A Brief History of Mahurangi East
In historic terms, Scotts Landing as it is known today was known as the village of Mahurangi or more recently, Mahurangi East.
It’s current residential and recreational demeanor however belies a very active past, particularly at Scott Point which took full advantage of the commercial trade that took place on the river and harbour.
These pages present a brief history of the land and its people.
Seats of History - the Scotts Landing Historical Trail
The Scotts Landing Historical Trail is a MERRA initiative to install a series of six bench seats at key vantage points on the peninsular. Each seat provides a resting place to view sights and sites of historical interest.
Handcrafted wooden and corten steel benches have been installed at each location, with QR codes linking to an illustrated story of days long past in the areas that can be surveyed from each spot. Benches are in place at the Cemetery, the Community Garden, top of Williams St, Schoolhouse Bay, Ngaio Bay, and Scott Point, adjacent to the jetty.
An all-weather directions map has been added to the noticeboard/bus shelter on the Charles St corner.
The seats have been installed by working bees headed by seat builder and organiser Stuart Windross. The design was by Alan Seelye and Jude Nye, with timber supplied by JSC Timber through Malcolm and Jenny Scott.
You can check out the six commentaries here.
Timber milling
Firewood and building timber was being harvested as early as mid 1840’s early gatherers included Captain Sullivan who established himself at Mahurangi West. Soon after
The Mahurangi purchase
In 1840 by Felton Mathew, visited the harbour as part of his quest for a new site for the capital of the new colony. He
Subdivision
An earlier survey for a subdivision at the top of the harbour near Dawson’s Creek had not been completed. Between 1852 and 1854 Charles Heaphy
Scotts Landing Historical Trail
The Scotts Landing Historical Trail is a MERRA initiative to install a series of six bench seats at key vantage points on the peninsular. Each seat
Scott House new content
MERRA has received additional information from Auckland Council Heritage researcher Marguerite Hill about Scott House and also a fascinating videography by Claire Cowan – 2011
Maori history
Māori first occupied our land and there are widespread defensive ditches, pa sites and kumara pits to be found on most of the headlands around
Mahurangi – the name
Mahurangi is the name used by our association and name of our harbour, but was at one time used as the name of all the
Early Europeans
The first Europeans to explore the Mahurangi were looking for Flax and Timber. The British Navy came seeking spars. Spar ships would drop cutting gangs