Vanished Auckland - Changes in a Lifetime

The early 20th century gaff-rigged Rawhiti in front of the modern Auckland skyline

Cities have to change, I guess. That's progress. As a teenager, in the mid-1960s,  I first began taking a serious interest in photography and began recording the contemporary world around me. Photographic film and development was then fairly expensive and so the number of pictures taken was limited. I did concentrate on using transparency (slide) film  and have never regretted that early decision. Now, 55 years later, I can see how important it was taking these early photos, as Auckland, the city I grew up with has changed immeasurably as the population has grown. On looking through my archives I have selected a number of photos which, to me, illustrate the changing times, the transition of city caught in a time-warp to a modern, vibrant metropolis.

Today, as the modern downtown Commercial Bay development nears completion, I can look back on what previously occupied the site. When I first began working, in January 1966, I was a clerical worker at the Department of Lands & Survey which was, in those days, in the old Customhouse, a grand old building in its own right, dating from the late 1880s. One day, I took my camera to work, leaned out of the window of the 'Leases' section on the 3rd floor and took a photo of what was then Little Queen Street. It was here that I caught a ABC (Auckland Bus Company) bus home each day to Te Atatu where I had grown up.

In those days Little Queen Street ran between Custom and Quay St. giving extra access to the Ferry Building. On the right hand corner with Customs Street was the Galaxie where we would often go in our lunch hour to see pop-groups such as the La De Das, Underdogs or Pleazers perform.

Little Queen St. in 1967, soon to disappear under the Downtown Centre

I left New Zealand in 1970 and when I returned in 1974, the Downtown Centre had eliminated this small street, and the Galaxie. One evening in 2008, I took a photograph of advertising on the Downtown Centre which I called 'Collision Course'. Little did I then know that the Downtown Centre's days were also numbered, and the Commercial Bay Development would take its place. Incidentally, close to where the original Commercial Bay beach had been when Auckland was first settled in the 1840s.

'Collision Course', advertisng on the Downtown Centre in 2008, corner of Customs & Albert St. Now replaced by the Commercial Bay Development.

One of the major engineering projects of the late 1960s was the addition of the extra 'clip-on' lanes to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The bridge had been opened as a 4-lane structure in 1959, but within 5 years the realisation had sunk in that it was too small. Freeman, Fox & Partners, the consulting engineers, were recalled and recommended the enlargement of the existing bridge 'by providing additional separate superstructure, one on each side, supported by the existing piers. Each new superstructure would carry a 2-lane 24-ft carriageway.' The extra lanes were manufactured in Japan, shipped out and lifted into position by two large floating cranes. I took this photo as work progressed from Point Erin in 1968.

The extra 'clip-on' lanes being added to the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1968

In 1987, my wife and I went to dinner with some friends in a quaint little restaurant called La Brie in Warspite Street in the central City. Shortly after I heard that the restaurant along with Warspite Street was going to be demolished to make way for the new Chancery Centre. 

Windows of La Brie Restaurant in Warspite St., in 1987, soon to be demolished

On Kings Wharf there was the the large brick building of the Auckland Farmers Freezing Company (AFFCO) cool store. I first noticed this building when, in 1987, my wife and I took a trip on the old auxiliary schooner Te Aroha. The boat was berthed at the Kings Low Landing, then dominated by the AFFCO building. The building had been used to store refrigerated carcasses for export in the days before containerisation.

The brick AFFCO cool store with auxiliary schooner Te Aroha at the Kings Low Landing, .

 Demolition of the building had begun in early 1988 when we took another trip on Te Aroha. When we returned to the King's Low Landing, fire trucks were hosing down the smoldering wreckage, accidentally set on fire during demolition. An ignominious end to part of Auckland's commercial heritage.

A fire truck hosing down the wreckage of the AFFCO Cool Store in 1988

At the end of the 1980s, Sea Bee Air was still operating an amphibious air service to Great Barrier Island along with charters to other islands in the Hauraki Gulf from Mechanics Bay. The forerunner of Sea Bee Air, Tourist Air Travel had been established by the flamboyant Freddie 'a shower of spray and we're away' Ladd in the mid-1950s. This part of Auckland's aviation history ended when the last Grumman Goose of Sea Bee Air took off from Mechanics Bay in Easter 1990.

Grumman Goose of Sea Bee Air comes ashore at Mechanics Bay, December 1987

An iconic building in the suburb of Ponsonby was the Hydra Bacon Factory whose large neon sign dominated College Hill at night for many years. I had been fascinated by the Company logo of the multi-headed Hydra of Greek mythology and when I heard the factory was to be demolished, I took the following photographs.

The Hydra Bacon Factory in Ponsonby in 1989

The multi-headed Hydra above the office door of the Bacon Factory, 1989

Across the Harbour, in the suburb of Devonport, in the late 1980s, it was time to replace the old ferry wharf which hundreds of commuters used each day. This construction was in dire need of replacing, but the old wharf did have character, even if it was cold and draughty in winter.

The old Ferry Wharf in Devonport in 1988, not long before demolition.

The rather bare interior of the old Ferry Wharf at Devonport, 1988

One of the most surprising demolitions of the late 1980s was that of the  Salvation Army citadel which stood in Greys Avenue, just off Mayoral Drive behind the Town Hall. This fine looking building with its central turreted tower had been built in 1928, and was one of the most distinctive buildings in Greys Avenue. Protestors did try to stop the demolition, to no avail – an interesting part of Auckland’s heritage disappeared under the wrecker’s ball.

The Salvation Army Citadel in Greys Ave in 1987. The site is still a carpark!

After Team New Zealand won the America’s Cup in 1995, the decision was made to re-develop the Viaduct Harbour area, part of which was used by fishing boats, but the rest was in a sorry state. The Auckland City Council Municipal Market Building, had been Auckland’s main commercial fruit and vegetable market until a larger facility had been developed at Mt Wellington by the early 1990s. The old City Council Market building was one that disappeared during the America's Cup boom  in the late 1990s & early 2000s. A sign of the changing times, the newly-constructed Sky Tower now dominated the City skyline when I took this photo in 1999.

The Auckland City Council Municipal Market building in 1999

But perhaps for me, the biggest symbol of a changing Auckland, was the removal of the iconic Pinus radiata which had been planted by John Logan Campbell on the top of Maungakiekie, or One Tree Hill. Campbell planted this tree to replace a sacred totara which has been cut down by early European settlers. This tree, along with the obelisk to the Maori people, part of Campbell’s bequest, had been a symbol of Auckland since the 1940s. When the decision was made in 2000, by Auckland City Councillors, to remove the tree, which had been damaged a number of years earlier by a Maori activist,  I just had to come up the hill one final time. Like many Aucklanders, I could say I was born, literally, in its shadow. Being a post-war baby, I was born in the former US military hospital which was situated in Cornwall Park and used, temporarily, until the National Womens Hospital was built in nearby Greenlane. So, for me,  to  be able to walk around the tree on the afternoon before its removal, at the beginning of the 21^st century, was an emotional experience and personally epitomises the changes I have seen to the city I grew up in.

The lone Monterey pine on One Tree Hill, before vandalisation by a Maori activist.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

My paperback books on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.