Epsom

History

The Auckland isthmus has been settled by Māori since around the 13th or 14th centuries. The Epsom valley was likely an early sites of Māori agriculture. The wider area was devoted to the shifting cultivation of crops, primarily kūmara (sweet potato). The volcanic peaks of Maungawhau / Mount Eden, Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, Tītīkōpuke / Mount Saint John were likely first settled around 1400AD, and an overland walking track () was created between the Waitematā and Manukau harbours, which later became Manukau Road. Te Pou Hawaiki (a volcanic crater at the Auckland College of Education campus) was a traditionally important location, where a small pā known as was located. Soil from Hawaiki (the Māori homeland) was placed at the site during the early settlement period, and rituals were performed here prior to major hunting and fishing expeditions. Additionally, Melville Park is a site where large stones had been placed by Tāmaki Māori. In the 17th century, chief Hua Kaiwaka consolidated tribes on the isthmus as a confederation called Waiohua, a union which lasted for three generations until the early 18th century. During this period, thousands of people lived at fortified pā complexes on Maungawhau / Mount Eden and Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill, The Te Taoū hapū of Ngāti Whātua defeated Kiwi Tāmaki, the paramount chief of Waiohua circa 1741, at a battle at Paruroa (Big Muddy Creek) in the lower Waitākere Ranges, under the leadership of Tuperiri. After Waiohua were defeated in a series of battles, some members of Te Taoū settled at Tāmaki Makaurau and intermarried with Waiohua, later becoming known as Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. leading to a period of time when the isthmus was mostly deserted, and Tāmaki Māori of the isthmus sheltered primarily to the south with Waikato Tainui…

Most-observed species

• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  18,935
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  17,445
• Tui

  Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae (J.F.Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  15,298
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  14,107
• Kelp Gull

  Larus dominicanus M.H.K.Lichtenstein, 1823 · Aves
  12,054
• Silver-eye

  Zosterops lateralis (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  11,257
• Welcome Swallow

  Hirundo neoxena Gould, 1842 · Aves
  11,168
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,650

Most recent

• M 2.9 — 2011-07-01
  5 km NNW of Tamaki, New Zealand
• M 4 — 2007-03-13
  26 km NNW of Coromandel, New Zealand
• M 3.8 — 2007-02-21
  31 km NE of Murrays Bay, New Zealand
• M 4.5 — 2007-02-21
  30 km NE of Murrays Bay, New Zealand