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North Shore Heritage Thematic Review Report ... - Auckland Council

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Theme 2 Infrastructure<br />

2.1 Transport<br />

2.1.1 Water Transport<br />

From the earliest days of settlement people relied on private dinghies and larger vessels to get themselves<br />

and the goods they produced to <strong>Auckland</strong> city. When the ferries became regular and reliable this was no<br />

longer necessary.<br />

There was no regular transport linking Flagstaff (Devonport) to <strong>Auckland</strong> until 1854 when the <strong>Auckland</strong><br />

Provincial <strong>Council</strong> contracted the services of an open ferryboat, which carried 20 passengers. In 1860 the<br />

<strong>Council</strong> accepted a tender from Captain Kreft for a ferry service in the small ship Emu, which sank off<br />

Motutapu Island in the same year. In 1864 Holmes Bros built the Flagstaff Hotel and wharf at the bottom<br />

of Victoria Road, and applied to run a cutter service. Their vessel, Enterprise, began the first scheduled ferry<br />

service in 1865.<br />

g. 3. Ferry Enterprise. T. Walsh, Wherry to Steam Ferry, 1932, facing p.25.<br />

Battles raged for some years between rival companies, as noted previously. In 1885 the Devonport Steam<br />

Ferry Company (DSFC) was formed by Ewen Alison and others. The DSFC fleet began with the paddle<br />

steamers, Tongariro and Tainui. They were followed by the Victoria, Alexandra, Eagle, Britannia and Osprey. The<br />

ferry commute became part of the social fabric of Devonport as people formed friendships and business<br />

connections during the 30-minute crossings. Thanks to the ferries, Devonport also became a favourite<br />

destination for weekend outings. 20<br />

In 1911 a vehicular ferry service began, with the Goshawk landing vehicles on a pontoon at the end of<br />

Victoria wharf. The new specially engineered wharf for the vehicular ferry was built in 1927, and<br />

guaranteed that Devonport would remain an important transit point for goods and traffic for the next 30<br />

years. With the opening of the <strong>Auckland</strong> Harbour Bridge, traffic by-passed Devonport and the <strong>North</strong> <strong>Shore</strong><br />

Ferry Company, formed in 1959, scrapped most of the old ferries, retaining only the Kestrel.<br />

20 John Morton, „The Island Borough‟, The Hundred of Devonport, p.24.<br />

<strong>North</strong> <strong>Shore</strong> <strong>Heritage</strong> - <strong>Thematic</strong> <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Report</strong><br />

Fi<br />

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