Corban Mausoleum

What is the Corban Mausoleum?

The Corban Mausoleum is a private family tomb in Waikumete Cemetery, Glen Eden, Auckland, New Zealand. Completed in 1942 to a design by Lewis Walker & Associates, it was the first private family mausoleum built at Waikumete, the largest cemetery in the country. It holds the remains of Assid Abraham Corban, the Lebanese immigrant who planted Mount Lebanon Vineyards at Henderson in 1902 and founded what grew into New Zealand's largest winery, together with his wife Najibie Tanyus Ataia. Construction was delayed by about a year after Assid's death in December 1941 because of wartime shortages of labour and materials. Standing in Anglican Division K, it began a tradition since followed by many Lebanese and Croatian families of West Auckland, whose mausoleums now line Waikumete's Magnolia Way.

The First Private Mausoleum at New Zealand's Largest Cemetery

The Corban Mausoleum stands in Waikumete Cemetery's Anglican Division, the first private family mausoleum built at New Zealand's largest cemetery and the structure that began a tradition continued since by many of the Lebanese and Croatian immigrant families who settled in West Auckland.

It was built in 1942 to hold the remains of wine-making pioneer Assid Abraham Corban, who had died the previous December, and his wife Najibie Tanyus Ataia. The one-year gap between Assid's death and the mausoleum's completion came down to wartime shortages of labour and materials during the Second World War.

Designed by Lewis Walker & Associates, the mausoleum sits in Anglican Division K, Row 9, Plot 1-3, among a cluster of family mausoleums along Waikumete's Magnolia Way that followed the pattern the Corban family set.

Tohu Heritage is documenting the Corban Mausoleum as part of an ongoing effort to preserve New Zealand's early heritage in permanent, interactive 3D.