Mission accomplished

WORDS: JAMIE DOUGLAS • IMAGERY: MARCEL TROMP

Mission

accomplished

The future of Mission Bay’s Melanesian Mission, an Auckland icon, is now assured

Melanesia’s inclusion into modern-day Auckland’s melting pot of cultures can be pinpointed to a Tudor Revival stone building nestled near the water’s edge at Mission Bay that was built 160 years ago next year.

The Melanesian Mission building and site on Tamaki Drive has many layers of history, particularly its connection with Ngāti Whātua and Ngāti Paoa iwi as an area of pre-European settlement, food gathering and travel routes. The importance of that connection and the building that originally served early Anglican missionary ideals was succinctly articulated by the Archbishop of Melanesia, George Takeli, when blessing the reopening of the Melanesian Mission in November last year.

This followed a $3 million project that included a new pavilion building being built on the site, in addition to strengthening and refurbishing the historic stone building. In essence, the site’s spiritual and cultural heart still beats strongly.

“That relationship is a true friendship – a deep friendship actually,” Archbishop Takeli said at the reopening.

“I described it in my address as the tūrangawaewae. It captures all of our life, our faith and our imaginations.” LOCATION

Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf to the east and the Waitakere Ranges to the west and north-west.

Built of basalt quarried from nearby Rangitoto Island, the Melanesian Mission building was part of a larger complex, including a church and schoolhouse, created to provide young Melanesian men with a Christian education before they returned home to share their Anglican faith.

The Anglican mission transferred to Norfolk Island eight years later, but education continued in different forms on the site. It was part of a naval training school, then an industrial school, before becoming the site of New Zealand’s first flying school, where at least one-third of the country’s airborne personnel trained in World War I. It became a Melanesian Mission Museum in 1928 and since 1974 has been in the care of Heritage New Zealand, with a Category 1 listing.

“The Melanesian Mission site is important as a place of early contact and cultural exchange between Pacific and European peoples,” says Heritage New Zealand Assessment Advisor Martin Jones. “Connections forged here influenced future relationships between cultures. The boys educated here would return to Melanesia to spread the Christian values linked with the Anglican faith. Bonds between students, who themselves came from different cultural backgrounds within Melanesia, are also likely to have strengthened.

“There has been a multitude of other historical uses and

associations for the site, which can be unravelled to a significant degree through archaeology.”

Reflecting a combination of 19th-century craftsmanship with 21st-century innovation and business acumen, the site’s historical layers were the centre of attention during the 12-month project. The new restaurant building and the restoration of the Melanesian Mission stone building complement each other within their archaeologically and historically significant park setting.

Heritage New Zealand’s early investigative work to identify the archaeological features of the site set the platform for an appropriate engineering design to be created for the new pavilion building.

To minimise the impact on the site, floating steel beams were used as the support structure for the floor, reducing the number of pile foundations required.

“A number of archaeological features were identified through this process and it ensured there was minimal sub-surface disturbance,” says Heritage New Zealand Archaeologist Bev Parslow, who oversaw the on-site work.

During the installation of footings, exposed masonry foundations of one of the quadrangular dormitory buildings confirmed the 19thcentury L-shaped layout of the original property and identified features including an extensive shell drainage trench.

The masonry foundations and drainage trench remain in situ below the pavilion. Few artefacts were identified that could be directly linked to the property in its formative years, but rubbish pits and other features unearthed will provide a greater understanding of the property in the coming months.

“Meeting with locals during site works, some of whom had family connections to the later 19th-century institutions housed in the previous buildings on site, was invaluable,” says Bev. “It provided another dynamic to the close community ties with the property and demonstrated how archaeology can provide a broader story and understanding of a place and its occupation over time.”

The techniques used to conserve and strengthen the Melanesian Mission ensure its longevity for generations to enjoy. The seismic upgrade focused on making the building earthquake resistant by preventing the rubble-filled, double-skin stone walls from collapsing. This was achieved by bonding the inner and outer skins of stone and rubble core together using Mapei’s MapeAntique, an injectable specialist lime-based grout, to create a solid homogeneous wall. The lime-based constituent allows the wall moisture vapour to escape to the exterior.

“It was a big challenge to strengthen a building comprising unreinforced stone,” says Heritage New Zealand Conservation Architect Robin Byron.

“But the adopted solution to carry out Mapei’s lime grouting injection meant that the main strengthening could be achieved in a relatively non-invasive and visually unobtrusive way.

“It’s a system used extensively in Europe but little, so far, in New Zealand. Other strengthening techniques were used through careful consideration and design to minimise the visual impact, so much so that it is hard to detect that the strengthening work has occurred at all.”

The interior conservation work reversed much historical intrusive work that had taken place – such as removing the later kitchen – and looked to return original character features especially in the main room – the original dining space. Renewing the wooden shingle roof and copper flashings, and repairing and repointing the external stonework have, says Robin, “refreshed the Melanesian Mission’s appearance for many people to enjoy and, most importantly, helped to ensure its physical integrity for its future”.