Devonport Tunnels - North Head

Front view of a twin, 6 pound coastal defence gun at Fort Dorset, Wellington, New Zealand. 1941. (National Archives of New Zealand)

A new shuttle is planned from a bay directly to the historic reserve to bring tourists.

Even the French are dealing with the left overs from the war

After WWI, France deemed 1,200 square kilometers of its own land entirely unfit for human life. Over a century later, this jagged scar—the Zone Rouge—won't be safe for another 700 years.

The story of the Red Zone is rooted in the unprecedented scale of artillery warfare on the Western Front. During prolonged engagements like the Battle of Verdun, the landscape was subjected to relentless bombardments. Entire villages were pulverized, and the ground was churned into a chaotic wasteland. When the war ended, the French government realized that rebuilding these areas was immediately impossible. The land was saturated with human and animal remains, and the physical geography of the terrain had been completely destroyed.

The primary reason the Red Zone has not been fully cleaned up is the staggering density of unexploded ordnance. Historians estimate that artillery units fired over one billion shells during the First World War, and roughly 30 percent of them failed to detonate upon impact. Today, these dormant explosives regularly surface in French and Belgian farmland during spring plowing—a phenomenon known locally as the "iron harvest." The French Département du Déminage (Department of Mine Clearance) recovers hundreds of tons of munitions every year. However, at the current rate of extraction, authorities estimate it will take centuries to clear the remaining explosives.

Furthermore, the danger is not just explosive; it is highly toxic. World War I introduced chemical warfare on an industrial scale. Unexploded shells are still leaking mustard gas, phosgene, and chlorine into the earth. Even conventional munitions heavily contaminated the soil with heavy metals. In some of the worst-affected pockets of the Red Zone, the soil contains arsenic levels up to 10,000 times higher than natural baselines, alongside extreme concentrations of lead, mercury, and zinc. In these localized dead zones, plant life struggles to survive, and groundwater remains severely polluted.

Over the past century, the French government has managed to surface-clean and shrink the Red Zone from its original 1,200 square kilometers to about 100 square kilometers today. The remaining heavily contaminated areas have been planted with thick pine forests to stabilize the soil and keep people out. Scattered throughout these woods are the ghosts of nine destroyed towns—such as Fleury-devant-Douaumont—which were intentionally left in ruins. They are officially designated as "villages that died for France," serving as permanent memorials to a landscape irreparably altered by war.

I enjoy seeing videos of other disappearing gun emplacements as the layouts could possibly show where there are hidden tunnels at North Head.

TikTok · PigeonBoy

I am disappointed in Auckland Transport at the destruction of this history.

Back in the 1880s as global tensions grew between England and Russia, the New Zealand government purchased land at Taurarua/Point Resolution for fortification in the event of any troubles. Along with Australia, panic over a potential Russian invasion was real, so much so that the fortifications were hastily constructed: at Point Resolution, they were put up by the Armed Constabulary. Fortunately, no shots were fired in war, and the fort was abandoned in 1904. A charming picnic spot, with its wonderful views over the harbour, Fort Resolution was levelled in 1914, around the time the Parnell Baths were constructed. Besides the Fort, the site was also famous for the White Heron Lodge, Auckland's playground of the rich and famous in the 1960s and 70s.
Photographer: Marsh, Douglas Jerome, 1915-1996
Image reference: Auckland Libraries Heritage Images 1334-16-16

In April 2026 Stony Batter Tunnels will close and the tenure of Tim Moon as custodian and guide will come to an end. Tim first become involved with Stony Batter Tunnels a decade ago, running guided walks as part of the Waiheke Walking Festival and then picking up full-time management and operation. This conversation is from Tim's early days of involvement in December 2017. https://www.waihekeradio.org.nz/podcast/tim-moon-stony-batter-tunnels