Waitākere Reservoir is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on the Waitakere River in the

Waitākere Ranges The Waitākere Ranges is a mountain range in New Zealand. Located in West Auckland between metropolitan Auckland and the Tasman Sea, the ranges and its foothills and coasts comprise some of public and private land. The area, traditionally kno ...

, west 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 ...

. The dam was completed in 1910 and is a concrete

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. ...

with a slight curvature. It has a lake area of 25.1 hectares and a capacity of 1.76 million cubic metres. The

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

is accessible from the Montana Heritage Trail, a bush hike in the region.

History

By the late 19th century, Auckland City was plagued with seasonal water droughts. A number of options were considered to counter this, including the construction of water reservoirs in the Waitākere Ranges. The Waitākere Dam was first of a number of dams in the ranges to counteract this issue. In 1905, a decision was made to dam the

Waitākere River The Waitākere River is a river of the Auckland Region of New Zealand's North Island. It flows north then west from its sources in the Waitākere Ranges, reaching the Tasman Sea at Te Henga / Bethells Beach, to the south of Muriwai Beach. The up ...

at the location of the Waitākere Falls, then a popular tourist site. The township of

Swanson Swanson is a brand of TV dinners, broths, and canned poultry made for the North American and Hong Kong markets. The former "Swanson Company" was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, where it developed improvements of the frozen dinner. The TV dinner bu ...

was a major source of labour for the project. A tramway was constructed between the Waitākere Falls site and the township, in order to transport supplied from the Swanson railway station. By 1907, the tramline and pipeline tunnels had been completed, connecting the future dam to a reservoir at Ponsonby. Thomas Billington & Sons' tender to construct the concrete dam was accepted in May 1907. The concrete foundations began construction in 1908. The dam project suffered a major setback in May 1910, when a torrential rain caused a landslip upstream of the dam. The landslip caused the dam to burst, flooding the Waitākere River valley and scattering timber and construction tools. Despite the setback, the gap in the dam was mended, and the dam was completed by December 1910. Between 1926 and 1928 the dam was raised an additional five metres in height. During the same period, a filtration station was built at Swanson by a Dalmatian New Zealander work force. The filtration station continues to be used today. The construction of the Waitākere Dam permanently reduced the flow of the Waitākere River, greatly impacting the

Te Kawerau ā Maki Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Kawerau a Maki, or Te Kawerau-a-Maki is a Māori ''iwi'' (tribe) of the Auckland Region of New Zealand. It had 251 registered adult members as of June 2017. Auckland Council gave it land for a marae at Te Henga (Bethells Be ...

community at Te Henga / Bethells Beach. Between the 1910s and 1950s, most members of Te Kawerau ā Maki moved away from their traditional

rohe The Māori people of New Zealand use the word ''rohe'' to describe the territory or boundaries of ''iwi'' (tribes), although some divide their rohe into several ''takiwā''. The areas shown on the map (right) are indicative only, and some iwi ...

in search of employment or community with other Māori. In 1991, the dam was emptied entirely, so that work could be done to strengthen the dam wall. This was completed in early 1993. In 1976, the Waitakere Tramline Society was formed, which offered tourist tram rides along the remaining section of the Waitakere Tramline. This continued until 2014, when the tramline was closed due to safety concerns.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waitakere Reservoir 1910 establishments in New Zealand 1910s architecture in New Zealand Buildings and structures in the Auckland Region Lakes of the Auckland Region Reservoirs in New Zealand Waitākere Ranges Waitākere Ranges Local Board Area West Auckland, New Zealand