Bastion Point

There is also a Bastion Point near Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia.

Bastion Point (Takaparawhau in Māori) is a coastal piece of land in Orakei, Auckland, New Zealand, overlooking the Waitemata Harbour. The area has significance in New Zealand history for its role in 1970s Māori protests against forced land alienation by non Māori New Zealanders. (from Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 2008-07-31.)

History

The land was occupied by Ngāti Whātua, in the period before the colonisation of New Zealand by the British Crown, and was part of important lands for the iwi (tribe), overlooking rich fishing and farming areas.

The surrounding land was bought or confiscated by the New Zealand Government for public works and development over a period stretching from the 1840s into the 1950s.

Occupation

In 1885, the NZ Government built a military outpost at Kohimarama, or Bastion Point, because it commanded good strategic positioning over Waitemata Harbour. It was not built on Takaparawhau Point, which had earlier been given to the Government for that purpose. In 1886, the Crown used the Public Works Act 1882 to take ownership of of Bastion Point for this purpose of defence. When, in 1941, the Crown no longer needed Bastion Point for defence, the ancestral Māori land was not returned to its traditional Māori owners but instead gifted to the Auckland City Council for a reserve. (This was the last of uncommitted land at...
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