Quick Update

We have been doing a lot of stuff in the last few weeks - please take a look at our blogs down the side and catch up on things!

Archaeology and Names

This semester we have a group who is very much into the physical history of the area. They have decided to focus on the RNZAF in World War 2, and specifically on some of the crashes and wrecks around the area.

So far we have been on two expeditions. Two weeks ago we went down to the harbour just about the Upper Harbour Bridge and looked at the wreck which sticks up above the mud there. You can see it as you drive down the bridge, but it just looks like rocks. In actual fact, it is a section of an aeroplane wing, as we discovered when we went out

there! There is quite a bit of the structure still to be seen, and we even managed to bring some of it back with us to school. We are planning to work with the Auckland War Memorial Museum and hopefully put together a museum space somewhere on the Point. 

We know there have been several crashes in the harbour; are you able to help us identify this particular aeroplane at all? We would love any information or stories that you could give us.

Today was not so successful, the places off Herald Island that we looked at didn't show us anything. Our next plans, which Brian is researching, will involve the B17 which crashed between Whenuapai and Herald Island. We are planning to go down off Pohutukawa Rd and see if we can find anything. Again, if you know anything about this event or the physical remains, we would love to hear from you.

The other group this semester is working with Kathleen at the Hobsonville Land Company to organise the Hobsonville Point part of the Auckland Council Heritage Festival. Julia, Myles and Emma have been researching the origins of the names of a wide variety of street names around the area, and will be putting together a treasure hunt event on the 2nd of October, which is the middle weekend of the holidays. Please come and take part, as well as finding out about your community, there are some prizes too!

High Finance

Some of our groups are now learning about the financial aspect of project work and research. Because we are funded through a grant from the Hobsonville Heritage trust, we have to be very accountable for any money we spend, and we have to make sure that what we want is affordable and necessary.

The Web Developers are at the stage where they want to be creating a domain and finding out about web hosting and website building costs. They have done some research and made a plan of what they want to do, now they need to get funding in order to move ahead.

The Archaeologists are planning to look for WW2 artefacts which are rumoured to exist. Supposedly there was a tool/part dump at the end of the RNZAF Base runway; This would now be part of the school grounds, possibly at the end of the school field. The Archaeologists need a metal detector to see if they can find anything, so they are researching the various costs to buy or to make, and seeing what is practical.

Both groups have to fill in a formal funding application which has to justify the choices they are making and the reasons why the money should be spent. This is an excellent learning opportunity for these students.

If you have any questions or comments, please be in touch, and if you want to stay up-to-date with what we are doing, please follow our blog.

Welcome to the Hobsonville Heritage Project!

What is The Hobsonville Heritage Project?

The Hobsonville Heritage Project is a collaboration between students at Hobsonville Point Secondary School (HPSS) and the Hobsonville Heritage Trust. It is designed, over a three to five year period, to find out about and then present to the wider community, the history of the Hobsonville area from the Māori pre-history to the developments which are happening now.

How does The Hobsonville Heritage Project work?

HPSS students have chosen to be involved in the Heritage Project through the Big Projects and Impact Projects strand of the school curriculum. They are actively engaged in different facets of the processes of research and presentation and have chosen particular aspects to focus on, to begin with. 

The Project itself began this year, in April 2016. At this stage there are four groups of students working on diverse aspects of the Projects. There is one group developing a website - this is where the findings of the other groups will be placed so that the information is available to the wider community. A second group is doing archaeology - they plan to find artefacts from the Brickworks based in Limeburners Bay and from the no-longer-existant Airforce base, and then reconstruct context around the artefacts. Another group is finding out about the street names in the Hobsonville and Hobsonville Point areas - many of these street names have been given based on the heritage of the area and so this group is finding out what they are based on and why it might be significant. The final group working in the Project this semester is called 'grave-robbing' although this is of course not what they are doing; in fact this group is basing themselves in the cemetery of the Hobsonville Settlers Church and researching the lives of the people whose graves are there.

Where to from here?

The Project has only just started, but it is anticipated that it will continue over a three to five year timeframe. In addition to the website, which will also include other focuses as we progress; we are planning a series of children's books as another medium of spreading information throughout the area, and we are also working on the idea of a physical museum space which could be available to collate all the different artefacts and information the students have collected.

How can you help?

If you know or have any connection with the history of the Hobsonville area, we would love to hear from you. We are especially keen to collect stories of your experiences or photos that you might have of events or places of significance. Please be in touch through the comments below, it would be excellent to hear from you.