History
In earlier times, Maori used the Whau for travel between the Waitemata Harbour (on the Pacific east coast) and the Manukau Harbour (on the Tasman west coast). They paddled canoes up the Whau and the Avondale Stream and then carried the canoes over a short stretch of land to Green Bay on the Manukau. This is remembered in the name for Portage Road, which runs alongside the Avondale Stream, and it is known that seasonal Maori settlements existed at the mouth of the river. For many years after European settlement, there was talk of making a canal between the Whau and the Manukau.
European settlers used the Whau for marine transport and by 1865 there were five public wharves at New Lynn. Boats carried the products of local industries including brickworks, a leather tannery, a gelatine and glue factory and firewood cutting. The last commercial vessel to use the Whau was a flat-bottomed scow the Rahiri, which carried bricks and manuka firewood from the area until 1948. For nearly a hundred years, factories such as the tannery and an abbatoir discharged wastes directly into the Whau.
Friends of the Whau Inc. was formed in 1999 to restore the ecology of the Whau through revegetation and reduction of pollution.
The West End Rowing Club has been based on the Whau since 2001.
Read more about this topic: Whau River
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