Bucklands Beach

Musick Point / Te Naupata was the location of Te Waiārohia, a major defensive pā in the 18th century

The Bucklands Beach area is part of the rohe of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, who descend from the crew of the Tainui migratory waka, who visited the area around the year 1300.[7] The mouth of the Tāmaki River was traditionally known as Te Wai ō Tāiki ("The Waters of Tāiki"), named after the Ngāi Tai ancestor Tāiki. Tāiki settled with his followers along the eastern shores of the Tāmaki River, along side the descendants of Huiārangi of the early iwi Te Tini ō Maruiwi.[8] The traditional name for Bucklands Beach is Te Kōmiti, and the area was strategically important as it was close to both the Tāmaki Strait and the route towards Te Tō Waka, the portage at Ōtāhuhu where waka could easily cross into the Manukau Harbour.[9][7] Te Kōmiti was a site where Tāmaki Māori constructed stone adzes, using greywacke boulders from Motutapu Island. The wider area was rich in food resources, and the eastern coast of the Tāmaki River was widely cultivated.[9]

In approximately the first half of the 18th century, Ngāriki, a rangatira of Ngāi Tai, built a fortified pā at Te Naupata (Musick Point), the headland at the end of the peninsula, called Te Waiārohia (a shortening of Te Waiārohia ō Ngāriki). The name refers to the panoramic views the pā commanded of the area.[8][9] Ngāriki and the people of Te Waiārohia often came into conflict with Ngaromania, a rangarita who settled at Te Pupū ō Kawau on the western shores of the Tāmaki River who demanded heavy tolls to those who passed by.[8] From the 1790s, Te Rangitāwhia was the paramount chief of Ngāi Tai, whose principal residences were at Waiārohia and to the south at Ōhuiarangi / Pigeon Mountain.[8]

During the Musket Wars in the 1820s, Te Waiārohia and the Bucklands Beach area were evacuated, and the lands became tapu to Ngāi Tai due to the events of the conflict.[10][11] Most members of Ngāi Tai fled to the Waikato for temporary refuge during this time, and when English missionary William Thomas Fairburn visited the area in 1833, it was mostly unoccupied.[12]

In 1836, William Thomas Fairburn brokered a land sale between Tāmaki Māori chiefs covering the majority of modern-day South Auckland, East Auckland and the Pōhutukawa Coast.[13] The sale was envisioned as a way to end hostilities in the area, but it is unclear what the chiefs understood or consented to. Māori continued to live in the area, unchanged by this sale.[14] In 1854 when Fairburn's purchase was investigated by the New Zealand Land Commission, a Ngāi Tai reserve was created around the Wairoa River and Umupuia areas, and as a part of the agreement, members of Ngāi Tai agreed to leave their traditional settlements to the west.[15][12]

1916 advertisement for the sale of The Tamaki Estate (Buckland's Landing)

Bucklands Beach in the summer of 1961

In 1847, Howick was established as a defensive outpost for Auckland, by fencibles (retired British Army soldiers) and their families.[16] In 1851, William Mason bought a 320 acre plot from Fairburn at the modern-day site of Bucklands Beach, where he established a farm, growing oats, wheat and tending goats. Mason built a two-stored homestead above the beach, which was demolished in the 1950s.[9] At the time, the area was known as the Tamaki Landing, and it was one of the major transport routes for the isolated fencible settlement was the ferry, which connected Bucklands Beach to Panmure and Point England several times per week.[17][18] In 1861, Mason sold his farm to Alfred Buckland, one of the largest agriculturalists in Auckland. The Bucklands family used to spend holidays at the beach, and in 1865 constructed a wharf for cattle and sheep.[19][18] From the 1860s until 1879, Little Bucklands Beach to the south became the site of John Granger's brickworks.[19]

In the 1910s, Bucklands Beach became a popular holidaying destination for Aucklanders. The Buckland farm was subdivided into the Tamaki Estate in 1916,[20] and the Devonport Steamship Company constructed a second wharf at Bucklands Beach for passenger services to reach the beach and new settlement.[21] The first post office for Bucklands Beach opened in 1921,[22] and in 1923 the neighbouring suburb Eastern Beach was subdivided.[23]

During World War II, the Bucklands Beach Home Guard was established, who met weekly for military training exercises at Ōhuiarangi / Pigeon Mountain.[24] In 1942, an air traffic communication centre was established at Musick Point. The centre facilitated most of the long range radio transmissions for Auckland, communicating with ships and aircraft, and was used by American naval forces.[25] In May 1949 the Manukau County Council changed the suburb's name from Buckland's Beach to Bucklands Beach.[9]

The area remained primarily a holidaying destination until the 1950s.[21] After the establishment of Howick as a borough in 1952, the Howick and Bucklands Beach areas rapidly developed.[26] In 1954, the Cockle Bay golf course was moved to Musick Point,[27][28] and in 1956, the Buckland and Easter Beaches War Memorial Community Centre was opened.[29]