Albert Barracks

The Albert Barracks was a major British military installation that overlooked Auckland, New Zealand, from the mid-1840s to 1870, during the city's early colonial period. The perimeter wall was built between 1846 and the early 1850s, in the area now bounded by Kitchener Street, Waterloo Quadrant, Symonds Street, and Wellesley Street East, according to Colonel Thomas Rawlings Mould's 1860 map of Defensible Works round Auckland. The site is now mostly occupied by Albert Park and the University of Auckland's City Campus, and Princes Street runs through the centre of it. All that remains of the barracks structures is part of the perimeter wall, which is on the university campus.

The fortification was built to reassure the people of Auckland following the 1845–1846 Flagstaff War in the Bay of Islands; at the time, Auckland was the capital of New Zealand. Prior to this, Fort Britomart, a headland on the Waitematā Harbour adjacent to the town of Auckland served as the base of military operations. A loopholed defensible wall had been proposed by the Commanding Royal Engineer, Captain George Augustus Bennett, as the barracks developed before his death in April 1845. It was built under the direction of his replacement, Major William Biddlecomb Marlow, RE, and the supervision of Clerk of Works George Graham, enclosing the 22 acres (8.9 ha) site. Tenders were called for construction of the perimeter wall on 18 December 1846. Construction of the scoria wall with stone quarried from Engineer Quarry in Mount Eden was undertaken by both Europeans and local Maori under Graham's supervision. As this type of construction was new to Maori, training was given to them, with the result that "it would be difficult to point out any marked difference between them and the work performed by the Europeans". The speed and quality of the work encouraged the Europeans employing Maori to set up a night school to provide them with additional training. In addition, a skills based pay structure was introduced for them with three steps from entrance class at two shillings per day, 2nd class at two shillings and six pence, and those who were proficient three shillings and six pence per day. European

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