“Anchorage” is what Tūranga Creek means. Yes, the very ground beneath your feet echoes with the stories of ancient voyagers. We are standing at Tūranga Creek. It is more than just a stream. It is a tidal estuary that whispers tales of Māori settlement and European endeavor.
Around the year 1300 the Tainui migratory waka landed here. It was tethered to a volcanic rock shaped like a man. That rock still exists. It is a 1.5 metre siliceous sinter in the mudflats near Clifton Road.
Tūranga Creek flows from Flat Bush to the Hauraki Gulf. The township of Whitford was founded at its navigable headlands. The eastern coast of Auckland was visited by the Tainui waka. Followers of Manawatere, identifying as Ngā Oho, settled between the Pōhutukawa Coast and Tūwakamana. Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, the mana whenua, descend from these settlers.
Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki stories mention the supernatural Tūrehu people already occupying the land. Place names reference Tūrehu figures like Hinerangi and Manawatere. Tūranga became the hill overlooking the estuary’s west bank. The name extended to the pā and kāinga.
Eels, lampreys, and flounder were abundant in the creek. In 1833 William Thomas Fairburn found the area mostly unoccupied due to the Musket Wars. Ngāi Tai had sought refuge in the Waikato. In 1836 Fairburn purchased 40,000 acres between Ōtāhuhu and Umupuia. This included much of the Wairoa River catchment. The New Zealand Land Commission reduced Fairburn’s purchase. A reserve was created for Ngāi Tai around Umupuia in 1854.
Whitford was established on the creek by European settlers in the 1840s. The creek served as the town’s main transport link until the 1920s. Then road transport became more popular. John Granger established a brickworks along the creek in the late 1870s. Home guard soldiers dug trenches along the creek during World War II.
The estuaries were the roads to Auckland City. Whitford was one of the food bowls supplying the growing city. A Post Office was originally located at Waikopua. Then it was shifted to the Turanga estuary. Trees were shipped for timber. Cream produce and the Granger bricks at Whitford village all went via the Turanga River.
Large coastal steamers from the Clevedon Shipping Company collected produce. They delivered goods to the early settlers at the Whitford village wharf. Farmers rowed their cream to meet the steamer in the estuary.
Today Wades Walkway follows the western banks of Tūranga Creek. It is also known as the Whitford Path. As you stroll along its banks remember the rich history. Tūranga Creek, this “anchorage”, has shaped the landscape and the lives of those who have called this place home for centuries.