Bill Mackay

Yes, so the stream is called Waihorotu, Water of Horotu, and there was a pā up in Albert Park also called Waihorotu as well.

So the stream originated in the spring in Myers Park here, and then it ran under here to Achea Square, which was a big wetland there.

The Tanawhas said to have lived in the wetland there.

So this installation under Merrill Drive, under the overpass, under the road here, it's interactive.

You can hear the clashing of water that evokes the stream.

And you can see that we're in a watershed where a lot of water would be running downhill from the sides here.

and then running through what was a big wetland and what is now Acheia Square and then moving down Queen Street.

So basically Waihorutu is exactly where Queen Street was and that's all underground now.

When colonists arrived here and started up Auckland, one of the things they did, unfortunately, with the Waihoratu stream is they turned it into a sewer.

So all the sewage, all the rubbish, you know, scraps, you name it, was dumped in there.

And it was renamed the Liger Canal.

It was in a terrible state.

We've actually got a couple of photographs of it from that period as well.

Yeah, and eventually they undergrounded the whole thing.

So they built vaulted brick arches over it and it became, you know, an old school sewer running down under Queen Street.

Yeah.

Because it discharges in the harbour, there have been, and it's very difficult in Auckland because when we turn streams into sewers, both stormwater and waste matter from toilets and things like that go in there.

Now the big effort in Auckland and the older areas is to separate those two.

So it's no problem having just rainwater going down there, discharging into the harbour, but we don't want anything else.

It's hard to say.