The New Navy Museum site
The new Navy Museum is due to be opened in October. The re-fitting of the Museum buildings and the planning and layout of the displays has been keeping the Museum staff, and the contractors, at full stretch over the last year.
A key part of the project has also been a formal archaeological investigation of the site, because Torpedo Bay had been an integral part of Auckland’s defences since colonial times. But the investigations also uncovered evidence of a prehistoric Maori settlement, showing that the site was attractive to New Zealand’s earliest settlers.
Mica Plowman, Senior Archaeologist, reported that the signs of prehistoric settlement, excavated and identified by her team, have provided an additional aspect to the human activities recorded at Torpedo Bay. Given the tradition of the Tainui landing at the bay, as part of the 9th century Polynesian migration to New Zealand, the evidence uncovered, of stone adze manufacture and the hunting of Moa, have provided significant material for research into early settlement of the area.
In the mid-19th century, commercial ship building was established at Torpedo Bay, using local timbers to build coastal sailing ships.
But the main historic feature at Torpedo Bay is the Submarine Mining Base which was begun in 1886 as part of the coastal defences of Auckland. By 1899 the base had been rebuilt and expanded, although it incorporated some of the earlier buildings. The buildings completed in 1899, today represent the last intact 19th century Mine Base in New Zealand.
Thus the refurbishment of the site for the Navy Museum has provided an opportunity for insight into late 19th century building techniques, New Zealand’s early coastal defences and, into pre-historic Maori settlement.
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