Point Britomart ( mi, Te Rerenga Ora Iti) was a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, J ...

in the

Waitematā Harbour Waitematā Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is one of two harbours adjoining the city. The harbour forms the northern and easter ...

, in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

(), New Zealand. Located between Commercial Bay and

Official Bay An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their s ...

,Auckland's waterfront and its changing face
(Auckland City Library, includes various further references) the point was later

quarried A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

away to produce fill for

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamat ...

in Mechanics Bay, and almost no physical trace remains at street level in what is today an area of the

Auckland CBD The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson. It is New Zealand's l ...

and the Auckland waterfront.

History

''Te Rerenga Ora Iti'' (‘the leap of the few survivors’) was the site of at least one Māori , and was considered an important site in ''Tāmaki Makaurau'' (

Auckland isthmus The Auckland isthmus, also known as the Tāmaki isthmus, is a narrow stretch of land on the North Island of New Zealand in the Auckland Region, and the location of the central suburbs of the city of Auckland, including the CBD. The isthmus i ...

), with several known battles fought over it, such as by the

Ngāti Whātua Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi (tribe) of the lower Northland Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island. It comprises a confederation of four hapū (subtribes) interconnected both by ancestry and by association over time: Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, ...

'' iwi'' in the 17th and 18th centuries. The name commemorates an incident around 1680 when Ngāti Whātua drove Ngāti Huarere over the cliff to either their freedom or deaths.Chapter 1 - The Historic Land 1600-1959
(from the

Britomart Transport Centre Britomart Transport Centre, also known as Britomart railway station, is the public transport hub in the central business district of Auckland and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk railway line. It combines a railway station ...

website) After signing the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi ( mi, Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a document of central importance to the History of New Zealand, history, to the political constitution of the state, and to the national mythos of New Zealand. It has played a major role in ...

, Ngāti Whātua paramount chief

Āpihai Te Kawau Apihai Te Kawau (died November 1869) was a paramount chief of the Ngāti Whātua Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) of Auckland (), New Zealand in the 19th century. Te Kawau's father was Tarahawaiki and his grandfather was Tūperiri, the principal leader o ...

, gave land for British settlement on the Waitematā. It was ''Te Rerenga Ora Iti'' where the

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

was first raised in Auckland on 18 September 1840 by Felton Mathew, and the point soon became the site of one of the first British military fortifications in New Zealand,

Fort Britomart A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''face ...

. It was also the site of Auckland's first church, St Paul's, founded within a year of the foundation of Auckland in 1841, and one of the city's best known landmarks for 40 years. The point received its European name in 1848 from , the crew of which undertook a detailed survey of the harbour of the new capital. From 1842, Point Britomart became the first major military barracks in Auckland. This was supplemented by the construction of the larger

Albert Barracks The Albert Barracks was a major British military installation that overlooked Auckland, New Zealand, from the mid-1840s to 1870, during the city's early colonial period. The perimeter wall was built between 1846 and the early 1850s, in the area ...

in 1846. Fort Britomart and the Albert Barracks were closed in 1870. In the 1870s and 1880s, the point was quarried away for fill in Mechanics Bay, its spoils providing the land for a new railway station. The removal also made Official Bay more easily accessible by foot. Despite being set back from the excavations, on what is now known as Emily Place, the original St Paul's had to be demolished. The western half of the city block currently bound by Tangihua Street, Beach Road, Quay Street and Britomart Place, now occupies the site of what was once the northern tip of Point Britomart. In 2018 Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei and Ports of Auckland created ''Te Toka o Apihai Te Kawau'', a memorial commemorating the founding of Auckland that includes a rock which marks the spot where ''Rerenga Ora Iti'' met the water, and where the city began.

References

{{Coord, -36.844049, 174.772178, display=title, format=dms Britomart Geography of Auckland Auckland CBD Auckland waterfront Waitematā Harbour