Product Code Database
Oaia Island is an island on the west coast of the Auckland Region, New Zealand, near Muriwai. Home to an Australasian gannet colony, the island was traditionally used as a seasonal food resource for Tāmaki Māori iwi, including Te Kawerau ā Maki. Over the 21st century, the gannet population grew significantly, which had a negative impact on the island's flora, and led to gannets colonising areas of the Muriwai mainland. The island is a known location where the rare korowai gecko has been found.
Flora on the island includes Disphyma australe (New Zealand ice plant), Chenopodium allanii and Coprosma repens (taupata), with historic records indicating Lepidium oleraceum previously was found on the island. have been identified on Oaia Island, and New Zealand fur seals are known to visit the island.
The island is a habitat for the rare korowai gecko, which was first identified as living on the island in 1954; then thought to be a different species of gecko, Woodworthia maculata.
In 1902, politician and later Mayor of Auckland City, Edwin Mitchelson, constructed a wooden mansion at Muriwai which he named Oaia, after the island.
Oaia Island is the subject of Colin McCahon's acrylic landscape Moby Dick Is Sighted Off Muriwai Beach (1972), which was featured in a New Zealand Post stamp campaign in 1997.
|
|
