The Wellington Harbour Board was constituted as a local authority in 1880. For the next 109 years the board controlled the waterfront, port facilities and managed the movement of vessels in the habour. The inner-harbour area under its control was once delineated by a perimeter fence which stretched from Clyde Quay over to Thorndon Quay. Officially, this zone was not formally part of Wellington City and it even had its own bylaws. The Harbour Board was also one of the largest employers in the city with hundreds of workers employed to load and unload ships and to move freight between ships, storage warehouses and secondary transport such as trains and heavy road vehicles. Traditionally the board members were made up of representatives of shipping companies, Wellington City Council (the mayor until the latter period when a councillor would be appointed), Hutt & Wairarapa County Councils and the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. This mix began to change as new borough and city councils were formed out of former rural areas.
The introduction of containerised shipping and the start of the 'jet age' in the early 1970s which saw the end of most international passenger shipping saw a gradual reduction in the number of workers employed. Local body reforms of the 4th Labour Government saw the board's activities corporatised and in 1989 it was dissolved with the Port of Wellington Ltd taking control of operational port facilities and the Wellington City Council taking ownership of the inner-harbour waterfront areas which had fallen into obsolescence following the construction of the container wharf. The remaining assets were divided among the district councils now representing Wellington, Hutt, Wairarapa and Manawatu.
As a major commercial enterprise, the Harbour Board produced a significant number of often lavishly illustrated publications including yearbooks and advertising material which was used to promote the port facilities to overseas shipping firms. Wellington City Libraries has been collecting this material since the early 20th century and a selection from our collections has been digitised here.
Related to the activities of the board, the waterfront was also often a centre of intense union activity. Two related items on this site include this book about the history of the Wellington Watersiders published in 1947 and this rare collection of material from the 1951 waterfront dispute.
