Point Britomart is a former headland

Headland

A headland is a point of land, usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water.Headland can also refer to:*Headlands and bays*headLand, an Australian television series...

 in the Waitemata Harbour

Waitemata Harbour

The quite famous Waitemata Harbour is the main access by sea to Auckland, New Zealand. For this reason it is often referred to as Auckland Harbour, despite the fact that it is only one of two harbours surrounding the city, and is crossed by the Auckland Harbour Bridge. The Waitemata forms the north...

, Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. Located between Commercial Bay

Commercial Bay

Commercial Bay was the bay on the southern side of the Waitemata Harbour, formerly defining the original extent of the Auckland waterfront, Auckland, New Zealand...

 and Official Bay, it was later quarried away to produce fill for land reclamation

Land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...

 in Mechanics Bay

Mechanics Bay

Mechanics Bay is the name of a former bay on the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland City, New Zealand. It is also the name used to describe the area of the former bay that is now mainly occupied by commercial and port facilities...

, and no physical trace remains at street level in what is today an area of the Auckland CBD

Auckland CBD

The Auckland CBD is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. Bounded by several major motorways and by the harbour coastline in the north, it is surrounded further out by mostly suburban areas...

 and Auckland waterfront

Auckland waterfront

The Auckland waterfront is a city-side stretch of the southern Waitemata Harbour coastline in Auckland City, New Zealand...

.

History

Point Britomart was the site of at least one Māori pā (fort)

Pa (Maori)

The word pā can refer to any Māori village or settlement, but in traditional use it referred to hillforts fortified with palisades and defensive terraces and also to fortified villages. They first came into being about 1450. They are located mainly in the North Island north of lake Taupo...

, and considered an important site in the Auckland Isthmus, with several known battles fought over it, such as by the Ngāti Whātua

Ngati Whatua

Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. It consists of four hapu : Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te Taoū, and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei....

 in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The point received its European name in 1848 from the HMS Britomart

HMS Britomart

Seven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Britomart, after the Britomartis of Greek mythology:*HMS Britomart was a 16-gun brig-sloop captured from the Danes in 1807 and commissioned as HMS Glommen...

, whose crew undertook a detailed survey of the Waitemata Harbour after it had been decided to base the new capital here. It was the site where the Union Jack

Union Flag

The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...

 was first raised in Auckland on 18 September 1840 by Felton Mathew after a preliminary agreement had been signed for the purchase of Auckland, and the point soon became the site of one of the first British military fortifications in New Zealand, Fort Britomart.

Later on, in the 1870s and 1880s, it was quarried away for fill in Mechanics Bay, its spoils providing the land for a new railway station. The removal also made Official Bay more easily accessible by foot.

The original Point Britomart area later also held a railway station and the General Post Office. At the turn of the millennium, in 2001 it became the site of the new Britomart Transport Centre

Britomart Transport Centre

Britomart Transport Centre is the CBD public transport hub of Auckland, New Zealand, and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk line. It combines a bus interchange with a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive post-modernist architectural elements...

.