W
airaka’s
W
aters
:
The Auckland Asylum
Springs
Lisa J Truttman
August 2007
2
(Above) Building 33, the formerMt Albert pumping stationbuilding, built 1904, designed byHenry H. Metcalfe. Photo takenby the author, 17 September 2006.(Right) The Takapuna PumpHouse, Killarney Park, besideLake Pupuke. Note mirror-imageplacement of door and windows,and compare with photograph ontitle page. Photo taken by theauthor 18 February 2007.Title page map detail from 1892 Map of Eden County, NZ Department of Lands and Survey(copy in Avondale-Waterview Historical Society Collection, also available as NZ Map 4785,Special Collections). This is one of the earliest maps of the asylum springs.Insert photograph of the Mt Albert pumping station on title page by very kind permission of Dick Scott, author of
In Old Mt Albert.
This was scanned from a published image of a 1911montage of the first Mt Albert Borough Council, 1911, opposite p.64 in the 1983 reprint of Mr. Scott’s book. The original image, and the montage, has not yet been found. My sincerethanks to Mr. Scott, and those who have hunted on my request for the original image.Printed by: Words Incorporated, 557 Blockhouse Bay Road, Blockhouse Bay, Auckland
3
Introduction
This work arose from out of a fascination for two topics: the story of the OakleyCreek as it flowed alongside the area of Waterview, past the site of a long vanishedflour mill near the present-day interchange of Great North Road and the North-western Motorway, and the story of the Auckland Lunatic Asylum, an institutionknown by many names since the first building was completed in 1867.Quite by chance in September 2006, while walking with a group from the Friends of Arataki and guided by the convenor of the Friends of Oakley Creek, Wendy Jon, Iwalked past a lovely brick building on the Unitec grounds (Building 33), and stoppedto take a photograph. I have a deep love for old buildings, and often take a photographthen think nothing more of it. Then, towards the end of that year, after an approachfrom a researcher (Marianne Simpkins) who was keen to find out as muchinformation as possible about the history of the area around a building on the Unitecgrounds (an old former pumphouse) which developers intended to convert into arestaurant – I looked at the photo again. And realised I had been looking at the old MtAlbert pumping station. During that same walk, I’d spoken to those with me about atyphoid epidemic which was centred on the springs we were then walking beside, anoutbreak that happened in the early 1920s. Looking at the photograph I had taken, Iknew I wanted to find out more about the pumphouse, the outbreak which closed itdown, and about the waters it is so intimately associated with.This paper is the result.My thanks to Marianne Simpkins who inspired me to do something about finding outmore; the staff at Auckland City Archives and Unitec; those also at SpecialCollections and Auckland Research Centre at Auckland City Library (Central); NorthShore City Libraries (Takapuna); and my friends who have listened patiently to metelling them how engrossed I have been with the story of an old brick building and aseries of water springs for months and months.
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Wairaka's Waters
Story of the Auckland Asylum springs at Pt Chevalier, site of the Mt Albert Borough Council pumphouse, and the 1922 Mt Albert typhoid epidemic.
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