Welcome To Stony Batter !
Stony Batter was of part of a counter-bombardment battery system progressively being installed in the Hauraki Gulf from the 1930s. Composed of various gun batteries, such as at Whangaparaoa, Motutapu Island and at Stony Batter, as well as having observation posts such at Rangitoto Island (command post) and Tiritiri Matangi Island, it was supposed to engage enemy naval forces entering the inner gulf. Ranges would have been to far beyond the line of sight (over 30 km, thus the need for a complex set of observation points and communication lines), as well as at least initially beyond the range of most enemy ships' ability to retaliate.
While approved in 1939, construction was delayed for cost reasons until German raiders were sighted in New Zealand waters during 1940-1941, as well as the war entry of Japan in late 1941, suddenly turned it into a high-priority project. In 1942, the site on Waiheke was chosen, but it took until early 1943 before the Public Works Department was finally tasked with construction after other contractors declined the job. Delays were caused by the remote location, which at first had no road access, and also by the fact that the project was kept in strict secrecy, requiring with a large degree of self-sufficiency during the construction period, complete with its own living facilities and machine shops. The new battery was generally referred to only as A2, to conceal its location.
The tunnels and underground chambers were quarried by hand, with formwork for the walls and ceilings, then filled with concrete (reinforcing steel was not used due to shortages). Aggregate was obtained from the prominent rocky outcrops, giving Stony Batter its name. The tunnels and chambers where designed based on plans of the Tawa Flat Railway Tunnel project. The work on the installations, sans guns, was completed behind schedule in 1944, and had by then ballooned from initial estimates of £140,000 to £327,966, excluding the costs of the guns. Construction of the battery was, however, considered a major feat of engineering, carried out under particularly difficult circumstances. As the tides of war turned, only two guns were installed, one in 1944, and one in 1948. The third gun was cancelled before shipment. Never fired except for testing and training purposes, the guns were dismantled and sold for scrap in 1961.
The battery is now in the hands of a preservation society, which keeps it open for the public under a concession from DOC. The preservation society is currently trying to source an appropriate artillery piece to restore at least one gunpit to a similar state as it would have appeared in late WWII.
Stony Batter Curattor - Sue
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From The island News
Ten years ago this month Waiheke historian Paul Monin helped launch the Stony Batter Protection and Restoration Society. Below is an excerpt from the article he wrote in 2000 for Forts and Works journal outlining a brief history of Stony Batter and the need for its protection.
Stony Batter has two overlapping modern histories.
Firstly, a military one of construction, limited proofing and decommissioning; and secondly, a local one of dispute and litigation centred on the road that runs through the north-eastern part of Waiheke, the location of the historic defence site. Past and present issues have merged into a volatile mix that has yet to be resolved.
The recent formation of the Stony Batter Protection and Restoration Society fills a major gap in the national network of local interest groups committed to the conservation of New Zealand’s coastal defence heritage.
This counter bombardment fortress site on Waiheke, managed by the Department of Conservation (DoC) as an historic reserve, had fallen into serious neglect since its decommissioning by the army in the early 1960s.
In the past 15 months, however, this situation has been turned around substantially by working bees of the newly formed local group in addition to increased works input from DoC.
Construction of the 9.2-inch gun batteries at Stony Batter and Whangaparaoa, to provide outer-gulf defence for the port of Auckland against enemy cruisers and raiders, commenced in 1942. A third such battery was constructed at Wrights Hill, Wellington.
The walk from the carpark to the historic reserve offers stunning views of the gulf.
In January 1944 the War Cabinet cancelled the third gun for all three batteries. Work on Stony Batter which lagged behind that on the other two batteries, was completed in 1948. It appears that one of its guns was proofed in 1951. In 1954 all of the equipment likely to suffer rapid deterioration was removed and in the early 1960s the site was abandoned by the Army and most of the material disposed of or sold for scrap. Many of the army huts and the recreation hall of the Army/PWD camp were sold to buyers on the island.
Then Stony Batter languished for about 20 years, becoming an increasingly popular visitor destination, while local scavengers stripped the site of any remaining moveable materials like copper piping. With the completion of the Waiheke loop road in the 1970s, access to the site was greatly improved. At the time there was every reason to expect this part of Waiheke to remain a quiet place, well clear of the political limelight. How wrong we were.
The efforts in 1982 of industrialist Mr John Spencer, the new owner of the surrounding sheep station, to purchase the historic site from the Crown sparked a public outcry on the island. Determined that it remain in public ownership, Waiheke residents formed the Save The Tunnels Action Group and circulated a petition that attracted 2000 signatures.
The Waiheke County Council lent its support to the campaign. Success came in January 1983 when the Lands Settlement Board rejected a government recommendation that the defence works be sold to Mr Spencer. In 1984, as a prerequisite to establishing the Stony Batter Historic Reserve, the Crown completed the negotiation of easements with Mr Spencer which provided daytime pedestrian access.
Thus the historic reserve administered by DoC was achieved, but the section of the eastern Waiheke road that traverses Mr Spencer’s property remained a volatile issue. While the county council maintained that it was a legal public road, Mr Spencer insisted that it was not, since it was not registered as such on his titles. On the amalgamation of Waiheke into Auckland City in 1989, the Auckland City Council inherited the dispute.
In September 1992 Mr Spencer closed the road to traffic by bulldozing mounds and installing gates at both ends – still the prevailing situation. Since then the dispute has been before the courts, but optimists are hopeful of a final judicial ruling later this year.
Over this period the management needs of Stony Batter were overshadowed by the road dispute. However, with indications that the litigation was shortly to run its course, these management needs became more pressing, since any improvement in access would trigger increased visitor numbers.
I, for one, realised what could be achieved locally, on attending the Coastal Defence Heritage National Workshop on 12-13 April 1997 in Wellington.
Presentations there on the impressive achievements of the Wright’s Hill Fortress Restoration Society and the Fort Taiaroa Society laid down the gauntlet for us. Soon after, vandalism at the magazine of gun number three, involving the removal of several hundred bricks, made it clear that time was of the essence.
Better quality information was now available in the DoC research report on Stony Batter and Whangaparaoa, completed by Peter Corbett in December 1996. Research by others into the Army archives was also coming to light.
The subjects of numerous hastily-researched newspaper articles over the years, Stony Batter has acquired a history embellished with myth and legend. The time had come to get the history right and to pass it on to visitors to enrich their experience. Moreover, there was no time to lose, tracking down and recording the recollections of surviving veteran gunners and PWD workers.
At a public meeting on Waiheke in July 1998, concerns over vandalism and safety at Stony Batter were discussed and the objectives of a protection society canvassed. As a result, a steering committee was created and a series of working bees undertaken at the site, in close consultation with DoC.
Sue Pawley, who spent her early years at Man O’ War Bay, the daughter of a serviceman stationed at Stony Batter, quickly emerged as the driving force behind the group. On 15 September 1999 the society was formally created, with the election of officers and committee members, the approval of rules and an initial sign up of members. The incorporation of the society was completed in January 2000. Already the membership stands at about 50 and is fast rising.
The society is currently engaged in discussions with DoC on its works programme for 2000 and an agreement delineating the rights and responsibilities of the two parties in the management of Stony Batter.
The efforts of the society have already won high praise from DoC archaeologist Dave Veart who described the first working bee in October 1998 as “absolutely stunning, the best of any of these things I’ve been involved in”.
As DoC historic resources project manager Paul Mahoney acknowledged at the 1997 workshop, ultimately the protection of coastal defence heritage cannot be assured without community intervention.
Spurred on by our efforts, we would like to think, at the end of 1999 DoC installed foot plates over the considerable length of drains in the tunnels and chambers. It also installed additional grates over vents and repaired safety signage. Never has the site been safer.
Apart from carrying out general maintenance work, the society is restoring war shelter number two, at the entrance to the site, to serve as an information centre and museum. In the longer term we hope to reactivate the toilets in this building, as well as some underground, which will require the repair of at least part of the historic water supply system. The feasibility of doing so seems promising. Over the holiday period Sue Pawley has been guiding visitors through the defence complex.
The society also aims to heighten awareness of the history of Man O’ War Bay, a watering wooding station for Royal Navy vessels in the 1840s and 50s, and of the Fortress Observation Post at Matiatia, built in 1938 to assist with the sighting of the six-foot guns on Motutapu. •
Watch Sue Talk About Stony Batter and the Challenges of Saving The Site:
Listen To Toyko Rose - A Voice That Many New Zealanders Had to Endure During the War:
Click PLay Arrow At Left (or right-click save)
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In June 2006, the Stony Batter site was closed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, which owns the reserve, after an unspecified complaint was laid against one of the preservation society's members by a visitor. The reserve was reopened to the public August 15th 2007, partly due to public pressure after 3,000 signatures had been collected in favour of the proposal.
