Seatoun is an eastern suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand and lies on the east coast of the Miramar Peninsula, close to the entrance to Wellington Harbour (Port Nicholson).
Geography The suburb sits on an exposed promontory close to Barrett Reef, a dangerous area of rocky shallows upon which many ships have foundered.
Seatoun as a suburb looks out on to Steeple Rock/Te Aroaro-o-Kupe, a large rock at the west of the Wellington Harbour entrance, rising above sea level.
History
Māori settlement In Māori mythology, the first settlement of the surrounding area was by Māori, led by the semi-mythical explorer Tara, or more fully Tara-Ika i Nohu, who also gave his name to what's now Wellington (as Te Whanganui a Tara, or The Harbour of Tara) and the iwi Ngāi Tara. Oral tradition records that Tara and his people settled Matiu/Soames Island around 1100-1300 AD with an estimated 200 people. The group was broken into two, with one of these establishing a pā, named Te Whetū Kairangi, which takes its name from whetū "star" and kairangi "high status", overlooking Worser Bay.
In Ngāi Tara oral tradition, Seatoun is where the mythical Polynesian navigator, Kupe, is said to have first set ashore on his voyage to New Zealand, around 1000–1300 BC. Kupe is said to have settled for some time to grow crops at Maraenui, where Seatoun village centre now stands. From here he is said to have explored Raukawa Moana (Cook Strait).
Seatoun beach was named Te Turanganui o Kupe (The Great Standing Place of Kupe). He is said to have fished at Steeple Rock, where he hurt his groin whilst swimming, giving the name Te Aroaro o Kupe (The Groin of Kupe). A pouwhenua, designed by Rangi Hetet and located at the edge of Churchill Park, marks the significance of the location.
Much of modern Seatoun then emerged, and the island was connected to the land, when lifted from the sea by the Haowhenua earthquake of 1460. After earthquakes raised the foreshore, it was renamed Kirikirikatangi, after the rattling and rumbling caused by the waves disturbing gravel on the beach.
Much of what now comprises Seatoun did not exist as accessible land when first settled by Māori, which along with defense helps to explain why early pā in the area occupy hillside or hilltop sites. At the time, what is now the Miramar Peninsula was disconnected to the mainland and existed as a separate island within the harbour, known after the first pā as Te Motu Kairangi (or The Exhaulted Island).
By 1500AD the landscape had been largely deforested and that the sandy soils found in parts of the Miramar Peninsula would have been suitable for gardening.
A second pā was constructed in the area during the 1700s, on headland at the entrance to the harbour, in what is now the Oruaiti Reserve. This was built by Te Rerewa of the Rangitāne iwi, the descendants of Tara's brother Tautoki. Tradition records that this was later captured and occupied by Ngāti Kahungunu, and that it was once attacked by Māori from Whanganui with some 500 being routed and killed at nearby Worser Bay. The site is marked today by a 17-metre long sculpture of a 'waka' (traditional canoe), constructed in 2013.
In the 1820s and 1830s, a number of migrations saw the arrival to the area of Māori from elsewhere on the north island, prompted in large part because of ongoing conflict between iwi in Taranaki and Waikato. The first to settle around Wellington were Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama, and they were later joined by Te Ātiawa. Te Ātiawa re-occupied a number of their settlements around Wellington Harbour including in Seatoun after the others departed to the Chatham Islands in 1835.
Early European colonisation (1773-1840) European contact began when Captain James Cook anchored at Seatoun in 1773. However, it would take a further half century before the area secured any permanent European residents. The first two ships, the Rossana and the Lambton, arrived in 1826, disembarking on the Miramar Peninsula. On 20 September 1839, the New Zealand Company ship, the Tory, arrived in Wellington and negotiations commenced with the Te Ātiawa chiefs who occupied settlements around the harbour.
The modern name Seatoun, originally Seatown, comes from a settlement in Forfarshire, Scotland, linked with the family history of James Coutts Crawford, the modern suburb's Pākeha founder. Coutts Crawford was amongst the first permanent European settlers in Wellington. He arrived in September 1839 and set up a farm on the Miramar Peninsula. He bought further land deeds from the New Zealand Company in the 1840s and established a quarry site to the west of Breaker Bay. He named his holdings Overtoun and Seatoun, after family holdings of the Crawford family in Scotland. The area between Nevay and Karaka Bay roads and the old hilltop pā site was first called the Township of Overton.
Crawford was amongst the first colonial ethnographers and researchers of Māori history. His work focussed on the area of his ownership and involved documenting the early history of the area, as recounted to him by Māori. This included efforts to map locations of Māori occupation at Oruaiti (Point Dorset), as well as other nearby sites at Maupuia (Rongotai Ridge) and Te Mahanga (which he positioned near Point Halswell).
Amongst the first Pākeha people to settle the coastline area at what is now Seatoun was James Heberley. Heberley lived with his family at what became Worser Bay. He became pilot at the request of Colonel William Wakefield, who references him in his book Adventures in New Zealand, piloted the ‘Tory’ into Wellington and drowned at Picton in 1899. The bay was originally called Young's Bay, after a whaler, George Young, who lived in the area around 1834/5. It became Worser Bay after the nickname of Heberley. There are two origin stories for his nickname ‘Worser’. The first is that the correct spelling of his name was Hebley and that he changed it after sending £50 to pay for a brother to come out from England only to find another unwanted, 'worser', brother sent in his place. The second is that Heberley, as a pilot, was known for always stating that the weather was getting ‘worser and worser’.
Modern nation (1840 - present) The first school in the district was opened in 1897 in the Church Hall in Beach Road, with a roll of sixteen students. Seatoun School was established in 1921, separated from Worser Bay to accommodate growing demand.
European settlement properly began in Seatoun around 1899, although still constrained at that point by the fact that the area was accessible only by boat. A tunnel was constructed between 1906 and 1907, linking the settlement to nearby Strathmore Park and Miramar. This enabled the expansion of the suburb by connecting it to the city centre by electric tram. The tunnel measured 144m (470 feet) long, and 8.2m (27 feet) wide. At the time it opened it was said to be ‘the widest tunnel in Australasia’. The historian John Struthers established that the population of Seatoun was less than 1,000 at the time.
Seatoun AFC was founded in 1909, becoming one of the strongest football clubs in the country during the 1950s. It would go on to win the Chatham Cup in 1957 and 1958 (with the latter 7–1 final win over Christchurch City remaining the joint-highest in the history of the tournament) and produce at least 11 national 'All Whites' players.
The headland was named Point Dorset after Wellington-based surgeon and politician John Dorset. A small military reserve had been set aside there in the subdivision of the peninsula in 1841, though construction of defensive positions focussed on the central town and no works began on the peninsula until 1885. In 1911, shortly after the suburb became accessible by tunnel, work began on a military base on the headland to protect the entrance to Wellington Harbour, called Fort Dorset. This followed construction of a two-gun battery on the top of the ridge at Point Dorset in 1908.
Between 1909 and New Zealand's first Jamboree in 1926, 1st Seatoun Scout Group was established for children in the community. Plans for a hall were drawn up in 1930.The hall was partly financed by an interest-fee loan from a resident and partly by raising money through movie shows in the hall, which were commonplace until theatres opened in nearby Kilbirnie and Miramar. In 1917, The New Zealand Index proclaimed Seatoun to be:"A suburb of Wellington, at the Heads. Six miles southeast by daily ferry steamer (8 pence return) or by electric car (tram) from Welington . It is part of the Miramar borough. A favourite seaside resort. No hotel, but good boarding accommodation, stores, tearooms, post and telephone office. One mile from Worser Bay. Electric car opened to Seatoun on December 18, 1907. Nearby is the site of the Oruaiti pa, famous in Māori history. Favourite picnic resort is Breaker Bay, a few minutes walk from here."By 1926, Seatoun was still in need of investment. Residents complained about open drains, said the streets had not been maintained since they were built and pointed out a third of the houses in were without proper roads or footpaths.
The settlement's first church service was organized in 1910 in a room at a butcher's shop on Worser Bay. This continued until 1913 when a group of 14 local residents raised funds for the construction of a Presbyterian church on Ventnor Street. That original building now serves as Seatoun Village Hall. It was replaced in 1932 by a new church, St Christopher's, designed by William Fielding, which was opened by the Governor General, Lord Bledisloe. The church contains the 'Wahine Cross', made from wood salvaged from the wreck of the TEV Wahine. The parish was closed in 2013 and the building sold in 2015 to local benefactors who now operate it as a community facility.
On 3 September 1939, Fort Dorset was the location from which the first shots were fired by British imperial forces during World War Two, at a British refrigerated cargo vessel, the SS City of Delhi, as she approached Seatoun. Whilst distinct from the first shots fired in enemy action, which came when RAF Spitfires engaged a Heinkel He 111 over Scotland’s Firth of Forth on 16 October 1939, the rounds hold historic significance as the first fired after the conflict had officially begun (only eleven hours previously). The steam ship was in-bound to Wellington under wartime conditions when hailed to stop by the New Zealand naval vessel HMNZS Janie Seddon. It failed to respond and, following standard procedure, Fort Dorset’s 6‑inch guns on the Seatoun ridge fired two warning shots across her bow. One shot missed well whilst the other landed near enough to persuade the City of Delhi to comply and head alongside the Janie Seddon. Her captain was later fined £40 to cover the cost of the rounds fired.
The Anglican church of St George was established on Ferry Street in 1946, with the current building, containing striking floral stained-glass windows, constructed in 1957.
The 1st Seatoun Scouts hall was extended in 1963 to accommodate demand. It continued as an active group until the late 1990s when, due to declining membership, it merged with nearby Worser Bay Scouts to form the Eastern Bay Scouts and Sea Scouts. The combined troop continues to operate from the Worser Bay building.