History
Portage Road is the location of one of the 2 historical portages overland routes between the two coasts. Here the Maori would beach their waka (canoe)s and drag them overland to the other coast, thus avoiding having to paddle around North Cape.The second portage was named Karetu and went between the extreme north east corner of the Manakau harbour to a bay close to the site of the newest bridge across the Tamaki about 1km south of the Panmure basin. These portages made the area of immense strategic importance in both pre-European times and during the early years of European occupation.
In 1865, the estuary was first crossed by a steel swing bridge, located at Panmure, to improve connection between Auckland and Howick.The location is 20m to the left of the left hand (Panmure) bridge shown in the photo. Stones and steel had been imported from Australia, possibly reflecting the still very basic nature of industrial construction in the young colony. In the 1890s the mouth of the river was used as a safe anchorage for ships carrying explosives. One such ship, anchored in the mouth of the estuary ,caught fire and exploded with loss of life. After this the explosives buoy was moved into a more open area east of Browns Island (Motukorea), where it is still located.
Read more about this topic: Tamaki River
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