Tawa Historical Society Incorporated
TAWA ROTARY CLUB HISTORIC WALK
27 February 2005
The following Notes were prepared by the Tawa Historical Society for the occasion of the Tawa Rotary Historical Walk. This walk was part of an event to mark the opening of the Tawa Rotary Lookout which was a Rotary Centennial project to mark 100 years of the founding of Rotary. The walk commences from the Mervyn Kemp Library in Oxford Street up to the Lookout off Kilkelly Close and the Notes describe some of the historic features passed enroute.
Points of Interest to note along the walk from Tawa Library to Tawa Lookout.
1) The Mervyn Kemp Library:
Named after Mervyn Kemp, C.B.E.; F.C.A.; J.P.; Mayor of Tawa Borough from 1955 till 1983; Tawa Town Board Commissioner 1951-1953; Tawa Borough Councillor 1953-1955. He also served on the Executive of the New Zealand Municipal Association for 25 years, and on the Local Authorities Loans Board, the Board of Health, the Wellington District Roads Board, the Porirua Fire Board, the Wellington Regional Council (which he chaired for 6 years) and the Wellington Free Ambulance Board on which he served for over 30 years.
2) Cambridge Street:
Part of the Tawa Central Ltd subdivision. TCL was formed in 1928-1929 and purchased 360 acres of central Tawa at £53 per acre in 1930. Lots of sale in 1930 included 385 sections west of the Main Road (Tawa Central) and 141 sections between the Main Road and the Railway (Tawanui). It also included Oxford, Essex, Melville and Surrey Streets. In the Oxford Street area, 85 sections were sold in 1935 and 1941, and a further 40 sections were developed 1941-1944. This area was advertised on 15 March 1930 in The Evening Post as “The Cream of Tawa Flat” because:
- “the new Railway Station is to be on the spot
- the main Auckland Road (Bituminised) runs right through the subdivision
- the area is sunny and warm, and the soil is rich
- the railway deviation is well under way, bringing the subdivision within 15 minutes of the centre if the City
- the Government is spending 1½ Million Pounds on a railway deviation which will bring Tawa Central under electrification to the very door of the Empire City.”
3) Oxford Street:
This street follows part of the route of the Old Porirua Road, built by military road makers between May 1846 and December 1847. Built at a cost of £700 per mile, the military road ran from Hawtrey Church, Johnsonville to Jackson Ferry near the Porirua Harbour, a distance of 7 miles and 4 chains. It was 15 feet wide and improved the original track first surveyed in 1843. That track closely followed the Old Maori track through the district. Stockades built to give some protection to the road builders were sited along its length. In the Tawa area there were 4 stockades:
- Middleton’s Stockade, on the slopes above the road near what is now the entrance to the railway tunnel in Glenside.
- McCoy’s Stockade, near the confluence of the Takapu Stream and the Kenepuru Stream (near the present day junction of the Main Road and Sunrise Boulevard).
- Leigh’s Stockade, Fort Leigh (near the present day junction of the Main Road and Elena Place).
- Elliot’s Stockade (Fort Elliot) on higher ground west of the estuary of the Porirua and Kenepuru Streams.
4) Grasslees Reserve: (2.08 hectares)
William Best purchased section 48 in September 1856, and named the farm “Grasslees”. Before coming to New Zealand, he and his wife Hannah had farmed at “Grasslees”, Elson, near Ottoburn in Northumberland and sailed for New Zealand in 1851 aged 43. Grasslees means “grass meadows” or “grass fields” (Lee comes from the Saxon word Leagh meaning a meadow or pasture.)
William Best farmed here till 1865 till joining the civil service and moving into Wellington. He died in 1889. His wife died at Otaki in 1903.
Elson Best, the ethnologist, was born here on 30 June 1856, and spent his first 9 years here on the bush farm gaining a love of the forest he never lost. He spent many years living amongst Maori and wrote extensively on his experiences. He died aged 75 in September 1931.
A monument to Elson Best was unveiled in February 1960 in this reserve by the Prime Minister of the day, Rt Hon Walter Nash. Elson Best’s wishes are contained within the monument.
5) Davies, McLellan Streets and Ranui Terrace:
In 1906 a major step in land subdivision in this district occurred when the Tawa Land Company purchased a total of 627 acres from the owners of sections 50, 51 and 53. This comprised mostly of flat land on the valley floor at Linden. 173 sections were surveyed in the area covered by McLellan, Luckie, Davies, Nathan, Beauchamp, Rossiter, Hinau, Findlay, Kowhai and Gee Streets, and Collins Avenue. Ranui Terrace formed the eastern boundary of this subdivision.
The sub dividers saw the following advantages in these sections (as noted in the Evening Post of 27 November 1906):
- relative cheapness
- the importance of transport, and especially the railway
- “a town will be established here”
- a free 3 year rail ticket and attractive buying terms
All these plans failed to meet the expectations of the developers and the Tawa Land Company went into liquidation in 1914 with only a small number of sections sold. The land was purchased by William Mungavin.
6) Tawa Intermediate School:
Opened in 1975, with Mr Maurice Powell as Principal. He was followed in 1980 by Dick Scott, and in 1991 by Peter Jones. The school was built on land originally used as a 4 classroom “side school” of Linden School. The Avalon block which constituted the side school was moved from its original site by the current entrance to its present position beneath the bank below Tawa College. The need for a side school is made plain when one notes that Linden School, having opened in 1952, had a peak enrolment of 923.
The Intermediate roll has been steady over the years at 400-500. Currently it is governed by an enrolment scheme to manage its roll. With its opening all primary schools in the district lost their Standard 5 and 6 pupils (Forms 1 and 2) but Tawa School reintroduced these two levels in the 1990’s.
7) The Motorway Tunnel:
In the 1960’s the roll at Tawa College grew from 154 on opening in 1961 to well over 1000. Further growth was expected, and indeed, in the early 1970’s the roll reached the 1500’s.
Having lost 4 acres of their original 20 to the Intermediate, and having 3 acres in sloping banks and batters, it became obvious that the College needed more sports fields. Further, housing was developing at pace on the eastern side of the motorway in the Lupin Terrace, Spicer Place, Woodman Drive area. Housing was already well established in Mahoe Street and Raroa and Allen Terraces.
In 1971 the Tawa College Sports Fields east of the motorway were developed. To gain access to them from the College, and to provide a more rapid walking route to the trains and Tawa Shops, a tunnel beneath the motorway was built at the same time.
On land above the eastern exit of the tunnel, and to service the sports fields, toilets were built. By arrangement with the Borough Council these became public toilets, cleaned by the Council as a service in particular to commuters who, after travelling home from pubs in Wellington closing at 6pm, may have needed such a facility to attend to the needs of nature! In the 1990’s the Wellington City Council withdrew from this arrangement, and the toilets are no longer public.
8) Allen Terrace:
Named after the Allen Family who purchased section 46 in 1875. Eli Allen also owned section 50. His son, Eli Junior, sold all of section 50 to the Tawa Land Co. in 1906. For many years Eli lived in a house on the north corner of McLellan and Hinau Streets.
When the Tawa Land Co. sold its land upon going into liquidation, most was sold to William Mungavin. A portion was also sold to Wilfred Mexted, and he gifted some of that land as the Mexted Scenic Reserve located at the top of Collins Avenue.
9) Spicer Place:
May be named after the family of Richard Spicer who is buried in the Tawa Cemetery having died in 1874, aged 21. The Spicers owned land in Ohariu Valley and farmed at the head of the Valley just over the hill from Tawa Flat.
10) Woodman Drive:
The Woodman Family were early settlers in Tawa Flat and Takapu Road (where Stuart Woodman still farms). Richard Woodman bought Section 51, at which the current Woodman Drive has its most northern point. Richard was a sawmiller from Pauatahanui. They cleared the land, and then sold it to Thomas Tremewan, in 1885, who in turn sold it in 1906 to the Tawa Land Co. for subdivisional purposes. This section included all the land of central Linden up to and including Collins Avenue which runs into Woodman Drive.
11) Kilkelly Close:
This is off Woodman Drive. Access from a sealed track to Reservoir that leads to a path to the “Tawa Lookout”.
Prepared by Tawa Historical Society Inc., 55 Fyvie Avenue, Tawa.