The scoria cone was originally crescent-shaped and featured Māori terraces and kumara pits, before extensive quarrying reduced it to a pyramid-shaped mound big enough to support the summit water tank for Papatoetoe.

These remaining parts have recently been transferred to Department of Conservation Management, primarily because of the high heritage values of the Matukuturua Stonefields gardens.

[2] From July to September 2010, the water tank was removed from the top of Matukutūreia / McLaughlins Mountain, as part of an agreement when the land was handed over to the Department of Conservation.

Matukutūreia / McLaughlins Mountain is a spatter cone associated with the Matukuturua lava field,[1]: 15  and has geophysical features that raised the possibility of it being a rootless cone, with no apparent gravitational or magnetic evidence of a residual lava conduit but a uniform best-fit magnetic declination of about 20° west implying a short eruption.

[1]: 15  This is consistent with the observations elsewhere on the mechanism of rootless cone formation but also in the case of the explosion crater a phreatic eruption scenario where magma never reaches the surface.