Port Albert

Albertland's Capital that wasn't, Port Albert, is the tiniest shadow of the grand planned City in the north that never eventuated.

What was supposed to grow here was a large, prosperous Port City of free thinking Christians, supporting a wealthy and healthy farming province. Like many a dream that goes awry, it was the plan of a single young man. His name was Brame, William Rawson Brame, and he was after fame. Only in his early 20s, Brame was a minister of the church, who observed the fledging Anglican settlement of Canterbury and Presbyterian Scots making good in Otago, and decided to try his luck in the far North by bringing together alternative Christian ministries into a relatively settler friendly part of the North.

The reason the area to the East of the Kaipara, which came to be known as Albertland, was not hostile to settlers was that Maori here were recovering from the brutal musket wars, and with The Treaty of Waitangi under their belts, saw Pakeha neighbours as a protective and settling influence. The potential immigrants, were from the English working and middle classes, belonging to a variety of 'nonconformist' churches, and all ready for change, willing to stump up for their fares to the new land. Albertland was named for Queen Victoria's recently deceased husband, and the land itself, was provided by the Provincial Council, 40 Acres per person, in three blocks at Waiwera, Matakohe and west of Wellsford.

Travelling English working towns, Brame was lucky and canny in his advertising, as timing would have it, the United States was in the midst of the civil war, so discontented Britons were loooking for new pastures, and his sales pitch worked a treat. He recruited eight hundred keen souls with big talk about free land, and a Port town including a school, flourmill, library, newspaper office and sawmill.

What Brame left out of the frame was that his 'Great North Road' did not exist and that the Kaipara Harbour had claimed hundreds of ships and was not deemed suitable for regular shipping, let alone into the shallow mudflats where Port Albert was to be situated. The North desperately lacked infrastructure, the very same reason that Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is throwing capital at the down on it's luck region in the new millenium. The designated blocks were locked in by bush and difficult waterways and needed clearing before any potential farming would take place.

The passage was via Shaw Savill and Co. on the Matilda Wattenbach and the Hanover, with another ship to arrive later. When the first two sailings left the East India dock on the Thames in June 1862, 21,000 came to see off the two batches of settlers. They had a rough passage out, one of the ships suffering two broken masts coming around the Cape of Good Hope, and landed in Auckland to a very rough and ready town, where they were housed in Government barracks. What some settlers saw, was that if this was supposed to be civilised, the move up north would be even less so, and they decided to cut their losses, give up the Albertland opportunity and take up work in the growing city.

Trials and tribulations abounded for those who continued to the promised land, urged on by the increasingly less popular Brame. Transport via the invisible Great North Road was by cutter, foot and bullock cart, and took weeks, whether via Riverhead, Mangawhai or Kaipara. When they got there, there was nothing but scrub and ferns. Half never got as far as even visiting their promised homeland, and half again left straight away.

Those who remained became furious with Brame, and having earlier fallen out with the designated Minister, a Mr Edgar, he scuttled off in disgrace, and died suddenly from a brain hemorrhage in Auckland, aged only 30. However, they had come for a new life, and full of spirit and sentiment and sheer determination, the Albertlanders carved out a new home for themselves, cutting bush and toiling until they had created orchards from jungles. Slowly and gradually learning to trust the people of Ngati Whatua, under the Christian chiefs Paikea Te Hekeua and Arama Karaka, they began to trade, and to carve out paths for their goods to be transported to markets in Auckland. The orchards which saved this settlement, sustained them, and are the lifeblood of the community to this day.

Despite this rich and sometimes sad history, the only building listed here by Heritage New Zealand is a small settler cottage behind the Church, of which the history is unknown.

Further Reading: New Zealand Geographic have visited here and written the most excellent article.

Images Credit: Sir George Grey Special Collections Auckland Libraries