The Rodney district has many sites and buildings of historic significance.
A small selection of the places open to the public are presented here.
Please note that entry is not necessarily free, sometimes admission is
by donation or koha. Please pay a visit and help keep our heritage places
alive!
Remember to visit the properties in the care of the Historic Places Trust
- you can find out more about those in the Auckland region by clicking
the map at right.
Cement Works Ruins
Hepburn Creek Road, Warkworth
The ruins of the cement works and the associated quarry,
now flooded and forming a lake, were the first Portland cement
works in the Southern Hemsiphere.
Nathaniel Wilson constructed a number of kilns and conducted
experiments before he was sucessful in the technique of cement
manufacture. The largest building on the site was constructed
in 1903, the year John Wilson and Company became a public
company. The Warkworkth works were closed in 1928 but Wilsons
Portland cement is still being made at Portland.
When copper was discovered on Kawau Island in 1844 miners
were brought from Auckland and Sydney and later from Cornwall.
As the mine was below sea
level a pumphouse was constructed around 1847. Despite this,
flooding caused the eventual closure of the mine in 1851.
A 21m high brick chimney and a section of wall are all that
remain of the original Mahurangi stone and brick pumphouse.
The ruins are a reminder of one of the earliest underground
mines in the country and the industrial processes of the day.
Governor Grey purchased the island in 1862 including
the red brick house which had been the residence of
the mine manager. Grey had the house extended and two
new wings were added. In 1888 he sold the property to
Eliza Thomson and she added the distinctive verandah.
Much of the original building has been reconstructed
and is now a house museum within the Hauraki Gulf Maritime
Park.
The smelting house was built to smelt the copper ore
mined on Kawau. Constructed of soft Mahurangi stone
bonded with lime mortar, it was built during 1847-9
by Cornish miners and a group of smelterers from Wales.
Today only the arched front wall and sections of the
side and back walls remain. The smelting house and pumphouse
ruins at Miners Point are important as one of the earliest
mining sites in New Zealand.
Learn
more about the historic sites in the care of the Historic Places
Trust located in and around the