Named after Richard Woodman who in 1893 was the first European to lease land in this area for farming.1
The bay also contains evidence of an ancient argillite quarry on the spur adjoining Kapowai Bay. On the south side of this spur, slightly above sea level, a large boulder has been worked extensively.2
1. Anthony Pātete, “D’Urville Island (Rangitoto Ki Te Tonga) in the Northern South Island: a Report Commissioned for the Waitangi Tribunal for the Claims in the Northern South Island (Wai 102)”, (1997), Ngati Koata, 59, accessed June 5, 2018, http://ngatikoata.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Patete-Report-on-Rangitoto-searchable-by-word.pdf .
2. I. W. Keys, “The Cultural Succession and Ethnographic Features of D'Urville Island”, The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 69 (1960), accessed April 24, 2018, http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=3081 .
