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Stonefields

The 100 hectares site of a single basalt lava flow from the nearby scoria cone of Maungarei/ Mt Wellington of land was purchased by Percy Winstone in the mid 1930's. Quarrying began in 1936 and by 1969, the quarry reached a production total of 1 million tonnes per year. When the quarry was worked out by the year 2000, in excess of 35 million tonnes had been produced and used to build the city of Auckland. Once the quarry ceased operations, there was much debate on it's future use. A landfill rubbish site was considered and discarded due to the risk of leachate into ground water. Instead, Stonefields, a housing development was agreed.

The former rock quarry was to be one of the largest blocks of undeveloped land in Auckland, able to take a $1.5 billion housing subdivision for about 8000 people in up to 1000 apartments, 1000 stand-alone houses and 1000 terraced houses. In 2002, New Zealand's Overseas Investment Commission approved the purchase of land surrounding the Mt Wellington quarry Fletcher Residential. Approval was required as the parent company, Fletcher Building was more than 25 per cent foreign owned.