POINT HOWARD

*** From the parking waypoint please follow the marked pedestrian crossings to get to GZ. Do not walk directly on the roadside. Alternatively you can walk from the Seaview Marina end of the walkway. ***

Pre 1840, the Eastern Bays were sparsely inhabited and primarily used as fishing grounds. The major Maori pā in the area was at Waiwhetu and land access to the eastern bays was by a steep track which ran up the long sloping ridge named Ngaumatau ('bite of the fishhook').

Captain Chaffers named the headland next to Lowry Bay, Point Howard, after Philip Howard, a member of the New Zealand Committee Association. The Wairarapa Earthquake of 1855 was a significant event as it saw the land around the estuary uplift by nearly two metres to create land access along the base of Point Howard and was the beginning of road access to the southern bays.

CentrePort

An expansion of industrial sites at Seaview on the northern approach to Point Howard in the 1920s led to major developments for the suburb. After Seaview was identified as a site for the storage of oil the Texas Oil Company (Texaco and later Caltex) bought five acres in 1929 and built oil storage tanks. In the same year the Harbour Board started work on the construction of a new oil wharf at Point Howard. The original wharf was made from hardwood logs, 80 to 90 feet (24 to 27 m) long. As the wharf was not being used to offload general cargo it was designed with an approach that was only 14 feet (4.3 m) wide, much narrower than a normal wharf.

The wharf was completed in March 1930 and while limited numbers of tankers used the wharf initially the expansion of related industries in Seaview saw more demand for use of the wharf. In 1930, the Vacuum Oil Company completed their major works on their petroleum and kerosene works on Seaview road and their two 750,000 gallon petroleum tanks were connected by an 8-inch pipeline with the Point Howard Wharf. In February 1934, the largest oil tanker to visit New Zealand, Texas Company's Australia, berthed at Point Howard wharf with her load of two million gallons of petroleum.

The Seaview Wharf and its pipeline are integral to the fuel supply for both Wellingtonians and the rest of the lower North Island.