Early private wharves . Drawn in 1841 Wellington Harbour's first wharves were privately owned, built by businessmen to facilitate movement of goods from ships to warehouses and shops. Goods were transhipped from deep-sea vessels to
lighters and then to the shore. The names of these early private wharves changed as their ownership changed: for example, Hickson's wharf was also known as Ridgway's Wharf, Wills' Wharf and Houghton's Wharf. The first wharf built may have been one constructed by J. H. Wallace, opposite Bowen Street. A newspaper article in 1930 described the wharf: "its construction was of the simplest. An empty dry-goods hogshead was carried out as far below low-water mark as it could be placed. When it was filled with stones it constituted the outer pier. Rough wooden trestles were placed at intervals in the intervening space, on which were laid some long straight logs, bound together by wooden ties, and squared on top by the nimble use of an adze". Taine's Wharf, built by James John Taine who arrived in Wellington in 1840 and soon built a wharf opposite his premises in
Lambton Quay; and Rhodes' Wharf, constructed in 1841 by
William Barnard Rhodes. He built a wharf near what is now the
Michael Fowler Centre carpark at lower Cuba Street to provide access to his goods store and iron store. Baron Charles Ernest von Alzdorf, land agent and hotelier, built a wharf opposite his hotel. Alzdorf's Wharf was said to have been left high and dry fifty feet from the water after the
1855 earthquake raised the seabed. By the early 1860s many of these small private wharves were needing repairs and were no longer suitable for serving the larger ships that had begun visiting Wellington. Queens Wharf, possibly named by local man Thomas McKenzie in honour of Queen Victoria, opened in 1862 as Wellington's first public wharf and is Wellington's oldest extant wharf. The original wharf was constructed from timber, with
totara piles. It was long with two cross tees extending on each side. During the
1913 Great Strike, supporters broke through gates and barricades at Queens Wharf and Kings Wharf and boarded ships in an attempt to stop strike-breakers from working. They also stopped goods vehicles and racehorses heading for Christchurch from entering Queens Wharf. In 1989 the Harbour Board was disestablished and a new company (Port of Wellington, now
CentrePort Wellington) took over management of port operations. The seafront from Shed 21 near the
railway station to Clyde Quay, which includes Queens Wharf, was handed to Wellington City Council. In the 1990s Lambton Harbour Management, a company controlled by Wellington City Council, was involved in developing Queens Wharf as an entertainment area. Two large buildings, Queens Wharf Retail Centre and Queens Wharf Events Centre, opened in 1995. They were designed by the architect to look like wharf sheds. The retail centre was an immediate failure, and the building was sold in 1998 to be converted into office space. The events centre, now known as
TSB Arena, still operates and hosts music concerts, sports and other events. Two old goods sheds on the wharf, Shed 3 and Shed 5, were turned into restaurants. In 2001, Waterfront Investments proposed to build a Hilton Hotel on the outer tee of Queens Wharf.
Greater Wellington Regional Council supported the proposed hotel, but a public survey showed that 86% of those surveyed did not want a hotel at this location. In 2009 the
Environment Court turned down the proposal, stating that "building a five-star hotel on a public wharf was inconsistent with the sustainable use of natural and physical resources". There is a
Stothert & Pitt tripod
gantry crane, one of ten bought in 1966 that operated on Glasgow Wharf until
containerisation arrived, and the third crane is a Series 520
Straddle Carrier used in the early days of container shipping. File:Outer tee at Queens Wharf, Wellington, 1936-1942 (4664517861).jpg|alt=Photo of Outer tee at Queens Wharf, ca 1936-1942.|Outer tee . Shed 3 in centre, Shed 5 in foreground. File:Gantry crane, Wellington.jpg|Tripod gantry crane on outer tee File:Level luffing crane at Queens Wharf, Wellington.jpg|Level luffing crane File:Queens Wharf of Wellington Harbour.JPG|Shed 6 and TSB Arena File:Queens Wharf gates and Wharf Office.jpg|Gates and Harbour Board Wharf Offices building File:Wellington Harbour 2016-01-25-2.jpg|Dockside restaurant (formerly Shed 3)
Railway Wharf (1880) Railway Wharf was Wellington's second deep-water wharf after Queens Wharf. It was built by the government and completed in April 1880 on newly reclaimed land near the
Railway Station. Control of the wharf passed to Wellington Harbour Board after the Wellington Harbour Board and Corporation Land Act came into effect on 1 September 1880. From 1906 to 1951, Railway Wharf was Wellington's main wharf for unloading coal. In 1951 the railway lines were removed, and the wharf was extended and converted to become the base for the inter-island ferry to
Lyttelton which had previously been at Waterloo Quay Wharf. Ferries to
Picton also operated from this wharf. The wharf was also used as a base for the
Lynx and other fast ferries. with additions in 1906 and 1912–1914. The wharf was connected to land by a bridge until reclamation was carried out. In 1912, Wellington Harbour Board built a ferry terminal building at the head of the wharf for the Wellington Ferry Company. Eastbourne Borough Council leased the building from the Harbour Board and operated a ferry service to
Eastbourne until 1948.
Glasgow Wharf (1901) The Harbour Board approved plans and funding for a new road and railway wharf in 1898–1899, as part of a larger scheme of harbour reclamation and development. The wharf was named Glasgow Wharf after the late governor, the
Earl of Glasgow. The wharf was completed in November 1901 at a cost of about £60,000 including sheds and cranes. The wharf handled frozen meat and produce needing cold storage. The wharf has been upgraded several times. In 1966 the Harbour Board installed 10 new electric tripod gantry cranes. These were then made obsolete by the introduction of containerisation. One crane was restored and is now on display at Queens Wharf. A major change to the wharf came in the late 1960s, when the wharf was converted for use by roll-on/roll-off ferries. A
linkspan bridge with a control building designed by
Roger Walker was completed in 1969. but the freight service was soon overtaken by the introduction of containerisation based at Thorndon. Land between Queens Wharf and Taranaki Street Wharf was reclaimed from 1969, allowing creation of
Frank Kitts Park and
Whairepo Lagoon and closing in the landward side of Taranaki Street Wharf. In 1989 two historic
rowing club buildings were moved to the reclaimed area. The floating crane
Hikitia is berthed at Taranaki Street Wharf.
Kings Wharf (1909) Kings Wharf is a timber wharf constructed between 1906 and 1909, parallel with and to the east of Glasgow Wharf. Tenders for construction of the wharf and two double-storeyed sheds were accepted in September 1906, with Charles F Pulley as the builder. The wharf was long and wide. It was built on 903 ironbark timber piles, arranged in 42 bays each of . The construction included two double-storeyed sheds (numbered 31 and 33) of timber construction. Railway tracks were provided on each side of the wharf, and large mobile cranes on special tracks were used for handling cargo between railway wagons and the holds of ships at the wharf. The wharf was completed in 1909, with a ceremony for the laying of the last block held on 26 March 1909. It was the last major wharf to be built in timber, as concrete was used for all other wharf construction after 1909. Later in 1913, the wharf was the location of a strike by waterside workers that was an early stage of the
1913 Great Strike. During the Second World War, another notable event at Kings Wharf was the arrival of
USS Wakefieldon 14 June 1942, carrying around 6,000 US marines from the
1st Marine Division. In the 1960s, the Thorndon Container Terminal was built with reclamation of land up to and including the east side of Kings Wharf. However, berth 1 on the western side of Kings Wharf remains operational.
Clyde Quay Wharf (1910) and Overseas Passenger Terminal (1964) and
Rangatira Clyde Quay Wharf was completed in 1910 by Wellington Harbour Board. Its location and purpose were controversial at the time. Trade in imported goods was decreasing by the time the wharf was completed, and the wharf was distant from the rest of the port, so it was never used as much as other wharves in the harbour. The wharf was long and was the first wharf in Wellington built of reinforced concrete rather than timber. It was also notable for a line of concrete arches high running the length of the wharf. In 1961 the wharf was closed. The wharf was then extended, and the Overseas Passenger Terminal was built on the wharf by the Wellington Harbour Board. The building was constructed to replace inadequate passenger facilities at the wharves on the other side of the inner harbour. It was designed by an architectural practice owned by former Wellington Mayor
Michael Fowler. The design was intended to give the appearance of an ocean liner and included customs and immigration facilities, a restaurant, café and waiting lounges. It was opened on 7 December 1964. However, it was effectively obsolete at the time of opening because of a rapid decline in international passenger shipping resulting from increasing international air travel. The building was subsequently used as an exhibition and events centre and housed various businesses and restaurants. to make way for a new apartment complex called Clyde Quay Wharf, which opened in 2014. There are 75 apartments in the building, but the area at ground level around the wharf has been left accessible to the public. The spire and four wall mosaics from the old building were used in the new one. In November 1911 the Harbour Board resolved to extend Ferry Wharf and build a new wharf long next to it to serve the ferries to Seatoun and Karaka Bay. A contract was signed in June 1912 but construction was delayed due to difficulties sourcing timber and by the 1913 Great Strike, so the wharf was not completed until 1914. By the 1970s, reclamation nearby meant the landward side of the wharf could not be used, and in 1971 a walkway was built which connected Tug Wharf to Queens Wharf along the newly reclaimed area. In 2011, designer toilets nicknamed '
lobster loos' were opened between Tug Wharf and Queens Wharf.
Ngā Kina, a sculpture of giant
kina (sea urchins) by
Michael Tuffery, was installed at the water's edge next to Tug Wharf in 2012.
Pipitea Wharf (1923) (former) Pipitea Wharf is a former wharf in the inner harbour that was absorbed into the reclamation undertaken to create the Thorndon Container Terminal in the 1960s. However, construction of the wharf was greatly delayed by the disruption and shortages of materials caused by
World War I. The Board had called for tenders shortly before the outbreak of World War I, but had to withdraw the notice. A new notice calling for tenders for the construction of the wharf was eventually issued in June 1919. Steel reinforcing for the wharf did not arrive until 1920, and cement arrived in 1921. The Board elected to manage the construction of the wharf with its own resources and in 1923 reported that this had achieved a saving of 19% compared with the lowest tendered cost. There was a major incident in June 1936 when the inter-island ferry
TSS Wahine collided with the wharf while entering the port in dense fog. The bow of the vessel was extensively damaged. During
World War II, Pipitea Wharf was used for berthing large
ocean liners that had been converted for use as
troopships. One of these vessels was
RMS Aquitania, of the
Cunard line, the largest of the ocean liners to call into New Zealand during the war. The ship's draught of was a record for any port in New Zealand at that time. When the Thorndon Container Terminal was developed, Pipitea Wharf was part of the reclamation and became fully absorbed. However, in the
2016 Kaikōura Earthquake, the fill surrounding some of the remaining original wharf piles subsided by around , leaving the tops of the piles exposed.
Jubilee floating dock (1932–1988) In 1928, the Harbour Board announced a decision to procure and install a
floating dock with a lifting power of 15,000 tons, to be used for ship repairs. The floating dock was built in England then towed for five and a half months at sea, covering , and arrived in Wellington Harbour on 28 December 1931. The dock was long and wide, with a lifting capacity of 17,000 tons. It was powered by electricity and included a crane capable of lifting up to five tons. A wharf was built adjacent to the Thorndon reclamation for permanent mooring of the floating dock. The dock was named 'Jubilee Dock' in honour of the Harbour Board's fiftieth anniversary in 1930. In 1988, the Harbour Board sold the floating dock to an engineering firm in Nelson, and it was then on-sold for use in Singapore. The dock was taken in tow from Wellington, but broke up and sank on 2 January 1989, only five days into the tow.
Kaiwharawhara Wharf (proposed) From the 1960s, state-owned roll-on/roll-off passenger ferries to Picton, operated by
KiwiRail and currently branded as the
Interislander, have berthed at a terminal near Aotea Quay.
StraitNZ, a competing privately owned company, operates its Bluebridge ferries from Glasgow Wharf. In 2020, following two years of discussion with stakeholders,
Greater Wellington Regional Council announced that it had chosen
Kaiwharawhara as its preferred site for a new wharf and ferry terminal. The terminal would be built on land owned by KiwiRail,
CentrePort and the
NZ Transport Agency. The new wharf would be able to accommodate the larger ferries that Interislander planned to introduce, and would replace the two separate facilities currently operated by the Interislander and StraitNZ. In addition, CentrePort would be able to make changes to the layout of its other port operations. The plan includes a wharf about long, a ferry terminal building, changes to road, rail and pedestrian access, and marshalling and loading areas.
Resource consent was granted in January 2023. == Eastern side of Wellington Harbour ==