Watchman Island

Watchman Island

Native name: Te Kākāwhakaara
The island seen from the Auckland Harbour Bridge
Geography
Location	Auckland
Coordinates	36°50′06″S 174°43′55″E
Adjacent to	Waitemata Harbour
Area	60 m^2 (650 sq ft)
Length	10 m (30 ft)
Width	10 m (30 ft)
Coastline	30 m (100 ft)
Administration
New Zealand

Watchman Island (Te Kākāwhakaara in Māori, officially Watchman Island / Te Kākāwhakaara)^[1] is a tiny sandstone island in the Waitematā Harbour of Auckland, New Zealand. It lies approximately 600 metres north of the Herne Bay suburb.

History

The island is known to Tāmaki Māori iwi as Matungaegae, and was the site of an island pā during the Waiohua confederation (17th and early 18th centuries).^[2] Prior to European settlement in the 1840s, the island was much larger in size.^[2]

In the mid-19th century, the island was known as Sentinel Rock, which appears under this name on an 1857 British Admiralty chart of the Waitemata Harbour.

The island is visible from the Auckland Harbour Bridge, which caused it to briefly make headlines when Adidas in 2005 erected a metal crouching figure (shown doing a haka) as part of a campaign to promote the All Blacks during the Lions' rugby tour. While Adidas noted that it had consulted on the erection of the statue, it was eventually toppled from the top of the island by a saboteur claiming that it was culturally insensitive. The island is customary Māori property.^[3][4]

The island has special (or more precisely, undefined) legal status, as neither Auckland City Council, Auckland Regional Council or Ports of Auckland claimed responsibility, though some local iwi are considered to have customary rights over it. Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee once noted in a thesis that:

"Watchman Island and many other islets in the Hauraki Gulf "are not formally owned in a property title sense. For nearly 150 years they have existed in a legal limbo as 'uninvestigated', which normally presupposes Māori customary land."^[5]

Gallery

• 
  Watchman Island from Point Erin Park in the 1910s.
• 
  North side of Watchman Island
• 
  The Auckland Harbour Bridge seen from Watchman Island

References

1. "Place name detail: Watchman Island / Te Kākāwhakaara". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
2. Wilson, Karen (28 August 2018). "Brief of Evidence of Karen Akamira Wilson on Behalf of Te Ākitai Waiohua" (PDF). justice.govt.nz. Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
3. Rudman, Brian (13 June 2005). "Brian Rudman: Challenge to adidas – show a bit more respect". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
4. Derek Cheng and Angela Gregory (8 June 2005). "Saboteurs tackle sponsor's haka man". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
5. "Ask Phoebe: Tiny isle belongs to no one". The New Zealand Herald. 18 March 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2010.

External links

• Photographs of Watchman Island held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.