Port Albert is situated on the shores of the

Kaipara Harbour Kaipara Harbour is a large enclosed harbour estuary complex on the north western side of the North Island of New Zealand. The northern part of the harbour is administered by the Kaipara District and the southern part is administered by the Auckla ...

, approximately 8 kilometres west of

Wellsford Wellsford (Māori: ''Whakapirau'') is a town on the Northland Peninsula in the northern North Island of New Zealand. It is the northernmost major settlement in the Auckland Region, and is 77 kilometres northwest of the Auckland CBD. Wellsford i ...

, in the Auckland Region 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 ...

. Originally called Albertland, it was the last of the major organised British settlements in New Zealand. The area has become known for its well draining soil, which has made it good agricultural land.

History

In 1861 William Rawson Brame, a Birmingham Baptist minister, founded the Albertland Special Settlement Association, organising non-conformist immigrants to come to New Zealand as part of the last organised

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

settlement in New Zealand. They included farmers, carpenters, servants, butchers, joiners, cabinetmakers, millers, drapers, sawyers, clerks and many other trades.Borrows, J.L. (1969). Albertland. A.H & A.W Reed. Auckland Albertland, named for Prince Albert, was planned as a large-scale settlement, and was one of the final settlements sponsored by the colonial government. The Albertlanders set sail for New Zealand on 29 May 1862, aboard numerous ships including the ''Matilda Wattenbach'', ''Hanover'' and ''William Miles''. The ''Matilda Wattenbach'', which in some documents is referred to simply as the ''Matilda'', made it to Auckland first on 8 September 1862, and the new settlers made their own way to the settlement of Albertland (now known as Port Albert). On 21 January 1862, a party set out from

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 ...

heading northward along the east coast in a whale boat. On board the boat were two Non-Conformist Settlement Associates, a provincial Surveyor and five men rowing the boat. The group landed late that afternoon at Wade (now Silverdale) where they stayed the night before setting off the next day on foot up the Waiwera Valley having to cross several creeks on the way. From there they set off by boat heading for the Puhoi river where there was a Maori settlement. This area of land would have been suitable for the Albertland settlement due to it covering both the west and east of the Island; however, the Maori had a claim to the water frontage of both sides of the island so landing would have been hard for the settlers. The explorers then surveyed a block just north of

Helensville Helensville is a town in the North Island of New Zealand. It is sited northwest of Auckland, close to the southern extremity of the Kaipara Harbour. State Highway 16 passes through the town, connecting it to Waimauku to the south, and Kauka ...

called the Komokoriki block. This block was so overgrown that the explorers struggled to walk through the dense bush and it would require too much work to bring it back to productive farming land. They then heard of the Oruawharo block on the Kaipara Harbour and decided to head back to Silverdale to get fresh supplies before attempting the five-day trek to this block. After surveying the majority of the Okahukura Peninsula the explorers gained information from residents who lived on the

Oruawharo River The Oruawharo River is a river on the North Auckland Peninsula of New Zealand. It flows westward into the Kaipara Harbour west of Wellsford. It forms part of the boundary between the Northland region and the Auckland Region. The New Zealand Min ...

and decided to create the Albertland settlement a few kilometres up where there was good scrubland and bush with

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of 22 species of evergreen tree. The genus is part of the ancient conifer family Araucariaceae, a group once widespread during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but now largely res ...

for building, using an

Auckland Provincial Council The Auckland Province was a province of New Zealand from 1853 until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. Area The province covered roughly half of the North Island of New Zealand. It was the largest of the six initial provinces, both ...

scheme which "...provided each for a man and his wife, and for each child between five and 18 years old – provided they paid their own fare and stayed on the land for five years, built a house, and began farming...". A sign at Port Albert concludes: :More immigrant ships followed, but isolation and difficulties of access hindered progress and the original plans for a township at Port Albert were thwarted.

Demographics

Statistics New Zealand describes Port Albert as a rural settlement, which covers . Port Albert is part of the larger Okahukura Peninsula statistical area. Port Albert had a population of 120 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, a decrease of 6 people (−4.8%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 24 people (25.0%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 45 households, comprising 60 males and 60 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.0 males per female. The median age was 46.7 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 24 people (20.0%) aged under 15 years, 15 (12.5%) aged 15 to 29, 63 (52.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 24 (20.0%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 87.5% European/Pākehā, 22.5% Māori, 0.0% Pacific peoples, 2.5% Asian, and 2.5% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 60.0% had no religion, 25.0% were Christian, 2.5% were Hindu and 2.5% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 12 (12.5%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 18 (18.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $30,400, compared with $31,800 nationally. 21 people (21.9%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 48 (50.0%) people were employed full-time, 12 (12.5%) were part-time, and 3 (3.1%) were unemployed.

References

External links

Albertland and Districts museum
{{Rodney Local Board Area Rodney District Populated places in the Auckland Region Populated places around the Kaipara Harbour

History

Demographics

See also

References

External links