Remuera

Remuera has had a long history of human occupation, starting back in the early 13th century when Māori came to the area.[2] The area was very attractive to Maori as much of the Auckland isthmus was devoid of trees and covered only in native flax, bracken and scrub. Remuera was different, having patches of woodland which were the habitat of many birds suitable for trapping while the adjacent harbour and basins were good fishing areas.

John Logan Campbell describes early 19th century Remuera in his book Poenamo:

Beautiful was Remuera's shore, sloping gently to Waitemata's sunlit waters in the days of which I write. The palm fern-tree was there with its crown of graceful bending fronds and black feathery-looking young shoots; and the karaka, with its brilliantly-polished green leaves and golden-yellow fruit, contrasting with the darker crimped and varnished leaf of the puriri, with its bright cherrylike berry. Evergreen shrubs grew on all sides, of every shade from palest to deepest green; lovely flowering creepers mounted high overhead, leaping from tree to tree and hanging in rich festoons; of beautiful ferns there was a profusion underfoot. The tui, with his grand rich note made the wood musical; the great fat stupid pigeon cooed down upon you almost within reach, nor took the trouble to fly away.

— John Logan Campbell

The suburb is named after a pā (fortification) named Remuwera, on Ōhinerau / Mount Hobson.[3][4][5] Remu-wera literally translates to "burnt edge of kilt", commemorating the occasion where a chieftainess of Hauraki was allegedly captured and consumed.[6] Although the most common definition in reference literature, the accuracy of this definition has been described as "highly doubtful".[7]

Around 1741, Te Wai-o-Hua iwi was driven away by the Ngāti Whātua and Te Taoū iwi. Later, these iwi merged with Te Roroa and Te Uri-o-Hau into Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei, which is the main iwi on the Tāmaki isthmus.[8] In May 1844 one of the largest Māori feasts ever held in New Zealand took place in Remuera. It was organised by the Waikato iwi and about 4000 Māori and many Pākehā (Europeans) were present. The festivities lasted for a week and large amounts of food and drinks were served: 11,000 baskets of potatoes, 9,000 sharks, 100 pigs, and large amounts of tea, tobacco and sugar. Governor Robert FitzRoy visited the festivities on 11 May 1844 when a haka was performed by 1,600 Māori, armed with guns and tomahawks.[9]

When the European settlers wanted to buy the land on the Tāmaki isthmus from the Māori, they first declined. But in 1851, Henry Tacy Kemp, an interpreter to the Land Claims Commissioners, bought 700 acres for £5000. Subsequently, more plots of land were sold and put up for public auction. The land was suitable for pasture land and as the town of Auckland was some distance away people did not really start to build houses (as opposed to farmhouses) until the 1860s.[10] The ideal location included a view of the harbour. Many of the large villas stood on quite big properties, as their owners needed pasturing for carriage and riding horses and enjoyed creating landscape gardens. Some even had secondary houses for gardeners or estate managers. Many of these early houses still stand, surrounded now by later suburban developments or converted into institutions such as schools.

Smaller suburban houses began appearing in the area nearest Newmarket and began to spread along Remuera Road. The first shops opened in 1890 at the intersection with Victoria Avenue. Railway stations at Newmarket and Market Road encouraged residents to commute to town. Likewise one of the most important routes for the electric tram system created in 1902 was to the Remuera shops, with an extension to the bottom of Victoria Avenue.

View from Ōhinerau / Mount Hobson across Remuera to Hobson Bay

One of the first businesses was L.J. Keys’ grocery store on the Clonbern Rd corner, which currently houses a café.[11] Nowadays, Remuera's main business and shopping area stretches along Remuera Road from Armadale Road to St Vincent's Avenue. Smaller shopping areas are situated at Upland Road and Benson Road.

In 1915 Remuera was amalgamated into Auckland City. Up until that point it had been governed by the Remuera Road Board which had opposed joining Auckland in the face of campaigning by the Remuera Ratepayers Association. This included a petition in 1912 in which 791 of the ratepayers (over 50%) signed to join with the adjacent Auckland City. A commission of inquiry was appointed, which recommended amalgamation. Again the Road Board declined and it was only after the Department of Internal Affairs intervened that the Road Board gave in. The union was ratified in February 1915 and the 2,520 acres of Remuera became part of Auckland. J.Dempsey said that Auckland had received "the brightest jewel in her crown today", although a subsequent report by the city engineer pointed out that Remuera had not been surveyed, it had 60 miles of primitive roading, and lacked proper stormwater drainage, sewerage and other services.

Auckland City Council embarked on a series of improvements for the new area. One of its first acts was to provide a free public library for the area in 1915, later replaced by the current building in 1926. In 1919 however local residents were incensed by the council's building of public toilets at the Remuera shops that they demanded be torn down. The first mile of Remuera Road was concreted in 1921, and the existing tram line was doubled in 1924, followed by an extension of the service to Meadowbank.

In more recent history, the infamous Bassett Road machine gun murders took place in Remuera on 7 December 1963. Two men were shot with a .45 calibre Reising submachine gun at 115 Bassett Road and word quickly spread about a "Chicago-style" gang murder. Two suspects were sentenced to life imprisonment.[12]

Remuera, comprising the statistical areas of Remuera West, Remuera Waitaramoa, Remuera North, Remuera South, Remuera Waiata, Remuera East and Remuera Abbotts Park, had a population of 23,586 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 333 people (1.4%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 918 people (4.0%) since the 2006 census. There were 8,028 households. There were 11,298 males and 12,291 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.92 males per female, with 4,179 people (17.7%) aged under 15 years, 5,100 (21.6%) aged 15 to 29, 10,746 (45.6%) aged 30 to 64, and 3,564 (15.1%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 70.6% European/Pākehā, 4.0% Māori, 1.9% Pacific peoples, 27.4% Asian, and 2.9% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities).

The proportion of people born overseas was 37.4%, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people objected to giving their religion, 46.4% had no religion, 40.9% were Christian, and 8.1% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 9,519 (49.0%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 1,125 (5.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 9,915 (51.1%) people were employed full-time, 2,877 (14.8%) were part-time, and 498 (2.6%) were unemployed.[13]

Remuera Intermediate is a coeducational intermediate school (years 7-8) with a roll of 931.[22]

Remuera School, Meadowbank School and Victoria Avenue School are coeducational contributing primary schools (years 1-6) with rolls of 580, 753 and 536 respectively.[23][24][25]

Baradene College of the Sacred Heart is a state integrated Catholic girls' secondary school (years 7-13) with a roll of 1350.[26] St Michael's Catholic School is a coeducational state-integrated contributing primary school (years 1-6) with a roll of 230.[27]

Mount Hobson Middle School is a private coeducational composite school (years 7-10) with a roll of 46.[28]

King's School, St Kentigern Primary School and Saint Kentigern Girls' School are private single-sex full primary schools (years 1-8) with rolls of 641, 587 and 196 respectively.[29][30][31]

Rolls are as of March 2020.[32]

Remuera is a part of the Epsom electorate for the Parliamentary representation.[33] Local government of Remuera is the responsibility of the Orakei Local Board, which also includes the suburbs of Orakei, Mission Bay, Kohimarama, St Heliers, Glendowie, St Johns, Meadowbank, and Ellerslie.

The Remuera Golf Club started to develop in 1934 and the club house was finished in 1935. It was not an ideal location for a golf club, as it was established in a natural basin prone to seasonal flooding. In fact on several 19th century maps this was actually shown as a lake and referred to as 'Lake Remuera' or 'Lake St John' although in reality it was largely an area of swampy ground in which a sheet of shallow water would appear sporadically in the wet season. 133 acres (54 hectares) of land in the gully was given to the City Council in 1918 as Waiatarua Reserve. As the surrounding farm land was transformed into suburban housing this area became problematic – although the "lake" afforded a picturesque view for the new houses it was also a breeding ground for mosquitos. Moreover, the basin was composed of a peat-like substance subject to smouldering fires which were difficult to put out. In 1929 a drain was bored through the hill to the south west enabling the water to be drained into the adjacent natural stream which feeds into the nearby Oraki Basin; this drainage system is still in place.

Fifty acres of the park were leased to the Golf Club in 1934 and a course was laid out. In 1938 a new course was built around the original layout in response to members’ complaints about the course conditions.[19] In 1968 the Course was redesigned by golf course specialist Harold Babbage and a new Club House has been built.[20]

Remuera's reputation as a desirable residential area around the turn of the 20th century was reflected in the use of its name for a luxury liner. SS Remuera was a steamship launched in 1911. She was the last delivered of three 11000 tonners built by the William Denny Organization between 1909 and 1911 for the New Zealand Shipping Company (sister ships Ruahine and Rotorua). Her inaugural voyage in 1911 was from London to Wellington. In September 1914 she was the first British ship to pass through the newly complete Panama Canal.

During the First War she was commandeered by the British Government. After the war she returned to the UK to New Zealand route, as a sign of the changing times she was now refitted to accommodate two classes of passengers as opposed to her initial layout of First, Second and Steerage. Again commandeered at the outbreak of war in 1939 she was torpedoed in the North Sea in September 1940.

• Jean Batten was a student at a Girls School at 4 Garden Road.
• Archibald Clark – MP (1805–1875) Auckland's first Mayor in 1851.
• James Clark – Mayor of Auckland 1880–1883. Lived at 258 Remuera Road (now King's School).
• Thomas Cotter – Auckland solicitor and King's Counsel – Lived at 4 Vincent Avenue.
• William Crowther (1834–1900) – Mayor of Auckland. Horse Tram Company Operator.
• James Dilworth – Served on the Auckland Provincial Council for eight years. He and his wife Isabella left money to create the well known Dilworth School which takes in and educates boys living in straitened circumstances.
• Sir Edmund Hillary (1919–2008) – Mountaineer, explorer and Bee-Keeper. Hillary built a home in Remuera in 1956 where he lived until his death in 2008. His home was removed from its original location in 2010 and stored until moved in 2011 to Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Otara where it now houses a training programme for young leaders.[34]
• Sir Paul Holmes (1950–2013)
• Alfred George Horton (1842–1903) – Founder of The New Zealand Herald newspaper.
• Dame Rosie Horton (philanthropist) and Michael Horton – 44 Victoria Avenue.
• Rev John Kinder MA DD MD – Minister of St Mark's Remuera.
• Bruce McLaren (1937–1970) – Race car driver. He was born in the suburb and his family lived above their garage and service station on 586–592 Remuera Road until they moved around the corner to 8 Upland Road when he was 9.[1]
• Sir Edwin Mitchelson (1845–1934) Mitchelson was an MP, Chairman of the Remuera Road Board and Auckland's Mayor at the same time. He was Mayor from 1903 to 1905 and was knighted in 1920.
• Joseph Newman – Lived at 4 St Vincent Avenue in a house he built in 1848, now called Cotter House. Newman was a Stockbroker. A well-known teetotaller, Newman died at the age of 77 from injuries sustained when a billboard on Queen Street advertising whisky fell on his head (10 September 1890).
• James Pascoe – Jeweller
• Sir John Reed, Supreme Court Judge – 239 Remuera Rd.
• Hon. Joseph Tole, Minister of Justice from 1884 to 1887 – 251 Remuera Rd.
• William Chisholm Wilson – founder of The New Zealand Herald newspaper.
• Desley Simpson – local council politician.

• Jenny Carlyon, Diana Morrow (2011) A Fine Prospect: a History of Remuera, Meadowbank and St Johns, Auckland, N.Z., Random House, ISBN 9781869795139.
• Winifred Macdonald (1984) Recollections, 1850–1920: a Sketch History of Early Remuera, Auckland N.Z., Milnes of Remuera.

• Orakei Local Board
• Remuera Heritage
• Remuera Business Association
• Remuera Golf Club
• Photographs of Remuera held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.