Owairaka (Auckland) Traditional Geocache

The high cone of Owairaka was littered with loose pieces of scoria when Europeans first began to settle in Mt Albert in the 1840's. They used it for building walls, many of which remain around the reserve and local gardens.

In 1867 a ballast pit was opened on Owairaka. The ballast pit was an open quarry which supplied scoria to both local councils and private citizens. In the 1880's the Auckland to kaipara railway was extended and a Self Action Incline Tramway was constructed by New Zealand Railways on the northern slopes of the mountain. The scoria was used for building the railway line with the sleepers laid on top of it.

Two trucks operated at a time on this tramway and ran on a single track, with a twin tracked passing bay. The weight of the full truck running down the slope pulled the empty truck up. They passed each other at the passing bay. The tramway ran from a terminus south of Mt Albert Road up the mountain on a slope of 1:25 and 1:3. The track extended into the quarry where it divided into three parallel track. A branch line transported scoria from Owairaka to join the Auckland-Kaipara railway west of the Mt Albert Railway Station.

The ballast pit operated for over 60 years, 1867-1928, and reduced the height of Owairaka from its original 148m to 135m. Less than half the original land surface of the domain remains and most of the Maori terraces have been destroyed.

In the 1920's two reservoirs were built, one either side of the entry by the Mt Albert Borough Concil. These are both now disused and the northern one has been demolished. One of the craters was levelled to form the football field while the other was used as the site of the ARC reservoir which was built in 1945.

The floor of the ballast pit was flattened and has been used for many years by the Mountain Green Archery Club. Further damage was done to the remaining terraces when the inside face of the ballast pit was smoothed in 1961. At the same time the Trig point was moved from the rim of the ballast pit to its present position.

A small quarry operated from time to time during the 1950's and 60's. it was sited on the south-west corner of the mountain where La Veta Avenue now is.

The heritage values of the mountain have been recognised more recently and it is now protected as a Recreation Reserve under the Reserves Act 1977. It is also a scheduled Archaeological and Geological Feature listed in the Proposed District Plan 1993.

 

Mt Albert has the distinction of having previously been the only junction station on the Western Line, with a branch running from immediately north of the station to the near-by volcanic cone after which the suburb is called. Here NZR operated a quarry from the 1880s until the 1920s. No trace of this long gone operation remains near the station, although there's evidence of it elsewhere along its former route.