Awarua Rock is an unofficial name for an island on the coast of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Northland Region The Northland Region ( mi, Te Tai Tokerau) is the northernmost of New Zealand's 16 local government regions. New Zealanders sometimes refer to it as the Winterless North because of its mild climate all throughout the year. The main population ...

. It is located on the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coast, north of the entrance to

Whangārei Harbour Whangārei Harbour is a large harbour on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The harbour stretches from Whangārei City, and the termination of the Hātea River, south east around the Onerahi peninsula and out to the Pacific Oce ...

History

On 8 February 1907, the tugboat ''Awarua'', belonging to the Devonport Steam Ferry Company left

Whangārei Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the regional capital of Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, Whangārei District, a local body created in 1989 from the former Whangārei City, Whangārei County and ...

for Kauri Mountain — a prominent bluff north of

Bream Head Bream Head is a promontory on the east coast of Northland in the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the end of a 30 kilometre-long peninsula, the head juts into the Pacific Ocean to the southeast of Whangārei. The Hen and Chicken Islands ...

— to pick up logs to be delivered to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. While approaching the bluff, she struck an uncharted rock, known by some as 'Fannie Kelly Reef', and sank near the

Whangārei Heads Whangārei Heads is a locality and volcanic promontory on the northern side of the Whangārei Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. Whangārei is to the north-west, and Ocean Beach is to the south-east, with Taurikura between the two. Mount Man ...

. The ship was built in Blackwall, England in 1884 and weighed 159 tons. The crew all survived.Ingram, C. W. N., and Wheatley, P. O., (1936) ''Shipwrecks: New Zealand disasters 1795–1936.'' Dunedin, NZ: Dunedin Book Publishing Association. p. 380. In 1974, Awarua Rock was named as a possible site for extracting materials for roadmaking.

References

Islands of the Northland Region Uninhabited islands of New Zealand {{Northland-geo-stub