Wellington Harbour Board was the body which formerly managed the shipping and commercial affairs of the port of Wellington in New Zealand. It was constituted in 1880 and was disestablished in 1989.
During its 110-year tenure the Harbour Board reclaimed land around Wellington Harbour and built and maintained facilities including quays, wharves, goods sheds, a marina, and a floating dock for ship repairs. The Board managed goods and passengers passing through the port from domestic and international locations and was responsible for the safe movement of vessels within the harbour.
Background Wellington city was settled by British colonists in 1840 and quickly became an important port and business centre. Small private wharves built in the 1840s became inadequate as trade grew and visiting ships became larger. From 1856 the Chamber of Commerce began agitating for a large publicly owned wharf. Wellington Provincial Council gave permission, and Queens Wharf was built in 1862. It was managed by a wharf committee of the Provincial Council. In 1870, Wellington City Corporation (now Wellington City Council) came into being, and in 1871 the Provincial Council sold its interest in Queens Wharf to the City Council, along with the bond store at the wharf and some newly reclaimed land. The City Council leased wharf operations to a private company until 1876, when it took over direct responsibility for the wharf.
Continuing expansion of the city and shipping trade led the Chamber of Commerce to push for a separate entity to manage the business of the port. The government passed the Harbours Act in November 1878 to regulate management of harbours around New Zealand, which led to the establishment of Wellington Harbour Board under the Wellington Harbour Board Act 1879.The act came into effect on 1 January 1880, and the board held its first meeting in February 1880. The Board was an autonomous authority, with responsibility for planning and constructing harbour facilities, regulating the use of wharves, determining port charges and controlling navigation within the harbour limits.
Establishment The Harbour Board initially consisted of 10 members: three appointed by the Government, the mayor, one person elected by the Chamber of Commerce, two members elected by Wellington ratepayers, one representing shipping interests, one elected by Hutt County Council, and one to represent the Wairarapa County Councils. The members of the first Harbour Board were William Hort Levin, Edward Pearce and William Robert Williams (government appointees); William Hutchison (Mayor of Wellington), Joseph Edward Nathan (representing the Chamber of Commerce), William Valentine Jackson and Paul Coffey (elected by ratepayers), Henry Rose (of the New Zealand Shipping Company, representing shipping interests), Stephen Lancaster (representing Hutt County Council), and Frederick Augustus Krull (a Wellington businessman representing Wairarapa, and the Consul for the German Empire).
Wellington Harbour Board was unique amongst New Zealand harbour boards because as well as control and regulation of the port, supplying water to ships, and providing cool storage, it acted as wharfinger, responsible for taking goods from ships and delivering them to other ships or to destinations in the city. This was said to be cheaper and more efficient than having other businesses do the work, and gave the board strong authority.
Although the Harbour Board was set up with powers to manage shipping, wharf charges and trade in the harbour, it initially had no assets. The board was entitled to take a loan from central government. In October 1881 the Harbour Board paid the City Council £64000 for Queens Wharf and the bond store, and the wharf became its centre of operations. Harbour Board employees in October 1881 consisted of the harbourmaster, outward pilot, four boatmen, pilot, coxswain, and two signalmen. The board members did not receive a salary.
Another deep-water wharf was completed in April 1880: Railway Wharf had been built by the government on newly reclaimed land near Wellington Railway Station. Three railway tracks were laid down on the wharf so that goods could be transported directly from the railway station. The wharf was angled on a north-north-west /south-south-east axis, the same as Queens Wharf, because at the time it was important to moor vessels "fore-and-aft" to Wellington's prevailing winds. Following passage of the Wellington Harbour Board and Corporation Land Act in September 1880, control of Railway Wharf was transferred to the Harbour Board.
Facilities Wharves
More wharves were built around the inner harbour. The first wharf built by the Harbour Board was Wool Wharf (now Waterloo Quay Wharf), completed in 1883 to handle the wool trade. This was followed by Ferry Wharf (1897), Glasgow Wharf (1901), Taranaki Street Wharf (1906), Kings Wharf (1909), Clyde Quay Wharf (1910), Tug Wharf (1914) and Pipitea Wharf (1923). In addition to the big wharves built in the inner harbour for movement of goods and passengers, the Harbour Board oversaw construction of suburban wharves in the eastern bays from Petone around to Eastbourne as well as at Evans Bay and Seatoun and Karaka Bay at the harbour entrance.
Head Office and Bond Store
With the business of the port expanding, the Harbour Board commissioned a new administration building and bond store to replace earlier wooden buildings. The building was built on Jervois Quay at the entrance to Queens Wharf, and was completed in 1892. As of 2025 it houses the Museum of Wellington. The Harbour Board's board room is still on site and open to the public.
Wharf Office Building
In 1896 the Wharf Office Building was built opposite the Head Office and Bond Store at the entrance to Queens Wharf. Art Nouveau gates made of iron were installed in 1899 between these two buildings at the wharf entrance. As of 2025 the Wharf Office Building houses apartments and the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.
Evans Bay Patent Slip
A patent slip for hauling up ships for repair was built at Evans Bay in 1873. It was operated by the Wellington Patent Slip Company and didn't come under Wellington Harbour Board control until 1908. The Patent Slip Company, which was 90% owned by the Union Steam Ship Company from 1908, continued to operate the slip (and a second slip built in 1922) under lease from the Harbour Board until 1969, when the Harbour Board took over direct management of both slips. The first slip was taken out of commission and the second one was upgraded. It closed in 1980. One of the triggers of the 1913 Great Strike was a demand by Wellington shipwrights that they be paid travelling time when they had to go to Evans Bay to work at the patent slip.
Clyde Quay boat harbour In 1898 local yachtsmen complained that reclamation at Te Aro and other work around Railway Wharf was displacing moorings for small boats. The Harbour Board suggested that yachts could be moored at Evans Bay but the yachting community objected, saying it was too far away and isolated, boats would be vandalised, and the winds there were not ideal. in 1900 the Harbour Board approved construction of a boat harbour and baths at Clyde Quay. Old structures on the beach were removed, Clyde Quay and Oriental Terrace (now Oriental Parade) were widened and a sea wall built, and public salt water baths and a boat harbour for pleasure craft were created. Some land was reclaimed so that the board could build a row of 24 reinforced concrete boatsheds in two sections, with stairs leading down from the footpath. The boatsheds were designed with their roofs below the height of the sea wall so that views of the harbour would not be obstructed. The boatsheds were completed in 1907 and, along with another group of sheds built in 1922, are still in use.
Dredges, tugs and launches In 1882 the board bought a Priestman dredge so that it could remove silt and increase the depth of some berths. In 1902, that dredge was replaced with a new steam dredge. The dredge, named Whakarire ('to deepen water'), was built by Lobnitz and Co. in Renfrew, Scotland and sailed to New Zealand via the Suez Canal and Torres Strait. Whakarire was sold to Napier Harbour Board in 1934 and replaced by Kerimoana ('to dig the sea') in 1938. Kerimoana was scrapped in 1981.
Various privately owned vessels acted as tugs and pilots on the harbour during the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, Wellington Harbour Ferries operated a tug called Duco between 1892 and 1909, and the Union Steam Ship Company bought a tug named Natone in 1904. In 1900 Wellington Harbour Board bought a launch it named Uta, to use as a pilot boat. Uta served the Harbour Board until 1950, and was replaced by Tiakina in 1953.
In 1925 Wellington Harbour Board acquired a purpose-built deep water salvage tug, which it named Toia ('to pull'), on loan from the British Admiralty. The Board also commissioned construction of a floating crane, HIkitia ('to lift') and a new harbourmaster's launch, Arahina ('to lead'). In 1949 Toia was returned to the New Zealand Navy, to be based at Devonport Naval Base and not replaced because the Union Steam Ship Company had two tugs for use in Wellington harbour. Arahina rescued many people from the passenger ferry Wahine when it ran aground at the entrance to Wellington Harbour in 1968. Arahina was sold in 1990, but as of 2023 was still afloat and moored at Queens Wharf.The Harbour Board bought another pilot launch, the Tiakina, in 1953. Tiakina arrived in Wellington in 1954 and was in service until 1992. As of 2023 it was in use as a private charter boat in Dunedin.
When the Wahine ran aground in 1968, killing 51 people, the Union Steam Ship Company's tug Tapuhi was not strong enough to assist the ship. Responding to the disaster, the Harbour Board bought new, bigger tugs: Kupe, which went into service in 1971, Toia (1972) and Ngahue (1977). The Harbour Board's successor, CentrePort, sold Kupe in 2009, and Toia and Ngahue in 2014.
Hikitia floating crane
The Harbour Board bought Hikitia, a self-propelled floating steam crane, in 1925. Hikitia was constructed in Scotland and sailed to Wellington under its own power. As of 2025 it is still in working order and thought to be the only working steam crane of its kind in the world.
Jubilee floating dock
In 1928, the Harbour Board announced a decision to procure and install a floating dock with a lifting power of 15,000 tons, to be used for ship repairs. The floating dock was built in England by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson of Wallsend, with the contract awarded in August 1930 for a dock with a lifting capacity of 17,000 tons, with dimensions long and wide. It left the Tyne on 15 July 1931 and was towed for five and a half months at sea over a route through the Suez Canal, covering , and arrived in Wellington Harbour on 28 December 1931. A wharf was built adjacent to the Thorndon reclamation for permanent mooring of the floating dock. The dock was powered by electricity and included a crane capable of lifting up to five tons. The dock was named 'Jubilee Dock' in honour of the Harbour Board's fiftieth anniversary in 1930.
An initial test of the floating dock was undertaken with the passenger liner SS Ruahine, on 2 April 1932. The first commercial service using the new floating dock was an overhaul of the ferry TSS Maori, from early April.
One of the more notable incidents associated with the floating dock during more than 50 years of service was the repair of the trans-Tasman liner MS Wanganella after it struck Barrett Reef while entering Wellington Harbour in January 1947. Shortly after entering the floating dock, repair work on the vessel was halted because of an industrial dispute.