Western Springs

Auckland’s lava flow basalts are highly fractured by cooling cracks and mixed with zones of broken and scoriaceous rock that make excellent underground aquifers. Many of these lava flows swept down existing stream valleys and today much of the water that originally flowed down these streams now flows through the solidified basaltic lava rock. It resurfaces as springs as they approach the coast and meet saline groundwater infiltrating from the sea. One of the largest of these freshwater sources was Western Springs, between MOTAT and Auckland Zoo.
In the 1870s Auckland city was in desperate need of a more reliable source of piped freshwater than the original Domain duckponds' source and Western Springs was chosen. A brick pumphouse with a tall chimney was built to house large imported pumps that from 1877 were used to pump water to newly constructed reservoirs on the ridges of Karangahape Rd and Symonds St and after 1888 on Mt Eden. The pond at Western Springs was created at that time. Water was supplied to all the inner suburbs until 1902 when it needed to be supplemented by water piped in from the Waitakere Ranges. In 1910 water from the newly constructed Waitakere Dam came on stream and the Western Springs system was retained for use as an emergency supply until 1956.

Western Springs Reserve has a number of sealed walking paths around the lake, over bridges and through the areas of springs. The brick pumphouse can be seen in MOTAT over the fence or can be seen working inside MOTAT itself.