Early history of the site: The former Colonial Ammunition Company (CAC) Office is situated in Mt Eden, at the foot of Maungawhau (Mt Eden). Maungawhau has a long history of human occupation. According to some accounts, Titahi, a Ngati Awa rangatira with the ability to build complex pa was associated with the construction of a large pa there, which was later occupied by the Waiohua people. Extensive cultivations and related activity areas were located on volcanic soils on the mountain’s lower slopes and surrounding lava fields. Maungawhau was part of the broader Auckland isthmus taken over by Ngati Whatua in the eighteenth century. No Maori occupation of the mountain is currently known immediately preceding Auckland’s founding as a colonial settlement in 1840. Maungawhau marked the southern boundary of the first area of land transferred by Ngati Whatua to the Crown in 1840 for the creation of Auckland as the colonial capital. The summit was subsequently employed as the base survey point from which land in the North Island was subdivided in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Epsom land near the foot of Mt Eden was subdivided into farms as early as 1842 as part of Auckland’s early rural hinterland. The land occupied in 1885 by the venture that became the CAC was part of the 25-hectare gaol reserve gazetted in 1876. Prisoners from Auckland’s overcrowded Queen Street facility had been transferred to a stockade opened in 1856 on the wider Mt Eden site where the erection of a new prison behind the basalt perimeter wall began in 1882. The perceived national importance of the project; a desire to assist an experimental venture; proximity to a shooting range and a powder magazine; and co-location of hazardous activities away from built-up areas, are likely to have influenced the site the government offered for use. The ammunition manufacturing operation established with colonial government encouragement was a response to a feared Russian invasion arising from the Anglo-Russian dispute in Afghanistan; apprehensions that Britain’s Royal Navy could not defend New Zealand; and a shortage of British small arms ammunition for supply to the colony. In early July 1885, cartridges ordered from Hazard and Whitney were trialled at the Mt Eden range. William Henri Hazard (d.1899) was a Queen Street gun smith; and Captain John Whitney (1836-1932) the commander of the Point Resolution battery and assistant aide-de-camp to Major General Sir George Whitmore commander of the colonial forces. Without quantities of small arms ammunition, large defence works under construction on Auckland’s North Head and strategic locations in the colony’s coastal cities were in jeopardy. The earliest cartridges were produced at the Queen Street premises of gun-maker Karl Teutenberg, prior to the December 1885 opening of the first munitions factory in Australasia on the Mt Eden site. Whitney arranged for the local production of tools and machinery and recruited 25 workers (mostly children) to work in the galvanised iron building that had been erected. When Whitney’s partnership with Hazard ended in April 1886, the business became Whitney and Sons. The first 5,000 cartridges were delivered to the government before September 1886. The pending formation of the CAC was announced in London in February 1888. A new cartridge-making plant was imported from England, and plant was added for the production of sporting ammunition for the Australasian market. An ammunition factory was also established at Footscray, Melbourne by the CAC in 1889-90, for the supply of military ammunition to the mainland Australian colonies. Tenders were invited for extensions to the Mt Eden buildings in December 1891, by which time 90 to 100 hands were employed. Most were women, children having been banned from factory work by legislative changes introduced earlier that year. Frequent promotion of the company’s activities in local newspapers may have reflected pride in the achievements of colonial industries coupled with the uncertainties inherent in operating on three-year contracts. Part of the factory was destroyed in 1897 by an explosion that killed three women workers. The following year, plant was installed for manufacturing .303 ammunition. The Lee Enfield .303 introduced in 1895 was the main military service rifle of countries in the British Empire and Commonwealth for over 60 years. The need for a secure ammunition supply was again highlighted when the CAC contract came up for renewal in 1900, during the South African War. In 1904, Premier Richard Seddon recognised that the three-year contract system was prejudicial to ability to plan. The company’s activities formally expanded to Lot 101 on the west side of Normanby Road in 1905. By this time the saw-tooth-roofed factory on the original site stood behind a 1.5-metre-tall stone wall with a solid timber gate to the street. By 1906 the CAC was capable of making the three types of .303 ammunition used by the New Zealand forces, and remained New Zealand’s pre-eminent supplier of military small-arms ammunition through two world wars. Circa 1913 plans for redevelopment of the Company’s works were hampered by the lack of borough sewers. With Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in early August 1914, employees worked twelve to fourteen hour-days, although part of the military plant remained idle owing to a lack of skilled workers. A reported million cartridges a month were being produced by January 1915; the main expeditionary force having taken some 15 million rounds when departing for Europe in October 1914. A new 15-year government contract required that plant and machinery be maintained sufficient to double the minimum annual supply, with provision for an output of over twenty million rounds of .303 ammunition per annum. Before year end, the works had trebled its normal output. Local body sewerage infrastructure extended to the area in 1916. Construction of CAC General Office (1916-17): Just weeks after the outbreak of war, approval was given for proposed additions including construction of a general office in brick. The building was erected immediately to the north of the gate office on the site of an earlier timber structure opposite the manager’s office. The new office became the public face of the works, as the building first encountered by the many politicians, dignitaries and business groups who visited the CAC operation over the years. The design, along with that of many other CAC projects, was by architect Johnson Clark (1882-1958) who was working on his own account from premises in downtown Auckland by 1909. The asymmetrical gables and arrangement of openings on the south elevation suggested possible Free Classical influences. Although the small size of the structure afforded a very limited canvas, considerable care appears to have been taken with the design. The tiled asymmetrical double-gable saw-tooth roof incorporated south-facing glazing. Six pairs of top-hung six-pane sashes alternated with paired fixed casements to provide light and ventilation. Plans showed four evenly-spaced north-facing sash windows overlooking a government railway siding, although as-built five windows may have been provided. The south elevation incorporated a double hung sash window; the main entrance porch with lead-light glazing in the door and surrounds; and a pair of segmental arched diocletion windows overlooked the main drive and landscaped grounds. The arches of the latter windows were of light-coloured brick. The front and rear gabled parapets and eaves incorporated corbelling. Workers received their pay in a shed-roofed porch at the rear entrance. Interior wall panelling, panel doors and public counter were included in Clark’s design. An attached lavatory in brick on the exterior of the west elevation did not proceed, although a stand-alone facility was subsequently built. Subsequent use (1917- ): Internally, the public counter faced the front door of the entrance lobby. To the left was a cloak-room. A door to the right accessed the main body of the office. The space was delineated into task areas, overseen from the north-west corner by the founder’s second son Cecil Whitney, later Sir Cecil Whitney who led the firm from 1931 until 1945. The accountant’s desk occupied the north east corner adjacent to the safe and close to the pay porch. Typists worked under the two large windows. Copyists and takers of short-hand sat at an L-shaped bench in a corner. Desks (divided lengthwise to accommodate clerks either side) and tables occupied the central area. A plan dated 25 May 1917, suggests either that the open-plan office layout may not have been adopted, or that alterations were undertaken soon after completion of the building - to provide three offices within the west of the building, doing away with the cloak room. The general office would have overseen the day-to-day operations of New Zealand’s only ammunition factory including dealings with government and military; suppliers; retailers of recreational ammunition; the larger Melbourne works; and London head office. In addition to customs, safety and employment matters, the company’s considerable complex also extended to provision of some housing including an engineer’s residence. Reflecting the growing size of the operation, the lease area was increased by a third in 1917 to take in almost four hectares. As in the South African War, production of shotgun cartridges (manufactured at Auckland since 1887) virtually ceased during the First World War to enable increased military production. Against the wishes of head office in England, a tower for manufacturing lead shot was erected circa 1916. This enabled high production levels of sporting and hunting ammunition after the war. By 1918, the Auckland plant was making spare parts for the government’s .303 military rifles; undertaking general gun and rifle repairs; and producing custom-made shotguns. In 1925 the government cancelled the 15-year contract negotiated during the war, almost halving its ammunition requirement. Insufficient peacetime demand for sporting ammunition resulted in diversification into crown seals for bottles. The Australian government purchased the Melbourne works in 1927, by which time Major John Whitney had re-acquired the New Zealand operation he founded. The Auckland and Melbourne plants remained the only two ammunition factories in the southern hemisphere. By 1935 the Auckland plant was manufacturing plastic extrusion products, and later diversified into aluminium foil containers, lipstick containers and other small plastic and metal products. The manufacture of shot gun cartridges remained important. One young woman was killed in an explosion at the plant in June 1936, and five workers injured. At the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-45) the Auckland factory had capacity to produce 10-12 million .303 rounds annually. In order to meet the need for 60 million rounds per annum, work on a new casing plant started in September 1940 on adjoining land to the north, although following concerns about security, two complete manufacturing units set up on the rural outskirts of Hamilton were also producing ammunition by mid 1942. The Mt Eden annex, already producing 1.5 million rounds a week, made shotgun cartridges tripling the CAC’s pre-war capacity of 250,000 rounds a month. A door opening may have been created in the north wall of the office, to provide direct access to the new plant. At this time the Mt Eden works was frequently visited by statesmen including Prime Minister Peter Fraser; and the Governor General to boost morale. Many women who worked at the factory before marriage returned to assist production. Emergency regulations were passed to enable women to be employed on night shift work at the plant six days a week. The rear pay porch of the office was extended to provide a lean-to along most of the rear wall at an unknown date between 1932 and 1952. This may have been a war-time necessity as staff numbers soared. In 1947 the company entered an agreement with Australian company Imperial Chemical Industries Limited (ICI) to produce .22 rimfire ammunition. Owing to soaring rabbit populations, demand exceeded 25 million cartridges a year. Supply of .303 ammunition to deer cullers began in the 1930s. Ammunition supply dwindled by the late 1970s as live recovery and deer farming took off. The Auckland company was bought outright by ICI in 1965 and the Normanby Road site converted to freehold in 1970, a year before the firm became CAC Industries Limited. The line of cartridges produced was expanded for the North American and Japanese markets. The old ammunition works was replaced by more modern buildings, possibly following a series of fires and an explosion in 1968, leaving the 1916-17 office the oldest surviving building on the site of the historic Normanby Road works. The CAC still ran a small centre-fire production line in 1979 to cater for local demand and a shot-shell line producing a variety of trap and field loads. The site was subdivided in two in 1980 prior to closure of the CAC plant in 1982 at a cost of 160 jobs. The former general office building became a fabric shop, and by 1994 was Sportways Gun Shop. The premises were converted into a veterinary clinic in 2005. The front entrance porch and rear lean to addition had been removed by this time, and two large openings (one containing a roller door) made in the south wall. In addition to repair of a section of corbelling on the north wall, one window had been bricked up and plastered over and another partly in-filled and glass bricks introduced. Refitted for its current use, the almost century-year-old structure retains its overall exterior form although the porches have been removed and entrances modified.

Current Description: The former CAC Office is situated on Mt Eden’s northern fringe bordering commercial industrial Khyber Pass; and the elite residential suburb of Epsom, an inner suburb of Auckland to the southeast. Located to the southeast of Auckland’s main city centre, the Normanby Road area comprises high-rise apartments and mixed use development. The building is located at the corner of a large car-parking area fringed by new development and mid-to-late twentieth-century warehouse-type structures. Notable historic features in the wider vicinity include the Upper Symonds Street Historic Area (Register No. 7367) less than 500 metres to the northwest on the Khyber Pass - Symonds Street ridge located on which is a diverse collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century, commercial and community buildings including churches. Located a short distance to the northeast fronting Lauder and Boston Roads is Mt Eden Prison (Register No. 88, Category 1 historic place) construction of which commenced in 1883 using prison labour and local basalt. Within the immediate environs, the former CAC office building is one of three interrelated surviving CAC structures that collectively form a significant heritage landscape. The former office dating from 1916-17 represents the earliest surviving remnant on the original site of the first ammunition works in Australasia. The other two surviving buildings slightly to the northwest on the west (opposite) side of Normanby Road are the Colonial Ammunition Company Shot Tower (Register No. 87, Category 1 historic place) erected circa 1916; and a former CAC bulk store erected circa 1922 in blue stone, now the CAC Bar (not registered) - located at 24 and 26 Normanby Road respectively. The three near-contemporary items erected within the first quarter of the twentieth century represent different aspects of the CAC’s operation: the administration and office function; the manufacture of lead shot for shotgun cartridges employed for sport and hunting; and, warehousing. Enfield Road to the west also takes its name from the former company’s Mt Eden munitions operation. Site layout and building exterior: The site occupied by the former CAC Office building is marginally larger than the building footprint. The building stands at the northern entrance of a car-parking area bounded by more recent buildings. The structure appears to be comparatively well preserved, being on its original site and having relatively few modifications to its external form. The building retains its original footprint apart from the loss of the front and the rear porch. The roof sheathing has been replaced, but the original roof from incorporating glazing survives. Some window and door openings have been altered. Erected in pale orange brick, the building is located close to the front boundary on slightly sloping land above the east side of Normanby Road. Timber bearers and joists rest on rock foundation walls. The double-gable saw-tooth roof is supported by timber beams that sit on a concrete bond beam. The front entrance remains in the original location on the south elevation. The west elevation to Normanby Road retains its original appearance, a brick wall without openings. The asymmetrical pair of gables has brick corbelling in the parapets. The tile roof has been replaced in a decramastic-style sheathing. Two stone plaques in the west gables state respectively: ’The Colonial Ammunition Company Limited’ and ’Established by John Whitney 1884-5’. What may have been a large non-original in-filled opening towards the west end of the south elevation is obscured. The front door and flanking side light are a modern detail replacing a non-original metal roller door. The two timber-frame diocletion windows survive, along with the glazing on the south side of the roof ridges. Two window openings along the north elevation have been partly or wholly in-filled, and a door opening introduced possibly during the Second World War. Interior: The interior layout and fittings date from the 2005 conversion of an empty shell building into a veterinary clinic. The front entrance opens into a small glazed lobby, which in turn opens into an open-plan reception and retail area occupying almost half the total floor area. Behind reception is the consulting room, to the west of which is the dog hospital. The cat hospital and service area are accommodated in the eastern portion.