Campbells Bay

Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries.[12][13] The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū.[14] Many of the Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as Ngā Oho.[15] While the poor soils around the East Coast Bays hindered dense settlement,[8] traditional resources in the area included fish, shellfish and marine birds.[16] The traditional name for the coast between Murrays Bay and Campbells Bay is Waipapa.[17][18]

The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore.[19][20] After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new hapū. His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is the namesake of the North Shore, Te Whenua Roa o Kahu ("The Greater Lands of Kahu").[21][22] Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha, Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu.[22][23]

By the 18th century, the Marutūāhu iwi Ngāti Paoa had expanded their influence to include the islands of the Hauraki Gulf and the North Shore.[24] After periods of conflict, peace had been reached by the 1790s.[25] The earliest contact with Europeans began in the late 18th century, which caused many Tāmaki Māori to die of rewharewha, respiratory diseases.[26] During the early 1820s, most Māori of the North Shore fled for the Waikato or Northland due to the threat of war parties during the Musket Wars. Most people had returned by the late 1820s and 1830s.[13][24][27]

A flyer advertising the sale of allotments at the Campbell's Beach Estate, 1908

Aerial view of Campbells Bay in 1959

In 1841, the Crown purchased the Mahurangi and Omaha blocks; an area that spanned from Takapuna to Te Arai. The purchase involved some iwi with customary interests in the area, such as Ngāti Paoa, other Marutūāhu iwi and Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, but not others, such as Te Kawerau ā Maki or Ngāti Rango.[28][29][23][30] The Crown spent until 1873 rectifying this sale, by making further deals with stakeholders.[29][30]

The land at Campbells Bay was first purchased by John Logan Campbell in 1845.[31] In 1850, Scottish immigrant Donald Mackay from Reay came to New Zealand to join his brother Alexander Mackay, who was farming land near Lake Pupuke. Alexander Mackay bought 60 acres of land from Campbell, to develop into a farm worked by his brother Donald.[32][33][34] Around this period, one of the largest kauri gum diggers camps on the North Shore was established in the area.[11] Originally known as Donalds Bay,[32] the bay became known as Johnston's Bay, after the Johnston family from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland set up a dairy farm and grew vegetables in the area.[33] The Johnston family sold their milk to residents in Takapuna and the gum diggers who visited the area.[32] In 1885, 70 hectares of scrubland was gazetted as a nature reserve called the Takapuna Domain (renamed Centennial Park in 1940), which overtime regenerated into native bush.[35][36]

The Johnston family sold the farm to a farmer named Mr. Cave in 1888,[32] around the time that orchards became an important feature of the farm.[37] In 1894, Mr. Cave sold the property to Duncan Campbell, well known for his Auckland shoe store, after which the bay became known as Campbells Bay.[32][38] In 1912, the farm was subdivided, and Campbells Bay became a popular spot for holidayers, due to its relative proximity to the terminus for the Milford to Bayswater tram. Holiday baches were built in the area until World War I stopped the construction of new baches.[32][38] In 1914, a portion of the Takapuna Domain became the Pupuke Golf Club,[39] and from 1920 better roading in the area led to the construction of permanent homes.[32]

In 1938, the Central Methodist Mission established a health camp at Campbells Bay, which by the 1940s became the main health camp for in-need youth in Auckland.[8] In 1940 to celebrate 100 years since the establishment of Auckland, Takapuna Domain was renamed Centennial Park, and extensive planting was done to create a native bush.[36] During World War II, defensive pillboxes were constructed in Centennial Park.[36]