Protecting Our Heritage

Maori Heritage Archaeological Sites Local Government Heritage Covenants Funding for Heritage Protection Heritage at Risk

May 2002

Cook Landing Site, Gisborne

The current risk to this site is not new. The compromise of the site's relationship within its wider context has been a matter of local and national concern for more than 50 years.

(Note: The Department of Conservation manages the Cook Landing Site)

Compare the recent view from the lookout on Kaiti Hill above the Cook Landing site (above) with the historical photo taken on "Cook Day" in 1906 (below) Picture: Tairawhiti Museum

The site, in Gisborne, of the first point of contact on land between Maori and Pakeha and of Cook's first landing in New Zealand is an historic site of immense importance. In 1990 its designation as a National Historic Reserve reinforced this status. The current risk to this special place is not new. The compromise of the site's relationship with its wider context, and in particular its links to the sea and views across Poverty Bay to Te Kuri a Paoa (Young Nick's Head), has been a matter of local and national concern for more than fifty years.

The comparison of this photo with the one above highlights the amount of reclamation and building development which has gradually eroded the National Historic Reserve's place and link with the sea. Photo: Tairawhiti Museum

The site has changed dramatically since 1906 when Sir James Carroll unveiled a granite monument there. In 1957 the new Regional Committee of the Historic Places Trust began the struggle to retain a satisfactory relationship between the site and the sea. Years of persistence were rewarded when a small area was finally set aside as a reserve in 1964. It took nearly thirty more years, until 1990, to establish a scenic easement (the Cone of Vision) from the monument to the sea. But this has not protected the site's integrity.

Today industrial buildings hem the monument in and views to the sea are obscured by piles of logs and wood chips which are deemed temporary and therefore allowed under the 1990 decision. Today only the Cone of Vision issue is delaying the Gisborne District Plan from becoming operative. Despite three years of mediation a solution has yet to be reached. The ideal solution will allow the Port of Gisborne to grow but protect the integrity of the Landing Site.

The Tairawhiti Museum has agreed to try to mediate a solution. Director Mike Spedding is consulting all parties with an interest not just in the Landing Site but also in the surrounding area, which is for some of equal if not greater significance. Commenting on progress, he says "we have made contact with a large number of parties. We have already received some submissions and there is a very strong desire to mediate a solution that will be acceptable to everyone." In 2000 the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, and the Minister of Maori Affairs, Parekura Horomia, indicated, after visiting the site, that they would look forward to receiving proposals relating to it. Once a solution is identified, tangible support will be sought from central government.

Trust Board Member Dame Anne Salmond considers the comments of former Trust Chairman Sir Neil Begg in 1987 still relevant. Sir Neil said, "In my view there is no other single site of such significance in the history of New Zealand … in one afternoon in October 1769, the Maori people suddenly found themselves face to face with a European technological world. Their history has changed irreversibly since that day. This meeting place of the races is also, of course, a meeting place of land and sea. [To sever the] links between this site and the sea would be a major loss of essential qualities of the site."

You can assist the Trust to demonstrate that its members support efforts to maintain these links by telling us your views by letter to Gail Henry, Lower North Island Area Coordinator, P O Box 13339, Tauranga or email her.