Wairoa Lighthouse, relocated in 1959 to the southern bank of the Wairoa River adjacent to Marine Parade, was built in 1877-78 to the design of marine engineer John Blackett. It remains historically significant for its association with New Zealand maritime history and is representative of the pivotal role that shipping and coastal transport played in the social and economic development of New Zealand in the nineteenth century. The lighthouse has architectural significance for its association with John Blackett, one of the most influential engineers of the time. It is an example of the successful repurposing of disused maritime architecture into a heritage monument that has become a town icon.

The lighthouse was constructed at a time when shipping was the country’s main form of transportation and shipwrecks were an ever-present risk. The systematic building of lighthouses from the mid-1860s reduced this risk, cementing the lighthouse as a symbol of security and technological development. The original site for the lighthouse, on the southern tip of Portland Island off the Mahia Peninsula, was selected in 1874. Construction began on the lighthouse and keepers residences in October 1877 and on 10 February 1878 the light was first illuminated.

The Portland Island Lighthouse was the fifteenth lighthouse erected in New Zealand and the first on the east coast of the North Island. The 12.7m tall hexagonal tower was built by a team headed by H. M. Shepard and constructed entirely out of kauri timber. In March 1879 it was one of several Blackett lighthouses to have its tower strutted for greater structural stability after storm damage. The first lamp was a kerosene-powered second-order dioptric revolving white light. In 1918 a second red light was fixed to the lower section of the tower and shone on nearby Bull Rock. The Portland Island Lighthouse was one of the last two in the country to use a kerosene-powered lamp and clockwork mechanism.

Lighthouse principal keeper Tom Smith wrote a damming report in 1947 on the poor condition of the Portland Island Lighthouse, detailing the extensive amount of maintenance work that needed to be done and how it was affecting productivity and working conditions. Based on Smith’s report, the Marine Department decommissioned the lighthouse and built a new prefabricated galvanised steel structure with a diesel-electric operated light, which was operational by 1957. After learning that the Marine Department planned to dump the first lighthouse, Wairoa Mayor Robert Shortt, who saw the lighthouse’s tourism potential, petitioned to have it moved to the town. The lighthouse was dismantled and transported from Portland Island to its new home in Wairoa in 1959.

Reconstruction of the lighthouse in Wairoa was completed in 1960 with specialist supervision from the Marine Department and kept to Blackett’s design, with the original lenses and lantern. Its physical appearance was slightly altered with the reduction of the tower height and balcony placement. On 10 June 1961 the Wairoa Lighthouse was officially opened as a town monument by the Mayor at a public ceremony. The lighthouse has become part of the heritage landscape of Marine Parade and is a valuable icon for Wairoa; it is used as a symbol of the town in marketing publications. During restoration and maintenance work in 2016 the original copper dome was exposed.