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Stonefields of South Auckland
In Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland), basalt lava stonefields once covered more than 8000 hectares of the Isthmus. These areas have been occupied for possibly the last 1000 years.
Volcanic cones and explosion craters are the most prominent features of the stonefields and were the focus of settlement and gardening. These natural vantage points also provided good lookouts for defence, broad expansive views of the surrounding land and harbours, and easy access to freshwater springs, food resources and building materials.
Maori fortified the volcanic cones by digging ditches and erecting palisades. Level platforms were constructed behind skilfully-crafted stone retaining walls and they were built up using scoria and rubble and volcanic ash.
Drystone walls were built down the slopes of the cones, mostly over natural raised outcrops of basalt lava. They radiated away from the pa and across the fields, dividing the stonefields into land-use blocks. The spaces in between the boundary walls were further subdivided into garden plots, and later earth and stone heaps developed as rocks were discarded from gardening.
Over the last 150 years urban development has extended across the volcanic landscapes. Roads and buildings have been constructed using quarried rock and scoria, and this development has significantly damaged the heritage values of many stonefield areas. It has been estimated that less than 200 of the original 8000 hectares today remain.
The volcanic landscape
Nearly half of Auckland’s 48 volcanic landforms are located in South Auckland. These landforms include volcanic cones, explosion craters, lava caves and stonefields. The largest and best-preserved scoria cone is Mangere Mountain. There are many other cones which have now been destroyed, and subsequently modified through quarrying or industrial development and subdivision.
The volcanic cones were formed through fire-fountaining eruptions. Magma which was rich in dissolved gas frothed up, and out of the vent and vesicular fragments of lava were thrown into the air. As they flew, the fragments cooled to form scoria. This accumulated around the vent and created a steep-sided cone, often with a central crater. Molten magma in the vent sometimes rose to the surface and erupted quietly into lava flows. These spread down the existing valleys and formed the lava fields on surrounding lowlands.
Te Manurewa o Tamapahore (Wiri Mountain) was a scoria cone built up on a lava pedestal above a sizable lava field. Matukutureia (McLaughlin’s Mountain) was formed through vigorous fire-fountaining. Radiocarbon dating of wood from beneath the lava flows indicates that the eruptions happened 30,000 years ago.
What are these stones and what do they tell us?
Maori used stone to build many different types of structures throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. They included heaps, rows, alignments, platforms, pavements, sub-surface drainage systems, houses, shelters, stone-faced pits and terraces, stone-walled defences, retaining walls and free-standing walls. Within 270 sites in the North Island alone, thousands of structures have been recorded. The structures are identifiably Polynesian and are known from a number of other Pacific Islands. Some structures had religious significance.
Walls
Walls are one of the major types of structures on the stonefields, with some being hundreds of metres long. They radiate out from the volcanic cones like the spokes on a wheel (‘radial boundary walls’) and divide the large fields into small blocks. One such block has been estimated to be one kilometre long and 50 metres wide. Other walls cut across these radial divisions at right-angles (‘cross boundary walls’) forming smaller plots. European drystone walls were built over the older Maori structures.
Rows and alignments
Stones were sometimes aligned in a single row, end-on-end. These differed from walls in that they were only one stone wide and did not have associated rock and earth additions. Parallel stone rows sometimes marked pathways through fields. In other places, they marked small garden plots, the base outline of field shelters and access-ways through boundary walls.
Terraces
Flat areas were dug into the slopes of ridges, knoll and spurs and were gardened or sometimes used for house or pit construction.
Temporary occupation and cooking shelters
Low three-rock-high walls, placed in an L- or C-shaped pattern, are often associated with shell midden, stone artefacts, hangi or cooking fires and hearths. These structures are thought to have been temporary, used seasonally by gardeners.
Houses and shelters
Low rock walls were built as the base foundations for houses. Constructed three-to-five rocks high, the walls formed a rectangle, had entrance-ways and porches and were usually located over raised lava outcrops. Less formal dwellings were also constructed.
Cleared areas and stone heaps
Cleared areas on the stonefields were gardened. Rocks were gathered together from the soil and placed on lava outcrops, or piled into heaps and rows around the edges. Soil was also gathered from exposed areas and used to artificially deepen the garden soils. Earth and rock mounds may have been also functioned as gardens.
Gardening on the stonefields
The tropical plants which survived colonisation and isolation in Aotearoa New Zealand were the kumara or sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), taro (Colocasia esculenta), uwhe or yam (Discoria species), hue or bottle gourd (Laganaria siceraria), ti a variety of the cabbage tree (Cordyline terminalis) and aute or paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera). It is also highly likely that tropical cultigens such as breadfruit, banana, coconut and sugar cane were brought by the first voyagers, but they did not survive the colder growing conditions. Kumara was most likely the major crop in the stonefield gardens, with yams, taro and gourds being of lesser importance. Bracken fern root was also probably harvested, cooked and eaten.Previous page: Marae Committee
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