ROTOROA ISLAND WAR GRAVE

ROTOROA ISLAND (extract from Auckland City Town Plan)

Rotoroa Island is a small island in the Hauraki Gulf, about 40 kilometres north of Auckland. This is a relatively small (82.5 ha) island located to the east of Waiheke and between Pakatoa and Ponui islands. This island has been owned by the Salvation Army since 1907 and it has been developed and managed as a centre for the treatment and rehabilitation of people suffering from addiction problems.

The original natural vegetation was largely destroyed in the 1850’s and the land converted to arable farming although some remnants of native bush remain. The original farm house (and a later tearooms) have been modified and additional buildings constructed for the treatment and rehabilitation centre and staff housing. The island has been used for farming, horticulture and woodlots ancillary to its principal purpose. However the beaches, cliffs and land within close proximity of the sea are relatively undisturbed.

Access to the island by the general public is restricted under the Trespass Act (1980) in order to protect the privacy and security of those under treatment and rehabilitation. A jetty provides boat access for the operations of the centre.

The resource management strategy for Rotoroa Island is to provide for the continued use and development of the land unit for social and community purposes, and particularly the addiction treatment and rehabilitation programme undertaken by the Salvation Army. Whilst providing for these activities, recognition is also given to the need to protect the coastline, indigenous flora and fauna, and the visual character and amenity of the island. The method used to achieve this strategy is to adopt specific rules which manage the range of activities, their intensity, and the bulk and location of buildings. The strategy recognises that Rotoroa Island is unique amongst the other islands of the Inner Gulf in that it is the only island that is privately owned by a single entity whose purpose it is to provide social and community services in a private and secure environment to a particular section of the wider community. The treatment and rehabilitation centre is a Gazetted Institution under the Drug Addiction Act: 1966.

Buildings, Object, Areas or Places of Special Value

The cemetery is an example of an early 1900 burial plot. The earliest dated grave is 1911. It was used for both patients and staff of the Salvation Army based on Rotoroa Island.