O'CONNOR, Denis, 1947-
Maungarei Eavesdrop (Sculpture)
Sited in the courtyard of the Population Health
complex at Tāmaki campus are four bluestone
basalt boulders with inscribed text.
They originate from the Mount Wellington
quarry, a 220-acre site in Lunn Avenue
established by Winstones in 1936. Operating
until 2001, it employed 120 people and was
once the country’s main source for volcanic
stones for roads and walls. Now G341, the
ubiquitous Auckland kerbstone is quarried and
manufactured in China, and mechanised,
modern quarrying has shifted south to Bombay.
A new residential suburb, Stonefields, has risen
where stonecrushers once ruled.
