutu Island (then called 'Weekes' Island') in the 1910s, before it lost most of its cones to quarrying.
  • Puketutu Island's Pinnacle Hill, with a waka or canoe in the foreground.
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gollark: No, I'm Host.
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gollark: Surprisingly, no.
gollark: Also, there are some previous "comics" involving me which people may like.

See also

References
  1. "1000 Māori place names". New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 6 August 2019.
  2. Engineering to 1990 - IPENZ, Engineering Publications Co Ltd, Page 9
  3. Redemption near for Puketutu - City of Fire, insert magazine in The New Zealand Herald, Friday 15 February 2008
  4. Rehabilitating Puketutu Island with biosolids (Watercare. Accessed 2020-06-16.)
  5. Ancient history Archived 2012-04-22 at WebCite (from the Sir Henry J Kelliher Charitable Trust website. Accessed 2008-06-21.)
  • City of Volcanoes: A geology of Auckland - Searle, Ernest J.; revised by Mayhill, R.D.; Longman Paul, 1981. First published 1964. ISBN 0-582-71784-1.
  • Volcanoes of Auckland: A Field Guide. Hayward, B.W.; Auckland University Press, 2019, 335 pp. ISBN 0-582-71784-1.
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