GREAT ASSET

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 461, 17 September 1928, Page 13

GREAT ASSET

i i j FREEMAN’S BAY RECLAM- | ATION RETURNS HAR- | BOUR BOARD OVER j £17,000 A YEAR. j i BUSY COMMERCIAL CENTRE Of the 67 acres of land at Freeman’s Bay reclaimed by the Auckland Harbour Board, only eight sections remain unleased. This magnificent asset, not so many years ago part of the Waitemata Harbour, returns the board something like £17,600 a year in income from rentals. Altogether, the work of reclaiming the 67 acres cost about £250,000, but this was expended over a number of years. The work of reclamation was started in 1906, and the Harbour Board engineer’s report of 1907 makes first reference to its good progress. Freeman’s Bay is now Auckland’s oil centre. Each company has its tanks there, and the oil ships from overseas discharge their cargo at Western Wharf, which was specially designed for this purpose. The possibilities of fire have been reduced to a minimum, and if any serious conflagration did take place the outbreak would be concentrated. Apart from the oil depots, however, many large bulk stores and engineering works have been erected on the reclaimed land, which from a watery waste has grown into a busy commercial centre.

When the reclaimed land was laid out, provision was made for wide streets. The Harbour Board also reserved for itself a strip 100 feet wide to the north of Jellicoe Street, which in time to come will be used for railway sidings, etc. When the new vehicular ferry is complete, Freeman’s Bay will be still more busy, as the whole of the vehicular traffic to the north of the North Shore will find an outlet there. * As far back as 1886 the sum of £30,000 was authorised to be spent on the reclamation of the land which is now Victoria Park. This was completed in 1900, and leased to the City Council. This work was such a success that the Freeman’s Bay project was considered. In 1906, when the work was started, the Gas Company was making coal bins by cutting down the cliffs at the back of its property. The spoil from this was used on the western reclamation, and thus reduced the cost considerably.

By 1908 five and a-half acres of land were ready for use, and in 1909 the first sections of the new area were surveyed. The following year the first sections were leased. After that, progress went unhindered, and the demand for the sections increased, until to-day only eight remain unleased. Now the Harbour Board Is engaged on the western reclamation, which, when completed, will give the board another 26 acres of land stretching out into the harbour.

The work Is going ahead as fast as possible, and at low tide the new land makes it appearance above the water. Most of the spoil is being dredged from the harbour bottom, but later on It will be strengthened by other spoil from the shore.