Life Before Waitangi Park

The area where Waitangi Park is located has been the site of many changes, including major land reclamations and an earthquake in 1855 that uplifted land in the area by five feet.
 
Waitangi Park is near the site of the Waitangi Lagoon, fed by the Waitangi Stream.  The waterway played a major role in the lives of the mana whenua (local Maori).
 
Rich with eel, fish and shellfish, the Waitangi stream and Waitangi lagoon were used for centuries by Maori for food gathering, as a source of fresh water and as a place for launching their waka.
 
The first English settlers planned to dig a canal along the path of the stream to anchor boats in the Basin Lagoon upstream towards Newtown.  However, an earthquake in 1855 lifted the Te Aro land by 1.5 metres in some parts. Within a decade, reclamation had started and within several decades the land now known as Waitangi Park was reclaimed from the sea.

Its early uses were hardly illustrious. It has been a dog pound and city morgue, a works department and a bus park. But older Wellingtonians best remember the area as the site of the old Wellington destructor with its chimney stacks that could be seen for miles.

The destructor was an incinerator built to destroy ship’s dunnage in the early part of the 20th century.  Dunnage was the material (mats, timber etc) used to prevent wetting of ship’s cargo – it was often the repository of rats, insects and other such nasties which needed to be destroyed.

In recent years the former Chaffers area was probably best recognised for the wall that graffiti artists had transformed into a kaleidoscope of colour and artistry. It’s had a mix of uses – it’s had a skateboard park there, a weekend market, and it’s been the site of hip hop competitions, a temporary ice skating rink and circus. 

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