Jillett’s Whaling Station, Kāpiti Island
The Waiorua station in historical drawings
The 1844 drawing by J. A. Gilfillan reproduced in Nigel Prickett’s archaeological study depicts a substantial whaling settlement at Waiorua, on Kāpiti Island. Prickett describes buildings extending about 200 metres along the shore and up to 150 metres inland on both sides of the stream. The drawing appears to show as many as 35 huts and other structures, with sheerlegs on the beach at the southern end.
What survives
When James Cowan visited in 1905, he reported a large trypot and its stone furnace at the Waiorua landing. Prickett’s 1982 survey describes later farming and holiday buildings that had obscured or damaged much of the original site. He also noted iron, stone revetting and boat slipways along the foreshore, while cautioning that not every surviving feature can be securely dated to the whaling period.
Source
Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (2002), section 9.10, Waiorua, and Figures 82–83. The historical image is a drawing, not a photograph.
