Our Name
Cornwall Park is named after the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, a Royal couple who visited New Zealand in 1901. Sir John Logan Campbell was asked to be honorary Mayor of Auckland for the Royal visit, it was during this time that he took the opportunity to gift the Park to the people of New Zealand. The Duke subsequently became King George V of England.
The hill is commonly called One Tree Hill after a solitary tree which grew there when Europeans first settled Auckland (See One Tree Hill below). One of the Maori names for the hill is Maungakiekie - mountain of the kiekie. Kiekie (Freycinettia banksii) can grow as an epiphyte or as a vine on forest trees. This name suggests that the vegetation observed by Maori when they named the mountain was very different from that of today.

Geology
The Auckland volcanic field has 48 volcanoes that have erupted in the past 150,000 years. They are in world terms small volcanoes. One Tree Hill is one of the largest in the field and relatively recent. It erupted more than 20,000 years ago. It formed a complex cone of scoria lapilli when the eruption was fountaining red hot lava. The hot lava cooled in the air, freezing in the gas that was in the lava forming the vesicles in the scoria.  Some formed into bomb like shapes while in the air and other pieces fell still sufficiently hot to weld together where they fell. One of the craters formed of scoria lapilli is complete while two others were horseshoe craters, lacking one side where the lava flowed away from the vent. The lava from One Tree Hill flowed down old stream valleys towards Onehunga. In the process it blocked the drainage for parts of the isthmus north of the hill allowing sediment to accumulate there forming the plain between One Tree Hill and Mt St John. Some of the lava flows formed tubular channels of cooled volcanic rock through which the hot lava flowed. Late in the eruption this drained away leaving lava tube caves which are often found in the Auckland volcanic field.
There is a volcanic trail on the mountain. Collect the trail guide at the visitor centre.  For more information on Auckland Volcanoes go to ARC Volcanoes.

Maori History
The traditional occupants of Maungakiekie were the Wai o Hua tribe. Their traditional history refers to the site as the head pa of their paramount chief, Kiwi Tamaki. Their descendants still live in the Auckland region with settlements at Pukaki Lagoon and Awhitu. The other principal iwi of the Auckland isthmus, Ngati Whatua of Orakei can also trace their ancestry to people who occupied the site, while other Auckland iwi can cite ancestors who lived in the vicinity of the mountain. The site was occupied in the early 1700's and probably before that. Like the other volcanic cone pa it was not occupied at the time of European exploration and settlement, for reasons which are not fully understood. Certainly many people still lived in the area. Defeats in warfare, exhaustion of forest resources as the forests were cleared and the difficulty of defending such large sites may all have been factors.
The Rongo stone set in a plinth near the main barbecue area is an unusual remnant of a Maori shrine.  Rongo is a god in the Polynesian pantheon of gods, associated with cultivated foods. Maori religious concepts seldom took physical form but Rongo is an exception with objects and carved stones being seen as manifestations of the god and used ritually to aid the growth and harvesting of crops. This naturally shaped columnar stone was part of a shrine at Three Kings though it had, according to tradition, been moved there from the upper Waitemata. It was called Te Toka i Tawhio - "the stone which has traveled all around". Campbell rescued it from a roadside where it had been dumped and moved it to Cornwall Park.

Archaeology
One Tree Hill is one of the largest Maori fortifications (pa) in New Zealand, covering about 45 hectares. Tamaki (Auckland) was a popular place for Maori to live with its rich harbours and the fertile soils derived from the volcanic eruptions. The lava field surrounding One Tree Hill would in the past have been dotted with small settlements of a few houses each, associated with gardens cleared among the rocks. Little of this evidence now survives around One Tree Hill, but it does survive in other lava fields in Auckland and elsewhere.
Some people would have lived on the cone and stored their crops and valuables there. The settlement also acted as a point of defence for the surrounding area where all the population could reside in a time of stress. Warfare was often a seasonal activity in traditional Maori society so it was not necessary to live continuously in a fortified place. On the cone there are many terraces created for living areas and storage pits for kumara - sweet potato. These would formerly have been roofed. The site has ancient paths which can be seen in several places and boundary walls. Defensively there are several strong-points within an overall defence for the whole site. Scarps and ditches and banks are part of the defences. Formerly there would have been palisades and fighting stages protecting the entrance ways.
Very little investigation by excavation has been carried out on the hill. The little that has is enough to show there is a rich inventory of features there for an archaeologist to discover and study, ranging from palisade post-holes, food remains, house structures and discarded and lost tools.
The ancient people buried their dead on the mountain and deposited their bones in lava caves around the mountain.
An archaeological trail covers the major points of the mountain. Collect the trail guide at the Visitor Centre. There are often guided tours to look at the archaeological features led by an archaeologist.
Check at the Visitor Centre for information. See also the Centennial Project page.

One Tree Hill
The tree on top of One Tree Hill was a pine tree - Pinus radiata - the most common tree grown for timber in New Zealand. But it is a relative newcomer. Another Maori name for the hill is Te Totara i Ahua which refers to a sacred totara tree (Podocarpus totara) and can be translated as "the totara that stands alone". The name One Tree Hill was applied to the hill early in European settlement because of the single tree growing there. The tree was the totara, sacred because of its association with the cutting of a baby's umbilical cord, an important ceremony in Maori society. The event commemorated by the planting, the birth of a boy called Koroki.  That tree was cut down in 1852 by a party of workmen, reportedly angry at the non-arrival of some rations. Attempts over the years to re-establish a totara on the summit have all failed. In October 2000 Auckland City Council deemed the tree unsafe due to its dwindling health after a number of attacks in recent years. The icon was removed on the 26 October 2000. The Council are planning to replant a series of smaller trees over the next planting season (May - August).

Early Farming
By the 1870's  the Auckland Isthmus had been converted to pasture land. The volcanic soils around the cones were well favoured because of their fertility. Traces of earlier Maori use of these areas were for the most part obliterated as new fields and farm buildings were erected. Where the land had many boulders surviving from the lava flows they were used in forming stone walls. Some of the stone walls in the Park date back to this use of the land. In the process some earlier Maori stone walls marking off their smaller plots would have been removed. Similar walls can still be seen in south Auckland at Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve.
The original land sales were often in small parcels. However wealthy individuals bought neighbouring properties and amalgamated the small parcels into larger holdings. As always in the land close to Auckland, speculation on increasing value was as often a motivation for purchase as was farming. Farming though was pursued while other opportunities were awaited. Campbell's holdings around One Tree Hill expanded to 1000 acres, only part of which became the Park. He used it for sheep and cattle grazing and experimented with olives and grapes. The remnants of the olive grove are still within the Park. Some other parts of the estate were leased to tenant farmers.

Park Formation
Logan Campbell and his partner purchased the land where the park now is in 1853. The land was farmed at the time of purchase and Campbell continued to farm it, though he did not live at the site, rather employing a farm manager. The estate came to be Campbell's alone when his partnership was dissolved. Campbell had intended to build a large home at the site but this plan was never realised. Later in his life Campbell considered gifting the land as a park. Corinth Park was a name he favoured, a name reflecting his interest in Classics and the parallel of ancient Corinth with Auckland, both being situated on an isthmus. The stimulus for making the gift was the Royal visit. For the occasion Campbell was persuaded to take up the mayoralty of Auckland City.
As mayor of Auckland, Campbell handed the title deed to the Park to the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall during the Royal Tour of 1901, formally commencing the history of the park. From that time the affairs of the park were in the hands of a trust board hand picked by Campbell. He too was a trustee.
At its creation the park inherited some trees from the farming landscape, together with some major plantings established by Campbell. However an overall plan was needed. Austin Strong was recommended by the Cheif Justice Sir Robert Stout. Strong had been a schoolboy in New Zealand and had studied landscape architecture in the United States. He drew on the precedent of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco for the form of Cornwall Park. The parks share broad areas of open spaces, massed plantings concentrating on trees, sweeping driveways and facilities for visitors.  The park was formed physically between 1901 and 1903 and was formally opened in the latter year. Several lakes were features of the original plan which were never realised.  Much of the tree planting now gracing the park was carried out in the 1920's.

The Obelisk
The obelisk on the summit of One Tree Hill was built to the specification of Sir John Logan Campbell and provided for in his will, but was not unveiled formally until 1948. It is a memorial to the "Great Maori Race" to use Campbell's term. Campbell had a close association with Maori when he first arrived in New Zealand. Around the time of his death a common view was that Maori would become extinct, because of low fertility. Improved health in the 20th century has ended that fear.
Obelisks are a form originating in ancient Egypt and its choice is a somewhat odd one for a Pacific memorial, but reflects Campbell's many visits to the classical world and his interest in its history. We know of a visit to the ancient temple at Karnak in Egypt, of which he wrote "I stood and gazed and admired and gazed again at this beautiful object. I love an obelisk over any other Egyptian antiquity..."
The obelisk has an aerial navigation warning light on its tip.

Water Supply
Along with other volcanic cones in Auckland, One Tree Hill has been used to site reservoirs for water supply. There are currently two sited on the cone, both on the south west flank, one buried and an older one with an iron roof. On the flanks of the hill there are three others, two of which are buried. The iron roofed reservoir  on the cone is the oldest of all, built in 1900 as part of a a supply drawn from the Onehunga springs. It subsequently became linked to the regional supplies fed from the Waitakere and later Hunua Ranges. The second high level reservoir was built to service Onehunga Borough's water supply also fed from Onehunga. Watercare Services Ltd now owns and operates all the reservoirs on the hill and its surrounds.

Military Use in World War Two
Parts of the Park near the Olive Grove were planted in potatoes as part of the war effort to boost food production.  The Park became a centre of military activity, starting with the Home Guard and later as a a New Zealand army unit headquarters. A New Zealand Royal Air Force signal base used the mountain.  The bracing blocks for the radio masts can still be seen over the cone.
The major use was the construction of a hospital in the northeast of the Park by the US Army 39th General Hospital. This dealt with casualties from the Pacific campaign. The hospital huts covered some 75 acres and were linked by long enclosed corridors. The Park was closed to the public during the period of most intense military use.
The US Army began moving out in 1944 and the buildings became a New Zealand government hospital facility with a lease imposed on the Park by legislation.

The Hospital
Cornwall Hospital 1942 - 1975. The hospital was originally to last for 6 years but did not finally depart the site until 1975 when the land reverted to pastoral use. In its time the Cornwall Hospital was the site of National Womens Hospital and of the Cornwall Geriatric Hospital. A brochure available at the Visitor Centre commemorates the Hospital, tours of the area where the Hospital was situated are occasionaly run as part of the Summer or Winter Programme.

Plans for the Future
The Park Board ensures the Park continues to serve its visitors by planning for the future. The Board maintains plans for matters such as sustaining the trees through replanting, protecting the historic features and maintaining visitor facilities attuned to the changing needs.The overall responsibility is to protect a treasure of Auckland in the character it has sustained since the park was gifted.

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