History
Pouto lighthouse
Pouto is part of the ancestral land of the Te Uri o Hau hapu of Ngati Whatua. For Maori, the area had plentiful resources and easy access, and hence it came to be well populated following its settlement.
Pouto's early settlers have come by sea. Maori came from central eastern Polynesia by sailing canoe or waka in many separate voyages, and on occasions made return journeys to their homelands. Pouto's more recent economic and social history has been founded on the need to support safe passage of ships into and out of the Kaipara Harbour.
Both Abel Tasman in 1642 and James Cook in 1770 had sighted and made records of the coast but from the sea the huge harbour remained hidden. Du Fresne in 1772 was the first European to identify the entranceway to the harbour, and also to recognize that the land was inhabited.
Pouto lighthouse
The Reverend Samuel Marsden is acknowledged to have been the first European to see Kaipara from the land. He was accompanied and assisted by hospitable local Maori. Information was gathered in 1831 with assistance from Parore, one of Kaipara's principal chiefs, as to the qualities of the harbour. In 1836 this enabled the first two ships to make safe passage through the heads.
The constantly shifting sandbanks and the shoals on the bar caused many strandings and wrecks. The Kaipara North Head Lighthouse was built in 1884 in response to the continued loss of ships and lives.
The settlement grew in response to employment opportunities but by 1920 steamers had largely replaced sailing ships, and the large sawmills had closed as the kauri forests were exhausted. In 1947 the Kaipara Harbour was closed as a port of entry to New Zealand. In 1952 the light was dismantled and the lighthouse decommissioned. The associated houses were barged to various locations around the Kaipara.
Restoration and maintenance of the lighthouse is now being undertaken by the Historic Places Trust.
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