History
Te Kawerau a Maki are the iwi or Maori tribe of the West Coast. The main Te Kawerau settlements were on the coast and large areas were cleared of forest to grow crops and so that settlements could be better defended.
There were a number of Kawerau pa (fortified village) sites on the headlands in the Piha area. Lion Rock was the site of Whakaari pa, and Te Wahangu was on the headland at the north end of the beach, in the far distance of this photograph.
The hill to the south of The Gap was traditionally used by Kawerau a Maki fishing parties and there are midden sites, terraces, pits, and rock and cave shelters all over Piha. The large number of sites indicate that Piha was, at different times, home to large numbers of Maori.
Although there are a number of reports of Maori occupation of Piha from the 1870s until the 1890s, this seems to have come to an end around the turn of the century.
Today, Te Kawerau a Maki descendants regard themselves as holding 'mana whenua' or 'traditional ownership' of their Waitakere domains. They still own Taitomo Island (Camel Rock). Lion Rock is now owned by the Crown.
The Piha area was bought from the Maori in 1854 and allocated in crown grants to settlers. Two reserves were retained by Maori at Piha and Weketahi (North Piha). In 1886, Dr William Stockwell bought both blocks having previously leased them from the Maori owners. His primary interest was the kauri timber although he never managed to cut it because of difficulty in getting it out.
From the late nineteenth century, Piha was also a popular holiday destination for campers and in the 1890s paid accommodation became available at the Usshers' farm and at Blowhole Bay (The Gap). Photo: Meg Broughton Colection
In 1910 an entreprenuerial Canadian with a flourishing dental practice in Auckland took over Piha to mill the kauri timber. Fred Rayner and his wife, Ethel, an American meat heiress, built the Piha Mill. Men scoured the steep hillsides for trees which were felled and brought down to the mill with bullock teams and a series of timber dams.
Milling Kauri trees. Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library
To access trees further
afield, a railway line was built into valleys to the north,
from where the logs were brought along a line on North Piha
Beach to the mill in the engine A196. From Piha the timber
was taken by hauler to neighbouring Karekare then by a rail
line along the coast to the wharf at Whatipu. The mill
closed in 1921 when all the timber had been cut out.
Photo: Henderson Library
