{{Short description|Island in New Zealand}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox islands | name = Ponui Island | local_name = | image_name =Ponui-hills.jpg | image_caption = Farmland and native bush on Ponui Island | pushpin_map = New Zealand#Pacific Ocean | pushpin_map_caption = Location in New Zealand & Pacific Ocean | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 8 | mapframe-stroke-width = 0.5 | nickname = | location = Hauraki Gulf | coordinates = {{coord|36|52|S|175|11|E|region:NZ_type:isle|display=inline,title}} | archipelago = | total_islands = | major_islands = | area_km2 = 18 | length_km = | width_km = | highest_mount = Ponui | elevation_m = 173 | population = | population_as_of = | density_km2 = | ethnic_groups = | country = New Zealand | additional_info = }}
'''Ponui Island''' (also known as '''Chamberlins Island''') is a privately owned island located in the Hauraki Gulf, 30km to the east of the city of Auckland, New Zealand.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz8458/Ponui-Island-(Chamberlins-Island)/Auckland|title=Ponui Island (Chamberlins Island), Auckland - NZ Topo Map|publisher=Land Information New Zealand|accessdate=2017-10-17}}</ref><ref name=Denny /> The island has an area of 18 km<sup>2</sup> and is located to the southeast of Waiheke Island, at the eastern end of the Tamaki Strait, which separates the island from the Hunua Ranges on the mainland to the south. ==History== [[File:Fluttering Shearwaters Hauraki Gulf New Zealand Aotearoa.jpg|thumb|left|Fluttering shearwaters, waiting off Ponui Island for the next fishing excursion]] left|thumb|Ponui Island in the background, 1902 The island is the site of some of the earliest archaeological remains of early Māori in the Auckland region, dating to at least the 1400s.<ref name="Davidson1978">{{Cite Q|Q58677062}}</ref>
The first record of land purchase for Ponui Island was on 23 September 1826 by the New Zealand Company<ref name=deed /> in their earliest planned venture to colonise New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wakefield |first=Edward Jerningham |author-link=Jerningham Wakefield |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PltFAAAAYAAJ |title=Adventure in New Zealand, from 1839 to 1844: With Some Account of the Beginning of the British Colonization of the Islands. Volume 1 |publisher=John Murray |year=1845 |location=London |via=Princeton University |pages=4–5 }}</ref> Three other islands were purchased at this time, Pakatoa Island, Rotoroa Island and Pakihi Island. It is recorded that the land was sold for one double-barreled gun, eight muskets, and one barrel of gunpowder, with the deed translated and signed by Thomas Kendall, and witnessed by three men from the ship ''Rosanna'' and 15 Māori.<ref name=deed>{{Cite web |title=Sale to the New Zealand Company |url=https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/manuscripts/id/38880/rec/4 |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz}}</ref>
In 1853, the island was bought and occupied by the Chamberlin family.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/collections/record/1012946 |title=Frederick Chamberlin - An account of my proceedings since my arrival in New Zealand in 1853, with a diary |website=Auckland War Memorial Museum |access-date=18 March 2025}}</ref> From the 1880s until the early 20th century, stone and sand from the island was extracted for use in concrete structures in Auckland, notably, Grafton Bridge.<ref name="Auckland Council District Plan">{{Cite web| date=2013 | title = Auckland Council District Plan - Hauraki Gulf Islands Section - Operative 2013: The history of human settlement of the islands |url=http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/documents/hgidecision/docs/hgiAnn01a.pdf | publisher = Auckland City Council| access-date = 15 April 2022}}</ref> In the early 1900s, a considerable amount of kauri was logged and bush was burnt off for cattle grazing on the southern end of the island.<ref name=Denny />
The ''Pupuke'', a New Zealand passenger ferry built in 1909, beached at Oranga Bay on the island in 1962.<ref name=Leahy>{{Cite web |last=Leahy |first=Anne |date=1960-01-01 |title=Wrecks in Oranga Bay, Ponui Island |url=https://digitalnz.org/records/43805301 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=DigitalNZ }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-05-28 |title=What happened to the steam ferries? |url=https://www.steamferrytoroa.com/what-happened-to-the-steam-ferries/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=Steam Ferry Toroa }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Auckland Council Libraries |date=1966 |title=Oranga Bay, Ponui Island |url=https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/326545/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz }}</ref> The other shipwreck at Oranga Bay was the Australian steel steamer (bought by Auckland machinery merchant Mr. F. Appleton in 1927) the ''Kurnalpi.''<ref name=Leahy />{{Better source needed|date=May 2025|reason=Newspaper reports say the hull was towed to Auckland in 1935 where it was cut up for scrap metal.}}
The island remains privately owned and consists of three farms.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 February 2020 |title=Woman dies working on farm on Auckland's remote Ponui Island |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/119342010/woman-dies-working-on-farm-on-aucklands-remote-ponui-island |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=www.stuff.co.nz}}</ref> The only permanent inhabitants (nine in the 2001 census) are associated with the farms, which are predominantly used for sheep.
The island is a popular site for youth camps for organisations such as Scouts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fun in the sun on Ponui Island |url=https://issuu.com/beaconblockhousebay/docs/16206_beacon_march2022_hr_issuu/s/15450714 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=Issuu |language=en}}</ref> Crusader camps (now under the banner of Scripture Union) have been held on the island since 1932.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-01 |title=Our Story - Scripture Union NZ |url=https://sunz.org.nz/about-sunz/our-story/ |access-date=2025-03-18 |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Biodiversity == The island is the home of New Zealand's only feral donkey breed, the Ponui donkey. It has a large number of ship rats, and populations of brown rats, mice and feral cats.<ref name=Denny />
Ponui Island's avian fauna includes common native forest species: the grey warbler (''riroriro''), fantail (''piwakawaka''), silvereye (''tauhou''), tūī, kererū and morepork (''ruru'').<ref name=Denny>{{Cite thesis |last=Denny |first=Kirsty Marie |date=2009 |title=The diet of moreporks (''Ninox novaeseelandiae'') in relation to prey availability, and their roost site characteristics and breeding success on Ponui Island, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand |degree=MSc |url= https://mro.massey.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/afae8bd0-9382-46e5-9513-a9ae0cc3961f/content |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240706150927/https://mro.massey.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/afae8bd0-9382-46e5-9513-a9ae0cc3961f/content |archive-date=2024-07-06 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=mro.massey.ac.nz}}</ref> North Island brown kiwi were introduced to the island by the New Zealand Wildlife Service, a forerunner of the Department of Conservation, in 1964, at the request of the island's owner. Fourteen kiwi were released, six from Little Barrier Island and eight from Northland. Ponui now has one of the highest densities of the North Island brown kiwi anywhere in New Zealand.<ref name=Latham>{{cite thesis |last=Latham |first=Julia Evelyn |date=2006 |title=The ecology of ship rats (Rattus rattus) on Ponui Island: implications for North Island brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) |url= https://hdl.handle.net/2292/2142 |degree=MSc |publisher=University of Auckland |pages=5–6 |hdl=2292/2142}}</ref> The Department of Conservation has no plans to take Ponui kiwi to supplement existing populations elsewhere, because of their mixed genetic origins, according to a 2006 report,<ref name=Latham /> but in 2025 ten kiwi were translocated to nearby Waiheke Island, which had no existing population.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kiwi return to Waiheke in major conservation milestone |first=Jaime |last=Lyth |date=18 May 2025 |url= https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/on-the-up-kiwi-return-to-waiheke-in-major-conservation-milestone/JGCKBQEM2NFH3GD23ZLBQKLJAE/ |newspaper=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=19 May 2025}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Hauraki Gulf}}
Category:Islands of the Hauraki Gulf Category:Islands of the Auckland Region Category:Private islands of New Zealand Category:Populated places around the Hauraki Gulf