Local History

The Ngaitai tribe, a hapu of Ngatipaoa, of Tainui descent, occupied this area long before the first European explorers arrived. There were few Maori in Whitford when the first settlers arrived due mainly to intertribal wars and European diseases. It is said to have been used as a place for catching eels, wood pigeons, shellfish and flounder (flounder are still fished for on the seashore in front of Seafields and wood pigeons can be seen in the area). There were three major fortified pas (settlements) of the area, behind the present Whitford Quarry, in the Maungamaungaroa and on the Turanga-Maungamaungaroa peninsula.

In the early days, Whitford was called Turanga, the Maori name of the river and which is said to mean the “standing up place”, referring to the estuary with its shallowness and channels in the mud. It wasn’t until 1900 and after considerable discussion that the settlement was renamed Whitford.

 

Broomfields Road is name after early settler William Broomfield, who came to the area as a sailor on the “Minerva” in 1847 aged 25 years. In 1857 he married Elizabeth Stevens in All Saints Church, Howick, and they went on to have 12 children. The Broomfields built a cottage at the Waikopua probably in 1858. They buried their valuables before retreating to Howick in late 1863 fearing a Maori attack. When they returned, a slip had come down covering the valuables which were never to be found again. In 1864 William Broomfield took over the position of ferryman on the Maungamaungaroa to Trices Landing. They were paid by the Marine Department to have a crate of candles in their cottage window, the lights identifying the entrance to the Turanga River.

 

Broomfields Landing, at the bottom of Broomfields Road is now a reserve. William Broomfield had another landing beside a large flat rock near a large pohutukawa tree.  Most landings were sandstone rock which at high tide made natural wharves.

The Broomfields scratched out a living on their 70 acre farm growing wheat and oats, as well as farming a few sheep, pigs, poultry and a house cow. Potatoes and fish were the staple diet and cockles, mussels, mullet, sprats, kingfish, parore, flatfish (flounder) and sharks were plentiful.

 

Water transport was the preferred method for early settlers in the Turanga, Waikopua and Maungamaungaroa districts with farm produce, firewood, charcoal and bricks being carried out by boat. A regular passenger service operated from 1848 until 1927, as clay roads, rough scoria and swamps made transport to Auckland slow and hazardous. Whitford hills were heavily forested with kauri trees from which many houses and schools were built. The timber was also used for furniture, boat building and spars for sailing ships. Early farmers supplemented their income by digging for Kauri gum which was used in the manufacture of varnish.