Commercial Bay

Commercial Bay (Māori: Onepanea) was a historic bay on the southern side of the Waitematā Harbour that defined the original extent of the Auckland waterfront in Auckland, New Zealand. Today, the name Commercial Bay refers to the heavily developed area around lower Queen Street and Viaduct Harbour. The historic bay was framed by two substantial headlands, Smale's Point dividing it from Freemans Bay in the west and Point Britomart dividing it from Official Bay and Mechanics Bay in the east. The Waihorotiu Stream drained the valley running down to the bay. Commercial Bay was named so because from early on it had been intended as the site for the new city's business centre, in distinction from Official Bay, where government officers were first based. Queen Street was formed down the valley, alongside the Waihorotiu, and eventually the stream was covered over. The headlands on both sides of the bay were quarried away roughly within the 1860 to 1920 period, as Auckland used their stone as fill to reclaim seashore land for the growing city and built a new waterfront with various large quays. Nowadays, the former bay and its headlands are mostly covered with high-rise buildings.

Data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).