Catalina Café
The Catalina Café may seem to you as a typical local café, but the neighbourhood building holds a lot of significant, interesting and memorable Hobsonville Point history. In 1938, the building was specially built for the Hobsonville Point Air Base during WW2. When the building appeared, it was used for avionic repairs, administration, function planning and an R.N.Z.A.F (Royal New Zealand Air Force) signals and communication centre.Recently in 2011, the building was refurbished and converted into the now popular Hobsonville Point Café. The name ‘Catalina’ was inspired by a group of seaplanes used during the operation of Hobsonville Point Air Force.If you have time, we highly recommended this fantastic café, open from 7am-4pm.
The Mill House
Mill House was originally known as 'Windover'!The Mill House is a large historic colonial Georgian-style house located at 15 Buckley Avenue, Hobsonville Point. It has an amazing piece of land which overlooks the Waitemata Harbour. The Mill House is a very significant building which has a lot of fascinating history which currently keeps the house standing. Many houses and buildings of early Hobsonville Point are either being refurbished for a different modern purpose or demolished for use of land.The Mill House was designed and built in early 1930s with the help of architect, George Tole. The Mill House was built as a family home for Doug Mill, his wife Audrey and their two young sons: Sandy and Simon. Both Doug and Audrey Mill worked in the Hobsonville aviation industry. In 1927, they worked together to make their own air transport and survey business called Mill's Aerial Survey and Transport Co. They operated their business from a Hobsonville Point hanger for 10 years.The Mill House was sold in 1937 to the Hobsonville Point defence department. Now all that lives in the house is the memories of Doug Mill and his family.
Seaplane Slipway
Back in the day, people recognised seaplanes as FLYING BOATS!The Seaplane Slipway was very important to Hobsonville Point Air Base back in the 1930s. The development of the slipway began in August 1928. Within two solid years of construction, the seaplane apron (where plane parks), ramp, wharf, hangars, workshops and the Technical Instruction building where all completed and ready for use.Another seven years went by and on the 28th of December 1937, history was made. Centaurus was the first ever seaplane to arrive in NZ. Centaurus flew from Sydney to Auckland at an average speed of 133 miles per hour and broke the time record from Rose Bay to Hobsonville Point. The record, 10 hours and 31 minutes was made by Miss Jean Batten and her Percival Gull Six plane named ‘Jean’. It took the Centaurus the record-breaking 9 hours and 11 minutes to complete the flight. Thousands of people lined the Hobsonville Point waterfront to see the exciting arrival of the Centaurus. In a 1937 historic newspaper, spectators describe how the seaplane made a beautiful, graceful, memorable landing. This was a day men, women and children experienced a very significant part of Hobsonville Point history.
Hobsonville Hangars
During WW2, Hangars were incredibly crucial to the Hobsonville Point Air Base. Hangars are large buildings built to hold and store aircraft such as helicopters, planes and seaplanes. The hangars protected these vehicles from the weather like rainstorms and direct sunlight. Air Force crew also used these hangars to tend to an aircraft when it was in need of maintenance or repairs.There were three significant hangars located in Hobsonville Point. There was the ‘No 2 Catalina Hangar’, ‘Sunderland Hangar’, and ‘No 4 Wasp Hangar’. Each had equally important jobs of protecting a range of different sorts of aircraft.The Catalina Hangar, constructed during 1934, had a few unique architectural design factors which made the building very special. One of which was most significant, was its cantilever style doors with grand pillars on either side. This Hanger, most obviously, housed the famous Catalina seaplanes.The Sunderland Hangar was specially built for TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Limited) in 1939. Before the Sunderland Hanger was built, TEAL operated at Mechanics Bay, Auckland. TEAL needed to move to Hobsonville Point because at the time, it was the only place in Auckland which had slipway and hard standing area for seaplanes. When the Sunderland Hanger came up it was the biggest one in Hobsonville, being able to fit massive Short Sunderland Seaboats which had wingspans of 34 metres!No 4 Wasp Hangar; the last of the significant hangar trio, was built in the 1940s to contain Wasp Helicopters that were bought by the NZ government in 1956. Like the Catalina Hangar, No 4 Wasp Hangar has many artistic and memorable building elements. Some that are significantly mentioned are its stepped parapet, stunning eight gables, concrete structural frame and the glazed panel sliding hangar doors. Today, this hangar is still standing and has been converted into a place for boat building. So now you know the significance of Hobsonville Point hangars. Without them, historic Hobsonville aircrafts would not have lasted over 80 years and still be in fantastic condition today.
Bomb Point (Onekiritea)
"A space to think. Bomb Point" - Honsonville Point Land CompanyBomb Point, which Maori named Onekiritea, is a special park very significant to Hobsonville Point’s History. The beautiful nine hectare park is surrounded by an incredible sea view. Bomb Point is a peaceful place where people can walk, cycle and enjoy the beauty of one of Hobsonville’s most treasured areas. The park has many historic wartime sites, buildings, stories, and memories which remain at Bomb Point as a reminder of those who courageously participated in the war. Interesting historic buildings to visit in Bomb Point are the munitions storage bunkers. These bunkers were designed to securely store explosives and contain explosions during WW2. Some of the old bunkers in Bomb Point were recently professionally graffiti painted by artists from Cut Collective. The art has been produced to represent the history of Bomb Point. Check out our new tour; Bomb Point Fitness Trail, available for free on this app. Bring your family and friends out for a fun nature fitness circuit with beneficial physical exercises and activities to enjoy! With easy to understand step-by-step instructions for each station, you can go follow the trail trouble-free. Happy Fitness Training!
Now and Then Photos
These photos were taken by our Hobsonville Point History Trail Year 10 Student Group in 2015 to compare present day areas to photos of the same places from back in the day.
