Mangere Inlet is an arm of the

Manukau Harbour The Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and opens out into the Tasman Sea. Geography The harbour mouth is between the northern head ("Burne ...

, the southwestern of the two harbours of

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 ...

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 ...

and itself an arm of the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

. The inlet lies between the

Auckland isthmus The Auckland isthmus, also known as the Tāmaki isthmus, is a narrow stretch of land on the North Island of New Zealand in the Auckland Region, and the location of the central suburbs of the city of Auckland, including the CBD. The isthmus i ...

and

South Auckland South Auckland is an imprecisely defined urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, with a young population, a relatively large Polynesian and Māori demographic, and lower incomes than other parts of Auckland. The name ''South Auckland'', though not ...

, and has a size of 6.6 km² and a catchment of 34.5 km², being considered to extend to just west of Onehunga (including where the

Port of Onehunga Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL), the successor to the Auckland Harbour Board, is the Auckland Council-owned company administering Auckland's commercial freight and cruise ship harbour facilities. As the company operates all of the associated f ...

is now situated). It is an environment highly modified by

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

and human uses, with the northern shoreline especially affected. However, the inlet also acts as a natural sedimentation sink, thus being especially at risk of contamination. It is surrounded by the suburbs of

Te Papapa Te Papapa is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located nine kilometres to the southeast of Auckland city centre, on the northern shore of Māngere Inlet, an arm of the Manukau Harbour. The residential and light-industrial suburb lies betw ...

, Southdown, Westfield,

Ōtāhuhu Ōtāhuhu is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand – to the southeast of the CBD, on a narrow isthmus between an arm of the Manukau Harbour to the west and the Tamaki River estuary to the east. The isthmus is the narrowest connection between the ...

Māngere East Māngere East or Mangere East is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, under the governance of Auckland Council. It is located to the south of Favona, north of Papatoetoe, west of Middlemore, east of Māngere and Māngere Bridge, and southwest ...

Favona Favona is a mostly industry-dominated suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, and is part of the Māngere area. The suburb is in the Manukau ward, one of the thirteen administrative divisions of Auckland city, and is under governance of the Auckland Co ...

, and Māngere Bridge. The narrowest point on the

is at

, where the coast of the Māngere Inlet is a mere 1200 m from the Otahuhu Creek, which ultimately feeds into the

Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2,Māngere Bridge (bridges), Māngere Bridge crosses the western end of the inlet where it joins the main body of the Manukau Harbour. At this point the inlet is about 750 m wide. The

Waikaraka Cycleway The Waikaraka Cycleway is an off-road cycleway in the south of the Auckland isthmus, New Zealand, running from the suburb of Wesley along New Zealand State Highway 20 to Onehunga and then continuing along the shoreline of the Manukau Harbour ...

also travels along the northern shoreline of the inlet. Ngarango Otainui Island is situated in the inlet at the eastern end near Ōtāhuhu.

History

The inlet was traditionally known as Te Waimokoia to

Tāmaki Māori Tāmaki Māori are Māori ''iwi'' and ''hapū'' (tribes and sub-tribes) who have a strong connection to Tāmaki Makaurau (the Auckland Region), and whose rohe was traditionally within the region. Among Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau (the M ...

. Te Tō Waka at

is the location of one of the overland routes between the two harbours (and thus the

Pacific Ocean 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 ...

and the

), where the Maori would beach their

waka Waka may refer to: Culture and language * Waka (canoe), a Polynesian word for canoe; especially, canoes of the Māori of New Zealand ** Waka ama, a Polynesian outrigger canoe ** Waka hourua, a Polynesian ocean-going canoe ** Waka taua, a Māori w ...

(canoes) and drag them overland to the other coast, thus avoiding having to paddle around

Cape Reinga , type =Cape , photo = Cape Reinga, Northland, New Zealand, October 2007.jpg , photo_width = 270px , photo_alt = , photo_caption = , map = New Zealand , map_width = 270px ...

. This made the area of immense strategic importance in both pre-European times and during the early years of European occupation. Portage Road, Ōtāhuhu approximately follows this route. In the 1850s, after settlement by Europeans, the areas around the inlet had become the agricultural centre of Auckland. Later industrial expansion westwards from the new railway line at Westfield led to increasing discharges of contaminants into the inlet. In 1947,

Dove-Myer Robinson Sir Dove-Myer Robinson (15 June 1901 – 14 August 1989) was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office. He was a colourful character and became affectionately known across New ...

(then a council member of the Auckland Drainage Board) suggested an alternative to the planned Motukorea / Browns Island sewage scheme, where the Māngere Inlet would be dammed beneath at the Māngere Bridge and all of Auckland's sewage sent to the inlet, acting as a large-scale oxidation pond filled with water hyacinths. The idea did not progress, and eventually the Manukau Wastewater Treatment Plant was opened, which included oxidation ponds located between

Puketutu Island Puketutu Island, also known as Te Motu a Hiaroa, is a volcanic island in the Manukau Harbour, New Zealand, and is part of the Auckland volcanic field. European settlers called it Weekes' Island, but this was eventually abandoned in favour of the ...

and

Māngere Māngere () or Mangere is one of the largest suburbs in Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on mainly flat land on the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of Manukau City Centre and 15 kilometres south of ...

Environment

The inlet is highly man-modified, with three embayments at the inlets of historic streams having been lost along the northern shore, to a significant degree for use as

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

s, and a loss of tidal inundation to the Hopua volcanic crater forming the Onehunga Basin further west. Ann’s Creek in the north-east still has a short section of open stream remaining in the north-east. Land reclamation in the 1960s for the Westfield Rail Yards also reduced the inlet in the east, while the southern shore is less modified. The area is generally known for relatively muddy, sedimented waters, which seem to predate human occupation of the area.

Mangrove swamp Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fre ...

fringes are present around most of the shoreline, becoming less common west of Māngere Bridge (bridges), Māngere Bridge. For many years the many industries, from meatworks and

abattoir A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

s, to

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

fertiliser works and other factories located here were discharging large amounts of untreated waste into the Manukau Harbour. This had a detrimental effect on the ecology of the harbour which at the turn of the 20th century had been a popular and attractive place to swim, sail, fish and gather shellfish. During the 1950s, the decomposition of organic wastes (including from residential areas and facilities like

Middlemore Hospital Middlemore Hospital is a major public hospital in the suburb of Otahuhu, Auckland, New Zealand. The hospital has approximately 800 beds. There are 24 operating theatres across two sites. History In 1943, during World War II, construction comme ...

into the mud flats led to sulphate reduction under

anaerobic Anaerobic means "living, active, occurring, or existing in the absence of free oxygen", as opposed to aerobic which means "living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen." Anaerobic may also refer to: * Anaerobic adhesive, a bonding a ...

conditions – leading to complaints about hydrogen sulphide smells, and blackening of lead paint in the areas around the inlet. From 1962, the Mangere sewage works removed many of the household and industrial wastes that were previously discharged and led to significant improvements. As of 2008, a number of coastal protection zones had been established around the shores of the inlet. However, industrial sewage mixed with stormwater overflows, and other contamination still leads to above-average traces of toxins like pesticides, insecticides, PCBs and copper in the mussels and oysters sampled by testing. In the discussions around

Stadium New Zealand Stadium New Zealand, often called the Waterfront Stadium, was the provisional name for a national stadium proposed for the Auckland waterfront to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The stadium never advanced beyond a concept design. The possible cho ...

, constructing the new venue over the eastern shoreline of the inlet was mooted by several architects as a potential alternative to the

Auckland CBD The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson. It is New Zealand's lea ...

location. They considered that the site would be far enough away from residential areas to suit the need for a large and busy multi-use stadium, but would also be able to be accessed easily by public transport (trains) and cars, more so than the CBD location. However, the idea failed to get public traction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mangere Inlet Coastline of New Zealand Geography of Auckland Landforms of the Auckland Region Inlets of New Zealand