HISTORY
THE HUIA SETTLERS MUSEUM

Early Maori
The Huia area was an important food source of fish, shellfish and eel for Maori. The fertile flat areas adjoining the lower reaches of streams are known to have been used for growing kumara and taro, and the valleys were a source of totara for canoes. Pa sites, multiple rock shelters, middens and food storage pits have been identified, and it is known there are more sites yet to be discovered. The Museum is proud of its small but important collection of early Maori taonga from around the region.

Kauri Logging and Milling
The museum holds a large display of saw milling and pit sawing equipment, wood working tools and many early photographs depicting this era. European occupation of the Huia began in 1863, with timber milling and farming. Timber mills were built at the mouths of the main streams, and nearby kauri groves were quickly felled and milled by water-wheel driven machinery. Great numbers of trees in the upper reaches were cut into logs that were rolled into the valley streams, then flushed down to the mills using log dams. 

European Settlement
Settlements grew around these ‘bush mills’, while other families turned to clearing the bush to establish small farms on the flats and foothills. Huge quantities of ti-tree (manuka) firewood were cut for the towns of Onehunga and Auckland. Roads were little more than mud tracks in those early days. Huia’s lifeline was the harbour which provided convenient access by boat to Onehunga. The museum houses an extensive collection of early household items including crockery, bottles, day to day utensils, washing copper, a mangle, wash board and ironing implements.

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Other interesting artefacts 
These include a widely descriptive photographic collection dating back to the early 1800’s, and a collection of native and exotic birdlife. We have a range of local books available for purchase.
Follow the history of the old Huia Store and Post office, originally established in 1886. Read about the many phases of the Huia School which opened around 1892 in the mill mess hall, then to its own site around 1894. It is now currently operating as The Huia Lodge.
Remember the old party line telephone exchange, the gramophone?.  Many of our items will take you on a trip down memory lane. 
There are histories of several early pioneering families of the local are recorded, some of their descendants still reside in the Huia area today.  Information about early local tragedies ( of which there are a few ) can be found in various documents.  Information and photos of Whatipu, Cornwallis, Parau and Laingholm can also be found here.

Watercare Dams 
In the 1920’s work started on the Upper Huia Dam. This was a massive project for its time and involved the construction of a wharf at Huia and a rail line to the construction site. The dam was completed in 1928, and still provides water to the city of Auckland along with the more recent Lower Huia Dam and the Nihotupu Dams in Parau.