Thomas Duder's Arrival in New Zealand

View from Duder Regional Park towards Duder's Beach.

It was a dark and stormy squall that drove H.M.S. Buffalo ashore on the morning of 28 July 1840.
Thomas Duder first visited Aotearoa, aboard the Buffalo in about 1833, when the ship voyaged from England to Sydney with a cargo of female convicts, then arrived in New Zealand to load up on Kauri spurs for the British navy.


On the final voyage, H.M.S. Buffalo had sailed from England in 1839 with a cargo of convicts bound for Tasmania. Following this she stopped at Sydney on the 5th of April 1840 to pick up troops, a detachment the 80th Regiment, before setting the sails for New Zealand. The ship arrived in the Bay of Islands on the 16th of April, and at Mercury Bay in the Coromandel on the 22nd of July to load some with Kauri spurs aboard for the British Navy. The ship made an attempt to depart on the 25th of July but this was thwarted by Ole King Neptune. The weather decayed further the over the following days and finally drove the ship ashore, a wreak. Two crew, Charles More & John Carnie were drowned in the ensuing destruction.


Here, 32 year old crewman Thomas Duder's of Devon, England, found himself ashore in New Zealand. He went on to became harbour signalman at Takarunga (Mt Victoria), Devonport. He kept this post from 1843 until his death in 1875 when he was 71.


Thomas brought property around the Auckland area, including 5 acres on the corner of Church st, Devonport (now home of the world famous Duder's Bay Surf Club) and 600 acres at the Whakakaiwhara Pa site, which he purchased from Ngaitai in 1866. His descendents still farm this land although much of it was sold to Auckland Regional Council and became Duder Regional Park in 1995.


Thomas married Margaret Dunne in May 1845 and had 7 children. His son, William Thomas Duder, born June 12 1846 is thought to be the first pakeha born in Devonport.