Wellington City Council

All councillors are members of Council, the Strategy and Policy Committee, and the Annual Plan/Long Term Plan Committee.[5]

Wellington Coat of Arms.

The City of Wellington has a Coat of Arms. The Blazon is;

• Arms: Quarterly Gules and Azure, a Cross Or between; In the first quarter a Fleece Or; in the second quarter on Water barry wavy proper in base a Lymphad sail furled pennon and flags flying Argent; in the third quarter a Garb Or; in the fourth quarter five Plates in Saltire Argent.
• Crest: On a Mural Crown Argent a Dolphin Naiant Azure, Mantled Gules.
• Supporters: On the dexter side a Lion gorged with a Collar and Chain reflexed over the back Or, and on the sinister side a Moa proper.
• Motto: Suprema a Situ.

Translation of the Blazon:

The shield is divided vertically and horizontally, quarter of which the first and fourth are red and the remaining pair are blue. A golden cross is placed over the entire shield centrally between these quarters. The top left quarter contains a golden fleece (usually depicted as a whole sheep with a band around its middle). The second quarter is depicted as a silver sailing ship (lymphad) with its sails furled as it would be in port but with its flags flying, placed on waves in their natural colour. The third quarter contains a golden wheat sheaf, and the fourth has five silver discs arranged in a saltire.

The mural crown (a crown depicted as if made of stonewalling) is common as a crest in city coats of arms. It is coloured silver, and from its top comes a swimming dolphin. Around the crest is mantling in red. The supporters on either side of the shield are a golden heraldic lion with a chained collar around its neck to the left, and a moa in its natural colouring on the right (the terms "sinister" and "dexter" relate to the shield from the holder's point of view, not the viewer's, thus dexter is the viewer's left and sinister is the viewer's right). The base on which the supporters stand is normally not emblazoned but is left to the artist to decide. The Motto may be translated as "Supreme by position".

Wellington City had a population of 202,737 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 11,781 people (6.2%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 23,271 people (13.0%) since the 2006 census. There were 74,841 households. There were 98,823 males and 103,911 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.95 males per female. Of the total population, 32,856 people (16.2%) were aged up to 15 years, 54,999 (27.1%) were 15 to 29, 93,669 (46.2%) were 30 to 64, and 21,213 (10.5%) were 65 or older. Figures may not add up to the total due to rounding.

Ethnicities were 74.1% European/Pākehā, 8.6% Māori, 5.1% Pacific peoples, 18.3% Asian, and 4.5% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

The percentage of people born overseas was 33.4, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people objected to giving their religion, 53.2% had no religion, 31.4% were Christian, and 10.3% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 74,922 (44.1%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 12,690 (7.5%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $41,800. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 96,453 (56.8%) people were employed full-time, 24,738 (14.6%) were part-time, and 7,719 (4.5%) were unemployed.[7]

Wellington city has roughly 60 officially defined suburbs; one can group them by the wards used to elect the City Council. Some areas, while officially forming part of a larger suburb (or several suburbs), are considered by some to be separate communities. The officially defined suburbs include:

Official suburbs of Wellington: the darker tone indicate built-up areas, the lighter parkland, green belt or rural areas.

Courtenay Place; Courtenay Quarter; Cuba Quarter; Lambton Quarter; The Waterfront Quarter

Positively Wellington Tourism, funded by the Wellington City Council, has designated the four inner-city "quarters" as marketing subdivisions to promote international and domestic tourism.

Victoria University of Wellington, Kelburn campus

Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington's oldest university, has its main campus in the hill suburb of Kelburn overlooking the centre of the city. It also has two downtown campuses and in the 2000s briefly had one in the western suburb of Karori after absorbing the former Wellington College of Education there. It originated as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The Senate of the University of New Zealand operated in Wellington until its dissolution in 1961.

A branch of Massey University is located in Wellington: it took over the site and some of the courses of the former Wellington Polytechnic. The campus is based at the former Dominion Museum, which has moved to Te Papa. The University of Otago also has a Wellington connection, as the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences is a department of that university.

Wellington Institute of Technology serves Wellington and the neighbouring Hutt Valley. One of the largest polytechnics in the region, it dates from 1904.

Numerous primary and secondary educational institutions operate throughout the city, see List of schools in Wellington, New Zealand.

Wellington has a number of museums and galleries, including Te Papa, the City Gallery and the Museum of Wellington City & Sea. The Wellington Museums Trust runs the latter two, and other museums.

Sister cities[8]

• Sydney, Australia
• Canberra, Australia[9]
• Beijing, People's Republic of China
• Xiamen, Fujian, People's Republic of China
• Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Historical sister cities[10]

• Harrogate, England, United Kingdom
• Hania, Crete, Greece
• Çanakkale, Turkey

Friendly cities[11]

• Tianjin, People's Republic of China

The City of Wellington has subsumed independent boroughs including:

• Melrose (established 1888) in 1903
• Onslow (Khandallah/Ngaio) (established 1890) in 1919 (Wadestown had joined the city in 1906)
• Karori (established 1891) in 1920
• Miramar (established 1904) in 1921
• Johnsonville (a Town Board from 1908), in 1953
• Tawa (a Town district from 1951, then the Tawa Flat Borough Council from 1953) in 1989

Wellington Town Hall, incorporating the Mayor's Office and Council Chambers

The Wellington City Council owns and until May 2019 operated from a complex on Wakefield Street, with various extensions each representing a distinctive architectural period. The complex incorporates the Wellington Town Hall which opened in 1904, with the most recent extension completed in 1991 alongside the Wellington Central Library.

The Wakefield Street complex has been cleared of back office functions, and since 28 May 2019 will be closed completely for repairs and earthquake strengthening. In the interim, most of the council's central office staff are located in commercial premises at 113 The Terrace, and the council's public service centre is at 12 Manners Street. Due to repairs also being needed to the Wellington Central Library, and Capital E, all of the civic buildings on Civic Square are closed, except for the City Gallery.

In December 2019, at the New Zealand Skeptics annual conference, the Wellington City Council and the Downer Group were co-awarded the Bent Spoon by NZ Skeptics for "showing the most egregious gullibility in 2019" for the contractor's use of water divining to find underground pipes.[12]

• Wellington Region

Footnotes

Citations

• A Complete Guide To Heraldry by A.C. Fox-Davies 1909.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Wellington City.

• WellingtonNZ.com
• Wellington City Council
• Wellington City Council maps