This timeline is in relation to the Brain-Watkins House Museum in Tauranga.
1851: First survey of Tauranga takes place resulting in the Church Missionary Society (CMS) receiving by Crown Grant the land at the mission station itself and various other random lots as Church Mission Reserves. CMS had ‘purchased’ the Te Papa peninsula in 1838 and 1839 and after the New Zealand Wars were given little choice but to gift 4/5ths of the Te Papa block to the Crown.
1863: Joseph arrives in New Zealand on board the Aloe. He had been trading throughout the Pacific as a merchant mariner, and soon after arriving in New Zealand joined the Water Transport Corps, which some describe as New Zealand’s first Navy. Joseph served as a ship’s carpenter and mate on board the gunboat Pioneer, purpose-built in Sydney in 1863 for the New Zealand Colonial Government and used when British and Colonial troops invaded the Waikato region. He later served on the Rangiriri; another gunboat built in Sydney in 1864.
1866-1868: First full survey of Tauranga. In 1867 the streets are laid out and the lots identified. Most of the land originally purchased by Rev. Alfred Brown for the Church Missionary Society (CMS) makes up the town of Tauranga. A large portion of the lots, known as the “Quarter Acres” are allocated to discharged soldiers, some of whom sell out or abandon their lots when they cannot support themselves and their families. However, there were soldiers who remained living in the town, especially those who had a trade such as baker, tailor, or blacksmith. By the 1870s Te Papa began to be known as Tauranga. Source: Jenks, Harold, Forgotten Men-the Survey of Tauranga District 1864-1869.
1869, January: During the Auckland Regatta, Joseph Denham Brain wins the Shaw Savill cup with his yacht Aurora. The goblet is of solid silver, weighing 26oz. 12dwt., and stands eleven-and-a-half inches high. It was worth about £20. Source: Daily Southern Cross (8 January 1869, p. 3).
1871: Joseph Brain leaves the Port of Russell on 19 October 1871 on board the Aurora with 76 tons of coal for Auckland. He marries Kate Ellen Bishop in Auckland on 25 October 1871. The family live at Whangaroa, a rural settlement in the Far North district in Northland, where their first three daughters are born. Source: Marriage Registration Number: (reg. 1871/7008).
1873, January 14: Crown Grant for Lot 147, Section 1 to Wikiriwhi Tauhu. This land was once part of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) farm. Source: Certificate of Title SA2/ 208, LINZ.
1874, February 26: Ada Kate Brain born at Whangaroa in Northland. Source: Birth Registration Number: (reg. 1874/15147).
1875, February 22: Alice Jennette Brain born at Whangaroa in Northland. Source: Birth Registration Number: (reg. 1875/12565).
c. 1876, April: Joseph Brain builds the timber brigantine Kate Brain which founders near Palliser Bay in April 1877. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1878, May 6: Eleanor Esther Sarah Brain born at Whangaroa in Northland. Source: Birth Registration Number: (reg. 1878/6630).
1876, September 25: Lot 147 transferred to John McPherson. Source: Certificate of Title SA2/ 208, LINZ.
1880: Site of Brain-Watkins House Museum is vacant. According to the 1880 Tauranga Directory, there were five sections on the south side of Second Avenue between Devonport Road and Cameron Road. The section closest to Devonport Road was the private residence of contractor Joseph Denham Brain, his wife Kate Ellen Brain (née Bishop), and their children. Source: Tauranga Street Directory, 1880.
1881, January 8: First mention of Joseph Brain in the Bay of Plenty Times. His tender of £208 19 for the erection of the Waetou Bridge on the Te Puke Road is accepted by the Tauranga County Council. It was to be 64 feet long, and built with totara piles, with a superstructure of kauri. The second mention in the Bay of Plenty Times is the following month when Joseph was named as a Steward for the Tauranga Annual Regatta to be held on 17 March 1881. Sources: Bay of Plenty Times (8 January 1881, p. 2), Bay of Plenty Times (24 February 1881, p. 3).
1881: Joseph Brain purchases the boatyard and slip of Charles Wood, located on the beach at Tauranga, at the northern end of The Strand, beneath Taumata-Kahawai (Monmouth Redoubt). Many small steamers were repaired here, and the Vectus, one of Brain’s own scows was also built here. Source: CP History (p. 9), photo of Vectus under construction (Brain-Watkins Collection).
1881, August 14: Edith Bessy Brain is born in Tauranga. One account says this was in Brain-Watkins, but Joseph Brain didn’t receive his shipment of kauri until the following month. Sources: Birth Registration Number: (reg. 1881/6224), Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society (March 1981, No. 65, p. 3).
1881, September 29: Kauri arrives in Tauranga on board the cutter Dream from Tairua for construction of what is now the Brain-Watkins House Museum. Construction of first part of house thought to have commenced. Note that Joseph Brain did not own the site at this time. Rocks are used for the foundations. The layout is identical to plans advertised in the catalogue of Guthrie & Larnach’s Dunedin Iron & Woodware Company of 1880. Source: Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society (March 1981, No. 65 p. 3).
“The cutter Dream arrived at this port last night from Taiorua with timber for Mr Brain’s new residence on the Cameron Road. The cutter Mercury also arrived from the same place with building material” (Bay of Plenty Times, 30 September 1881, p. 2).
1882: In February 1882 the area from Sulphur Point to Eleventh Avenue is gazetted the Borough of Tauranga. Joseph Brain is the contractor for Waitekohe Bridge near Katikati. Source: Bay of Plenty Times (20 April 1882).
c. 1883: Joseph is the contractor for the Ruahihi Bridge and for raising and lengthening the Oraparapahoe Bridge on the No. 4 Road at Te Puke. Sources: Bay of Plenty Times (25 September 1883, p. 2), Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1884, June: Joseph Brain is the contractor for the Atuaroa Bridge at the end of the swamp on the Tauranga to Te Puke Road. He had to erect a temporary bridge for traffic. Source: Bay of Plenty Times (12 June 1884, p. 2).
1885: Joseph Brain builds the General Gordon. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1885, February 14: “We had an opportunity yesterday of visiting Mr Joseph Brain’s ship-building yard, and inspecting the vessel now on the stocks. This craft, which is about 30 ton builders’ measurement, is specially constructed for light draft and has plenty of room for cargo. When light loaded the vessel will not draw more than about 15 to 18 inches, and will be eminently suited for the trade along the coast. She will be ketch rigged. Her measurements are, length 45ft, beam 13ft, and she is built to the order of Brain & Co., of Tauranga. This is also the first vessel built here, and we understand she will be launched early next week. We congratulate Mr Brain on his success.” Source: Bay of Plenty Times (14 February 1885, p. 2).
1886: Joseph Brain is the contractor for the Kopurerua Bridge in Judea. Source: Bay of Plenty Times (6 July 1886).
1886, June 10: Joseph Brain is working on the Ngamuwahine Bridge when Mount Tarawera commenced erupting. Source: Obituary for Joseph Brain, Bay of Plenty Times (13 March 1924). According to John David McNaughton (1911-2011) “They brought the horses inside the house during the Tarawera eruption.”
1887, March: The whaleboat Tarawera is completed. Built for service on Lake Tarawera. Won the whaleboat race during the Tauranga Regatta on 30 November 1887. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1887, August 30: Ownership of Lot 147 transferred from John McPherson to Joseph Denham Brain. The size of of the plot is on acre or 4046.86 square metres. Source: Certificate of Title SA2/ 208, LINZ.
1887, November 1887: Joseph wins a punchbowl valued at £6 with his yacht Arrow during the Tauranga Annual Regatta. He also competes in the open sailing keel or centre board boats of 16ft and under with the Pet. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1888: Joseph Brain constructs 250 foot long tramway at Orangatea Bay on Mōtītī Island. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1891, October 18: Elva Phoebe Brain is born at what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum. Source: Birth Registration Number: (reg. 1891/13215).
1892: Joseph Brain is the contractor for the Wairoa Bridge at Bethlehem. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1893: A cutter that Joseph Brain had built, and which was part of his coastal shipping business, was wrecked north of Stoney Point with a cargo of 250 sacks of maize. The crew of five men on board the Dream under George Armour were luckily uninjured, but the cutter was a total loss. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1897: Joseph Brain contractor for the first Hairini Bridge. Source: Bay of Plenty Times (24 February 1897).
1899: Joseph Brain purchases the goods shed from Victoria Wharf, and relocates it to his boatyard. Source: Bay of Plenty Times (23 November 1898).
1899: Ada Kate Brain marries William Thomas Teasey at what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum. Source: Marriage Registration Number: (reg. 1899/4252).
1899-1911: At some stage during this time period Joseph Brain adds an extension on to the back of the family home. Today this is the sitting room, kitchen/dining room, bathroom, sunroom and toilet. Brick stairs inside the hallway once led outside.
1900: Joseph Brain is the contractor for the Tarawera Bridge on the Rotorua-Te Teko Road. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
c. 1900: Joseph Brain builds the Teasey Homestead for his daughter Ada and son-in-law William. The house has been modified, but still stands at 105 Fourth Avenue. Source: Photo Tauranga District Library 03-230, Acc 155.
1901: Joseph Brain builds the Belfry at Holy Trinity Church. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1901, October 28: “Mr J. Brain, of this town, has also just completed to the order of Messrs Dudson and Geraghty, a punt (capable of carrying about 20 tons of green flax), and the same will be taken to Maketu, by the s.s. Katikati on Thursday next”. Source: Bay of Plenty Times (28 October 1901, p. 2).
1906: Joseph Brain is the contractor for the Omanawa Bridge. Source: Invoice from JD Brain, vertical file, Biography, Tauranga Central Library, New Zealand Room.
1910, February 22: Alice Jennette Brain marries David William McNaughton at what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum. Source: Marriage Registration Number: (reg. 1910/8281), Bay of Plenty Times (23 February 1910, p. 2), CP History (p. 17).
1911: Joseph Brain builds the Horseshoe Wharf at Mount Maunganui for the Public Works Department (East Coast Main Trunk Railway project). Source: Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1911, June 14: Eleanor Esther Sarah Brain marries Harold Tennant Lever at what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum. Source: Marriage Registration Number: (reg. 1911/8390), CP History (p. 17).
1911-1912: Joseph Brain builds the Durham Street Fire Station and Tower. Source: CP History (p. 9).
1915: Joseph Brain builds The Strand Sea Wall (original wooden wall built in 1872 by Richard Coles Jordan (1838-1919), replaced with concrete, now located underneath the lawn on The Strand). Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1917 March 1: Crack shot Elva Brain wins the Captain Millar trophy (a silver tea service) at the rifle range from a field of 20 women. The conditions were 5 shots, each at 300 yards and 400 yards. Source: Bay of Plenty Times (2 March 1917, p. 2).
c. 1920: Home built by Joseph Brain for Major Scantlebury, using timber from old cheese factory. Source: Photo Tauranga District Library 01-116.
1921: Joseph Brain is contractor for the Tauranga War Memorial Gates at Wharepai Domain. Now Category 2 listed. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1923: Joseph Brain’s boatyard removed for reclamation work for the East Coast Main Trunk Railway project. Source: CP History (p. 9).
1924, March 13: Joseph Denham Brain dies at what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum (suspect Southern bedroom). He is buried in the Tauranga Methodist Cemetery. Source: Death Registration Number (reg. 1924/10573), Obituary in Bay of Plenty Times (13 March 1924).
1932: Cameron Road, which had been a muddy thoroughfare before shell from Mount Maunganui was laid in the early 1880s, is sealed. It wasn’t until the 1940s that it would cater for two-way traffic.
1933, December 8: Kate Ellen Brain (née Bishop) dies at what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum (suspect Southern bedroom). She is buried in the Tauranga Methodist Cemetery. The property is shared between her unmarried daughter’s Bessie and Elva, with the stipulation that if one should marry, then the other would inherit the house. Source: Death Registration Number: (reg. 1933/19615), CP History (p. 10).
1950, April 10: Eleanor Esther Sarah Lever (Brain) dies at Ōtāhuhu in Auckland. She is buried in the Methodist Area of the Papatoetoe Cemetery. Source: Death Registration Number: (reg. 1950/33117).
1950, December 3: Ada Kate Teasey (née Brain) dies in Tauranga and is buried in the Tauranga Methodist Cemetery. Source: Death Registration Number: (reg. 1950/27670).
1957, March 1: Edith Bessy Brain and her friend Alfred Byron are struck by a 1947 Hillman motor car driven by John Alfred Bidois while crossing the road near the house at 8.30pm. John was returning home after a days fishing and the “accident took place in the shadows of Cameron Road and it was a fair distance along from the light on the corner of Elizabeth Street.” The pair were taken to Tauranga Public Hospital by ambulance. Bessy died later that night and Alfred the following day. John was “charged with negligently driving a motor car causing the deaths of Bessie Edith Brain and Alfred Byron.” Source: Death Registration Numbers: (reg. 1957/26681 & reg. 1957/26682), Coroner’s Report (Archives New Zealand), Bay of Plenty Times (2 March 1957).
c. 1959: Elva Brain adds sculptures by Tauranga drainlayer and concrete enthusiast Peter McTainsh (1924-2022) to the garden. They include a seashell birdbath held up by a fish, a white concrete swan and a cat which are still in the garden today. Another cat resides in the hallway of the house. Source: Brain-Watkins House Museum and Heritage Garden (Est. 1881).
1961: Elva Brain sells the northern half of the section (the orchard, Kale Print today), retaining the house and site behind facing onto Selwyn Street.
1963, November 28: Alice Jennette McNaughton (née Brain) dies at Manukau in Auckland. She is buried in the Woodside Methodist Cemetery in Manukau. Source: Death Registration Number: (reg. 1963/31826).
1964, August 17: 72-year-old Elva becomes Elva Brain-Watkins when she marries 68-year-old William George Watkins at St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church in Tauranga. Source: Folio Number: (reg. 12707), CP History (p. 18).
1972, September 20: William George Watkins dies at what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum [to be confirmed]. Source: Death Registration Number: (reg. 1972/42302), CP History (p. 18).
1979 May 15: 87-year-old Elva Brain-Watkins dies in her bedroom at the front of what is now Brain-Watkins House Museum and is buried in the Tauranga Methodist Cemetery. She bequeaths the house, contents and 1700 m2 of land to the Tauranga Historical Society. A codicil to her 1965 will states that she wished the “dwelling house and land be retained intact as a memorial to my parents.” Changes to the house around this time include: New wallpaper to two middle rooms, carpet to north bedroom, sanding and polyurethane finish to floors on south side, re-papering or painting paper to front north room, replacing blinds in some rooms. Source: Death Registration Number: (reg. 1979/36575), Will of Elva Brain-Watkins (Archives NZ), Journal of the Tauranga Historical Society (March 1981, No. 65), Interviews with Tauranga Historical Society members, by Shirley Arabin (2003).
1985, December 31: Brain-Watkins House Museum is completely reroofed with coloursteel.
1986: Old pear tree outside the sunroom is removed and the house drains cleared of roots.
1987, December 31: The weatherboards on the house are stripped back to bare boards and painted. Paving blocks are purchased and laid.
1988: South-side bedroom has a complete renovation.
1989: North-side bedroom has a complete renovation.
1985, March 18: Rear section (to Selwyn Street) of 667 m2 is sold by the Tauranga Historical Society to Radio Rheema for $40,000 to fund the erection of a hall behind the house (new hall garage is on the old washhouse). Around this time the closed-in bedroom on the front verandah was removed along with the stables (concrete pad).
1997: A sprinkler system is added to the Brain-Watkins House Museum.
2002: The exterior of the Brain-Watkins House Museum is repainted in colours more sensitive to the Victorian period.
2004, October 1: Cataloguing of the collection is commenced by Jo-Anne Margaret Knowles (née Braid) (1959-2011) after a grant from Lotteries is received.
2005, August: Brain-Watkins House Museum is completely rewired by EMAC Electrical after a Lion Foundation grant is received.
2009: Chicken wire added to fill gate at base of house after arson concerns raised (Holy Trinity).
2012: Elva’s bedroom has been used as a History Room since 1979, It is updated in 2012 using a bequest by Lyn Harpum, life member of the Tauranga Historical Society. The walls and ceiling are painted and timeline panels by Sonya Frimmel installed, as well as a garment display case. The old carpet in the hall is replaced by an Axminster hall runner. The $22 million ANZ Business Centre opens on the opposite corner of Cameron Road and Elizabeth Street (once the site of Gilmore’s Store).
2015: Short section of green paling fence from the hall to what is in 2023 a white metal fence on south side of property was removed and replaced with a white picket fence by Sel Neal. Double gates were removed and replaced with a double metal gate, post and rails repaired. Weatherboards on house and windows repainted.
2021: A 93-room student accommodation building on Selwyn Street is completed for students at the nearby University of Waikato in Durham Street.
2022: Conservation of the oleographs undertaken by Angela Ruegger, delayed by Covid-19, but completed by June 2022. The oleographs were rehung in October 2022.
2023 March 19: New committee elected by the Tauranga Historical Society at a Special General Meeting.
2023 May 22: The new committee secures funding for an updated Conservation Plan and a Strategic Plan to secure the future of Brain-Watkins House Museum. They meet with the Commissioners on 23 May 2023.
Brain-Watkins House Museum (Est. 1881) 