Kereru by Kitchener Street

Spotted this sculpture while in the city yesterday, at the corner of Wellesley and Kitchener Streets. I can't find any details about it yet online (if anyone knows something, let me know and I'll do an update).

Update 21 October 2010: There you go. Eventually, something crops up.
Phoebe Falconer's column for the NZ Herald included info about this sculpture today. "The name of the sculpture is Woodpigeon on a Circle, it's made of cast bronze, and stands almost 2.5m high. The artist is Paul Dibble, and more of his work is on display at the Gow Langsford Gallery in Lorne St until October 30. The gallery put the woodpigeon on the corner to advertise the exhibition."

Well, maybe not completely correct. My original post was dated in February this year, whiile his "Bird's Eye View" exhibition due to end October 30 began on the 6 October. A hang of a long time to advertise an exhibition, I'd have thought. But at least yes, the wood pigeon is by Paul Dibble.

More on cattle vs. trains

At least the cow at Papakura hit by a train in March 1882 had a fairly quick demise. Not so the cattle belonging to Mr. William Bishop, at Mt Albert later that year. This from the Auckland Star, 14 December 1882.

A serious accident occurred yesterday afternoon to cattle belonging to Mr William Bishop, a settler at Titirangi. The cattle, consisting of two fine bullocks and a heifer, were being driven along the road towards Mount Albert pound by a settler, Wm. Pugh, or his man, with the view of impounding the cattle for trespass, when, in crossing the railway line, they were run over by the 2 p.m. train. One bullock was knocked over, and found to be badly bruised and some of its ribs broken; the other bullock and heifer had their hind legs completely cut off, and, strange to say, the driver finding they could not move, drove the remaining bullock to the pound, and left the maimed animals by the line all night to welter in their blood and suffer the most excruitiating agony. The brutality of the driver, and his utter beastliness, have caused considerable disgust in the district. Mr Bishop states his fees at about £20. A constable has gone to Mount Albert to ascertain the facts of the case, and we understand proceedings will at once be taken against the offenders.

Latest from NZhistory.net

I've just had their newsletter delivered to the ol' inbox.

A very cool slideshow and info on Crown Lynn ceramics.


NZ culture in the 1960s.

"Fifty years ago most Kiwis enjoyed a standard of living that was the envy of other nations. During the 1960s the arrival of TV and jet airliners shrank our world, and New Zealanders began to express themselves on a range of international issues, including opposition to the Vietnam War. In this feature we provide an overview of the decade and a year-by-year breakdown of some of the key events."

Flags of New Zealand.

"The New Zealand Flag hasn't always been our official flag. It was adopted in 1902, replacing the Union Jack. Between 1834 and 1840, the  Flag of the United Tribes was recognised as our first 'national' flag. Waitangi Day 2010 also marked the first official recognition of the national Maori flag."

 Monowai - the ship that saved Anne Frank's father

"New Zealand has a small connection to the poignant story of Anne Frank,  via her father, Otto, and the merchant ship TSS Monowai. "

For Glory and A Farm

I picked up this book at a second-hand bookstore in Takapuna today (and yes, that is indeed sticky tape you can see all over the cover. It's coming off through age, at least).

For Glory and A Farm, by Frank Glen, was published in 1984 by the Whakatane Historical Society as Monograph No. 10, and is about the involvement of the Australian colonies in the New Zealand Land Wars of the 19th century.

Fortunately, there is a copy of the text from the book published online, at one of my favourite sites, Digger History. Have a read.

The cover photo, by the way, has this caption:

"Members of the 99th regiment who fought in the New Zealand Wars of 1845-47 at the Anglesea Barracks, Hobart, Tasmania, circa 1900. These veterans who settled in Australia have met for the final time, just 50 years after the erection of the only memorial in Australia to the New Zealand Wars. Photo taken by the Tasmanian Government Photographer J W Beattie. Photo: Australian Army."

Moves to remove suffrage memorial from Khartoum Place

Readers may recall my earlier post on the suffrage memorial at Khartoum Place. Well, it seems there's a lobby group prepared to convince Auckland City Council to remove it "saying the memorial blocks a view from Lorne St through the entrance of the $113 million Auckland Art Gallery upgrade to Albert Park," according to the NZ Herald today.

Personally, I like the memorial. It gives the city a splash of unexpected colour in the midst of drabness, and is something nice (along with the fountain) to sit beside while having lunch. Along with that, it's heritage, so of course I back the memorial.

Probably, though, the art lobby will get their way, and we'll lose something else of interest in the CBD.

Bridges on the New Lynn to Huia Road

I've been looking into the Waitemata County Council meeting reports, from 1876-1918, lately. Mainly because there is no index in existence, as far as I can tell, for the early meetings (the one held by Waitakere City Council starts from c.1918). The focus of the hunt through the meeting reports, from Weekly News primarily, was to do with determining, where possible, when some of the bridges were built along the New Lynn to Huia Road.

As Timespanner is a research lab and collection of notes -- here are some from emails I've sent to others also interested in the information.

Bridge by Landing Road

May 1885

A report was read from the Engineer on the Titirangi-Huia Road, which was now a main road, a road leading from Little to Big Muddy Creeks and the Huia ...

June 1885

Agreed that construction of the road be proceeded with, as soon as compensation claims arranged by local board (Titirangi) ...

July 1885

Lennox of the local board wrote, agreeing to employ County Council's Engineer and hill track men to be paid from ₤1000 grant ...

October 1885

Laing moved that the Engineer make plans and specifications for forming the section of the Huia and New Lynn Road through Mr. York's property, about 40 chains, and that tenders for the work be called as soon as the Local Board has compensated York for land taken ...

(York had land at the site of bridge beside Landing Road.)

January 1886

Laing unhappy with the state of contractor Price's work ... Engineer declared "the bridges erected were first class workmanship" ... Price's contract fee paid out.

I'd say the earliest that wee bridge beside Landing Road dates from would be late 1885, as part of the contract by this fellow Price.

Cantwell, by the way, wasn't such a stickler for brick or stone bridges as J T Diamond thought in Once the Wilderness. His beef with the Whau Bridge construction in 1885-1887 was that the piles weren't deep enough. Interesting fact: the contractor for the Whau Bridge that time was Samuel White, likely the same Samuel White who was a partner with Frank Jagger and William Parker at the New Lynn Poudrette factory laster in the decade.

Huia Bridge

November 1896

Mitchelson writes to Waitemata County Council advising of ₤250 grant for Huia bridge. (WN, 14 November 1896)

January 1897

Thanks to the effort of our late representative in Parliament, the Hon. Mr. Mitchelson, ₤250 was voted last session for a bridge over the Huia River. Although this bridge is very urgently needed, no steps have yet been taken to commence this work. We hope the same mistake will not be repeated as was made with the two former grants for Huia, that is, to stop until winter is upon us, and then call for tenders, the works being much more expensive and troublesome for the contractors. While the requisite money is now available for the Huia bridge, we unfortunates are still required to wade through two feet of mud and one and a half feet of water at low tide. At high tide, if a boat is available, the person obliged to cross this river may consider himself very fortunate; if a boat is not available, the only alternative is to walk the booms. To do this successfully needs an education on the tight-rope, and very few folks in this district have received such education; the consequence is that almost every grown-up person in the Huia, ladies included, have received a compulsory bath, and not a few narrow escapes from drowning have occurred, as there are two holes in that part of the river about 20 feet in depth at full tide. One settler struck his knee on a chain in falling, and was lame for six months in consequence. Another instance; A lady last week went to spend the day with a neighbour, and crossed the river in a boat, leaving it ready to return in. On returning in the evening to re-embark, she found that someone had in the meantime borrowed the boat, and left it on the opposite shore, so that she was obliged to wade through the slippery mud and water up to her waist, with two babies in her arms. (WN, 23 January 1897)

May 1897

Sole tender for Huia bridge not accepted. (WN, 15 May 1897)

June 1897

Messrs Cochrane and Co. forwarded an amended tender for the contract for the Huia Bridge, but this being the only one received it was declined. Fresh tenders will be called in September. (WN, 12 June 1897)

August 1897

The Huia bridge is still a thing of the future. It is hoped by the settlers here that, when the Council call for tenders in September, they will at the same time call for tenders to complete the road at least as far as the school, they having a sufficient balance in hand from the previous grant by the Government for the Huia roads to accommodate this – namely, ₤100. (WN, 14 August 1897)

September 1897

It was resolved in reply to a petition from ratepayers to call for tenders for the construction of a bridge over the Huia River and the formation of another section of road toward the Manukau Heads. (WN, 11 September 1897)

October 1897

Thomas Clarke’s ₤197 tender for erecting a bridge over the Huia River accepted. (WN, 16 October 1897)

 

History of Avondale's stable and bus depot

I've just published my research report, done last December, to Scribd. This refers to the site of the fire, as in this previous post.

Grass not always greener on the other side of the Tasman

In this age of significant emigration patterns from EnZed to Aussie -- it bears keeping in mind that, like a lot of trends in history, this is also not something new.

The following comes from the NZ Herald, 14 March 1889, deep in the era of the 19th century's Long Depression.

AN AUCKLANDER'S LETTER FROM SYDNEY.

A PICTURE OF DISTRESS.

A draper's assistant, an experienced and efficient hand, who went to Sydney some time since, sends to a former employer a letter from which we make the following extracts:-

"It is with heartfelt sorrow that I write to let you know that my leaving Auckland was a great mistake, and in fact the greatest mistake that I could have made. Since I came to Sydney, I have not had one week's work, and yet I've tried warehouses and shops day by day, week by week. You may think what I have suffered when I tell you that at least I got so down-hearted that I raised what little money I could and went over 200 miles up-country.

"When I got there I found things even worse than what I had found in Sydney, and after spending four days in Orange, I started for Bathurst, a distance of over forty miles. From there I had to walk to Lithgow, a distance of some sixty miles. Then by the kind aid of a gentleman I got assisted over to Mount Victoria, for which kindness I was truly thankful, for when I left Orange the only coin I was possessed of was one sixpence. When you think of the distance I had to travel alone in a strange country, having to sleep under the trees at night, some days with a bit of food, other days without any!

"After a long and terrible walk, with a great amount of suffering, I once more reached Sydney, my boots and myself completely worn out. Since then I've tried for work of any description, but so far without results. I regret to say that I have lost all hopes, in fact, my spirit is completely broken ...

"It is terribly hard, after coming here, thinking to have improved my position, to have come to complete ruin; but such is the real truth. Although I am writing this to you, I have no idea if I shall be able to raise twopence to send it to you, but, if possible, I will, because by your influence you may be able to advise others not to come over here, for unless they have influence they can do no good in Sydney. I am glad to say some Aucklanders have done well here, but I came a perfect stranger, and I am only one of many amongst the many hundreds seeking work but unable to get it. When you think that my only work since coming to this beautiful city was for a few days at Christmas as an extra hand up-country!

"I've tried my hardest. No one in Auckland would believe the number of men walking about ... I am getting so completely worn out that I shall have to give up. Should fortune ever smile upon me again, my first £5 would be spent in getting back to dear old Auckland, and certainly if I once could reach it again nothing would ever cause me to leave it."

Reginald Fitt's World War I certificate

Click to enlarge.

One wet day, 2004 or 2005, I was on a site on St Judes Street in Avondale. An old house there was being cleared out by the owner, and I took the opportunity of looking in the rooms with permission, taking photographs. Out the back, on a driveway, I spotted what looked like an old picture frame, soaked. I turned it over -- and found the above. 

This is a Great War Certificate of Service, another example to be found at the link. Not for someone connected with Avondale, though. Reginald William Fitt had a mother living in Campbell Terrace here in Auckland (now called Logan Terrace), but enlisted at Gisborne, and served with Otago Mounted Rifles from 1915 to 1920 when he was discharged.

This large certificate had to be scanned in two pieces, hence the join you can see. The frame was soaked. Water had got in between the certificate and the glass of the frame, and when I got it back inside (the owner said I could keep it for the historical society), it seemed touch and go if I was going to be able to save anything.Wet frame, backing, certificate nibbled at on the edges by silverfish. But it's a tough piece of paper, this. Not even much in the way of foxing mold, after all these years. It's dry now, stored in our collection for the moment.

Major Nelson George's "Wapati"

 

Another one of those little gems found suddenly in the midst of hunting through old survey plans. This, from LINZ plan Deed Blue 52 (crown copyright) dates from some period after 1874 and seems to illustrate "Wapiti", the homestead of Major Nelson George. I don't often see perpective drawings like this in the plans -- it must have come from a real estate sale for the property just across Market Road, there in the Epsom-St John's area. Note the smoke coming from the chimney.

"Wapiti" was expanded and added to over time. Bought by the McCrystal family in 1920, according to The History of Epsom by the Epsom & Eden Districts Historical Society (2006), it ended up part of St Cuthbert's College campus in 1925, and converted into the Melrose House hostel.

Mural remains at Kingsland

I'm sure this used to be a much larger mural, taking up the whole wall between New North Road and the railway line, a bush scene like this. It hasn't been a large mural for some time, anyway. Hard to photograph because it's also part of a carpark, but I hope you can get the gist from these photos today. According to the NZ Card Index, it was originally an 8m by 10m mural, completed 1985 by Shirley Smith and three students from a job search programme for the Native Forest Action Council (name change 1988 to Maruia Society, name change 1999 to the Ecologic Foundation).

I wonder if anyone realises what the mural is about, anymore?

Camouflaged control boxes, Kingland

A couple of nature-themed boxes, camouflaged among the neat street gardens and mini wilderness at the Sandringham Road and New North Road intersection. Well done for the utility box above -- they could have just left it dark green or grey, but instead let an artist kind of loose with leaves and stuff.

Heritage reflected in a kebab shop window

Heading through Kingsland today, I sat for a bit on New North Road, and noticed this reflection.

Here's the building itself: the 1914 Portland Building, another of those erected by the Page family in the vicinity. Seeing it in mirror-image in the window thought just struck my fancy. Of course, I hope the flames at the bottom of the window are not a portent of things to come ...

Steps through the Grafton bush

A friend showed this to me at yesterday's meeting of the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society, and said I could publish it here: a 1909 postcard showing the steps leading down from Symonds Street end to the first (1885) wooden footbridge across Grafton Gully. Our predecessors in this city must have been truly fit to carry both themselves, and their clothes, up those steps on a hot summer's day such as we've been having!

The card was date-stamped across the postage stamp three years after Auckland City Council began to make plans for the replacement of the wooden bridge, the ferro-concrete Grafton Bridge completed 100 years ago this year. Much of the bush scene in the picture above has gone before the motorway system, nopw -- but it must have been an idyllic, if a tad exhausting walk in its day.

Doug Ford and his murals

Artist Doug Ford kindly posted a comment to my Grosvenor Street photos, and now I see he has a blog featuring his murals. Check it out.

Street Stories 14: William Paterson, not quite remembered

Postetrity doesn't always go quite to plan.

The death of Mr. Wm. Paterson, founder of the firm of W. Paterson and Co., ‘bus proprietors, occurred yesterday. The late Mr. Paterson, who was a native of East Kilbryde, Scotland, was 62 years of age, and came to Auckland in the early sixties. In 1865 he started to work for Mr. A. Bell, of this city, and in the seventies Mr. Bell purchased the business of Belcher and Co., grain and forage merchants, on Mr. Paterson’s account. Here he laid the foundation of a most successful business as a ‘bus and cab proprietor, with branches at Auckland, Mount Roskill, Mount Eden, Avondale, Devonport, and Rotorua. He was at one time proprietor of the horse tramcars, at the same time carrying on his grain and produce business. He took a keen interest in politics, and followed the various political changes of his day with close attention, although he sought no public office. He was a benevolent man, but carefully concealed from the public gaze his many charitable acts. Mrs. Paterson and a family of four sons and three daughters survive him. The funeral will leave his late residence at Mount Roskill for Purewa cemetery tomorrow.

(NZ Herald, 2 August 1905)

William Paterson owned several pieces of land in Auckland, North Shore, Avondale, Onehunga ... on two part of his estate, when his family later subdivided and solkd off sections, he had a real chance of being remembered.

A William Street was so-named through part of his Balmoral/Mt Eden paddocks -- but at some point, it had a name-change to Wiremu (the Maori equivalent), so that link is largely severed.

At Sandringham, Patterson Street runs alongside a large amount of what was once Paterson's land -- but somehow, the single T became double. (A Paterson family history researcher the other day brought both examples to my attention the other day.) Not something easily corrected, if at all possible -- four other Patersons already exist among our region's street names. A shame, really.

Old South British Insurance building, Shortland Street

 The name has faded on all bar a couple of plaques and initials on the window frosting ...

 

For an office building, especially one for an insurance company from last century, this has a lot of truly beautiful features in its architecture. Then again, according to Archives New Zealand (link has a 1950s photo of the building) it was built during the Art Deco period, 1928/1929. It shows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the lamps.

 

Fort Lane mural

Fort Lane is a small lane between Fort and Customs Streets in the city, at the back of the old Imperial Hotel. Whenever I'm heading from upper midtown down to the trains, Fort Lane is one of my shortcuts, used with care as there is no footpath, and it's really a vehicular accessway.

Anyway -- heading up from the station to the Art Gallery this afternoon, I spotted this as I passed by. My brain stopped me in my tracks, and I thought, "That looks like an unfinished mural ..."

Unfinished murals are a bit like baby pigeons. Everyone knows there's a stage between blank wall and finished artwork, but rarely is the intermediate stage spotted, so it seems. The wall seems to have been painted especially for the work, and rough lines added for the main features. I hope it does get finished -- what's there already looks promising.

Looks something like a wood pigeon ...

... a heron ...

 

... and another bird in amongst palms/cabbage trees. I'll let readers know if I see any progress next time I duck down that way.

Spotted on Customs Street East

Smack opposite the stop for Mt Eden buses on Customs Street is this lovely bit of parapet architecture which appears to have survived concerns about earthquake risk, redevelopment, and just out-and-out not giving a damn attitude by land owners in general. The present occupiers are the Showgirls club (hence the pixel blur), but hey -- they've kept something beautiful.

Dr. Seuss at Stokes Road

Someone had the good idea to brighten up a bit of Stokes Road intersection with Mt Eden Road for the seemingly endless lines of cars waiting for the lights.

Nice to see that the Dr Seuss inspiration lives on.

Down the Bay – Growing up in the Shadow of Larnach Castle

I never know quite what I’ll take out of my letterbox, sometimes.

Margaret Walther from Kaiapoi sent me a copy of a book she has written called Down the Bay – Growing up in the Shadow of Larnach Castle. Her work isn’t much to do with Larnach Castle at all, though. It is a delightful memoir of childhood spent on a farm on the Otago Peninsula in the 1920s -1930s with her family, her sister Edna, extended family members, horses, and ducks.

Three baby ducks waddled along King Edward Road and sheltered in the doorway of a cake shop at Cargill’s Corner. They huddfled round the door. Every entrance and exit was made with the aid of a boot and a muttered ‘bloody ducks’. They eluded Edna and me. A great deal of scrabbling and quacking followed on the linoleum in the kitchen, with the whole family in pursuit.

The ducks flew away when they got big enough.

As the blurb on the back says: "Margaret Walther grew up on the Otago Peninsula during the Great Depression. Above the family farm stood the then abandoned Larnach's Castle, and below, Company Bay. She and her sister Edna lived in an imaginative world of dolls and flappers." Plus much, much more -- surprisingly so for such a wonderful wee book.

At 65 pages, A-5 softcover format, it is on sale from Margaret Walther, $12 plus $1 p&p. Contact me for her details.

Avondale and the ‘50s bypass blues

 From NZ Herald 16 June 1959

A funny thing I find about looking back in the past, even the more recent bits: even though I wasn’t born when some of the truly bizarre ideas were being cooked up, I’m no less appalled. As if they were being proposed, right here, right now. Especially when it's about my home suburb.

Well, the 1954 Avondale bypass proposal wasn’t a “right now”, of course, but it was right here. If it had gone ahead, the Avondale I know and grew up in would have been changed.

It began, as is often the case, from much smaller things. The Auckland City Council had purchased land on Rosebank Road just after World War II, a couple of old villas, with the intent at some stage to demolish them and build a community centre. The community centre wasn’t to be until 1990, for various reasons. In 1948, the Avondale Businessmen’s Association, voicing a need for more parking spaces in the township, asked for permission to use the Rosebank Road site at the corner of Highbury Street for off-street parking. The request must have rattled around in the Town Hall for a while, gathering ideas to it like a snowball rolling down a hill.

Then, in 1954, with the change in zoning for much of Rosebank Peninsula from residential/horticultural to industrial, the city planners saw that there was another, greater need in terms of the city’s infrastructure. They saw a need to try to route traffic from Penrose’s growing industrial centre via Mt Albert through Avondale towards the then-new North-Western Motorway and on to Te Atatu, as well as a way of getting traffic from the city, via Pt Chevalier, and towards the growing suburbs of West Auckland. What was in the way of all this free movement was a chokepoint: the Great North Road, where Avondale’s central township had grown up along its sides. Avondale’s main street had been planned and laid out in the 19th century for horses and cattle, not cars. The planners considered what could be done which would solve that chokepoint problem, and even grant the ABA’s wish for more parking for their shops. The Avondale Jockey Club wanted to subdivide and sell their Great North Road frontage for more shops with off-street parking around that time -- this appears to have been the catalyst for municipal decision.

The solution? Bypass the shopping centre completely. Put in a bypass road, starting from near Victor Street-Great North Road intersection, blaze through properties to Rosebank Road (diverting an intact Highbury Street’s intersection with Rosebank just a tad), go straight across and through the eastern-most part of the racecourse, cutting off access from Elm Street and Racecourse Parade (they later relented, and suggested a flyover from Racecourse Parade – a flyover going across a bypass …), through the racecourse’s mile-start (again, more negotiating; they ultimately put forward the idea of tunnelling under the mile start, see below), then through Wingate Street, cutting off the eastern end, before curving into Great North Road and heading west, cutting off the road from the five-roads intersection. On top of all that, they wanted to have a link from Chalmers and Ahuriri Streets with St Judes. That link with the new bypass would have carved through the St Ninians Cemetery, and come close enough to the church to cause real concerns among the parishioners.

Great North Road through Avondale would have become little more than a series of cul-de-sacs.

The chairman of the Council’s town planning committee, Dr. Kenneth Brailey Cumberland (b.1913), was all in favour of the idea. He felt the proposal they put to a public meeting of Avondale residents on 4 May 1955 was a solution for the congestion in the shopping centre, and the lack of parking. Dr. Cumberland was later Chairman of the Auckland Regional Planning Authority, and a patron (as at 2009) of the Auckland Volcanic Cones Society, which spoke out against the carving up of the volcanic cone Mount Roskill for the State Highway 20 project. On top of that, as a leading geographer, he put together and narrated the telly series Landmarks. He became Professor Emeritus at Auckland University.

Another Auckland University luminary, Dean of the School of Architecture, was architect Cyril Roy Knight, who tends to be best known for his work on books about New Zealand ecclesiastical architecture, such as the Selwyn Churches of Auckland. He was co-opted onto the City Council’s town planning committee at the time.

“We have been doing something very silly in this country,” he was quoted as saying (Star, 5 May 1955), “building highways as fast as we can, but expecting them to fulfil two functions … As soon as a highway was built, someone wanted to erect a shop or a garage on it, interfering with the highway’s main function.”

I note that the bypass project wouldn't have done much good for Avondale's oldest piece of ecclestiastical architecture though, our St Ninians church. Did Mr. Knight ever consider that?

The project, as drawn up, was budgeted to cost £110,000 (nearly $5m today). Almost instantly, it ran into sustained opposition from locals: the residents, the shopkeepers (although the Avondale Businessmen’s Association had the embarrassing situation where by a majority vote in a poorly-attended meeting they resolved to support the project, although their own members attending hearings in opposition), the Avondale Bowling Club, the Avondale Jockey Club, Suburbs Rugby Football Club, and St Ninians Church.

The Council doggedly continued and, with City Engineer A. J. Dickson’s backing, refused to let the project die. Public meetings were called, said to be among the first in the city to use projectors to display maps and plans for those who attended. Residents who bought Rosebank Road property alongside the bypass route were told, too late, that no building permits could be granted. Their land was taken over by the Council as reserves. The Jockey Club’s concerns about the carving up of their mile-start land was answered by the tunnel proposal. This didn’t win the Club over. “Horses standing at the mile start barrier might be disturbed by traffic passing underneath them,” they said to the planning commissioners. (Herald, 15 June 1959)

Back in 1955, Auckland City Council stated that the only other option to their bypass plan was to widen Great North Road – and demolish all the houses and shops along the western side. Predictably, this wasn’t favoured either.

Eventually in October 1959, after hearings, petitions, media attention and due deliberation, the Council planning commissioners decided against adopting the bypass proposal into the District Plan.

But, the idea never died. It simply changed tack.

A report by a Mr. Leith at the end of 1963 proposed a new scheme: widening not just Great North Road, but also New North Road, Victor Street and Blockhouse Bay Road to arterial route standard, semi-close upper St Judes Street to form a bypass past the problematic level crossing to link up with Chalmers Street (which also has a problem level crossing, but they seemed to not be too worried about that one), St Georges, and then into Great North Road. I haven’t seen the plan for that proposal yet – possibly St Ninians, the cemetery and Memorial Park would still have been in their sights. The 1963 plan was expected to cost about ₤800,000 (over $29m). It didn’t get off the ground, because the Auckland Regional Planning Authority recommended a deferral in April 1964.

The bypass idea wasn’t resurrected until the 1970s. The present-day Ash Street extension, this time going along Ash Street behind the racecourse, and linking, with a new bridge over the Whau River, to Rata Street on the New Lynn side, is the result. Houses were bought up and demolished, the Bowling Club had to shift its entrance and lost land, but it has had far less of an impact on the landscape as the 1954 proposal would have had.

Traffic still travels along Great North Road through the Avondale township. It still gets clogged and jammed and congested, and people have a bit of a moan. But, at least it wasn’t cut off and left to wither, and we still have the 150-year-old church building, its cemetery, and the Memorial Park used every year for Anzac Day services.

Sources:

NZ Herald

Auckland Star

Auckland City Archives files: ACC 219/822y pt. 1, ACC 339/37

New Zealand Soccer website

I see that the Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website has put up a link to ol' Timespanner via the Blandford Park post. (Many thanks, folks!) The site also has a history of NZ soccer. Worth a look.

Visit to new Newmarket Train Station

Newmarket Train Station.

It has been called "world class."

The two-storey palace of glass and metal, which the Auckland Regional Transport Authority has built for $35 million, has been designed to cope with electric trains and up to 17,000 passengers a day by 2016.

It finally reopened on 14 January this year.

The Government marked two milestones in its $1.6 billion Auckland rail programme today with the opening of the revamped Newmarket Station and the signing of an electrification project. Transport Minister Steven Joyce said that after Britomart, Newmarket was Auckland's busiest station.
"Completing this project provides a new station offering all the amenities and services expected of a modern public transport facility, potential for more trains at peak times, and means fewer delays for trains coming into Newmarket," he said.

But, it's had teething troubles.

There is disappointment about the delays and disruption on the very first day Auckland's new $35 million Newmarket Railway Station began operating.
The station was five years in the planning and has taken two years to construct.

And more troubles ...

A resumption of full services after a three-week shutdown of much of the rail network for a summer construction drive finally put Newmarket's new $35 million station at centre-stage yesterday.
KiwiRail contractors who ran out of time on Sunday night to install a complex electronic signalling system to Newmarket's railway junction, which has been reconfigured for $65 million, completed the task early yesterday with just under two hours to spare before the first trains of the day started running.
But although the new station is drawing many admirers for its clean architectural lines and ample shelter, the Campaign for Better Transport is disappointed it has not been matched by updated timetables to ease connections for passengers transferring between western and southern trains.
Some early morning western line trains still arrive at Newmarket a minute after southern services leave the station for Papakura and Pukekohe, forcing commuters to wait 29 minutes for the second leg of their journey to work or school.

And even the train drivers' walk slows everyone down.

Extra train drivers may have to be used to reduce turnaround times at Newmarket's new $35 million station, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority has acknowledged.
The authority disclosed last night that it was considering asking its rail operator, Veolia, to post drivers at each end of western line trains at peak times to reduce delays which have become apparent since the station was added to its network on Monday.
Drivers now have to walk or even run from the front to the rear of their trains at Newmarket, before reversing direction through the adjacent junction of the western and southern lines.
That meant four trains observed by the Herald yesterday spent anything from one minute and 45 seconds to three and a half minutes at Newmarket, depending on how many carriages they were pulling.
The longest wait at the station was for passengers on a locomotive-hauled SA train, as they watched the driver walk 96 metres from one end to the other before pulling out of the station.

A personal commentary here -- it is silly that we've gone back a step in tyerms of rail configuration at Newmarket. When the first station was built there in the early 1870s, it serviced stops further on and south to Onehunga (hence, Newmarket is on the Southern line in our urban system). The Western line to Waitakere and beyond only came about later that decade, opened in 1880, and is at right angles to Newmarket. But, Newmarket is south of the Western line, not North, so trains from west (like Avondale) have to reverse into Newmarket before proceeding to Britomart and the central city. The temporary station at Kingdon Street sorted that out -- while Newmarket was being reconstructed, our trains would go as trains should go -- straight through, no reversing. But now they've opened up Newmarket again, we're stuck with the same damned configuration.

Oh, there were folk who protested and wanted Kingdon left alone. But, to no avail.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee is at war with his council's transport subsidiary over a decision to demolish Newmarket's temporary Kingdon St station.
The Auckland Regional Transport Authority has defied his wishes by confirming that the facility will be closed tonight to make way for the opening next month of Newmarket's $35 million replacement station. Because the two stations are on different tracks, separated by a 400m walk, Mr Lee and neighbouring business owners say the authority's decision will rob the public of a direct connection between Britomart and the western railway line.

 Mike Lee, I raise my coffee cup to you, mate. You did your best.

Okay. So, Friday I toddled along, boarded the train at Avondale, and went to take a look at the "world class" station.

I think the staff were wondering what the heck I was doing, getting off the train but then loitering around on the platform instead of doing what everyone else did and head straight for the escalators.  Don't mind me, folks, I'm just a mad blogger.

 

Lots of seats. So far, they look nice and clean. So far.

 

I did finally go up the escalators, to take a view from above the platforms. I think I prefer Henderson station. At least that has cool billboards to look at, and not a wall of apartments. 

This is the single bit of heritage I found in the place -- a blow-up of a 1920s map of Newmarket Borough. It's nice, any rate. The place could have done with some heritage images of steam trains, the Newmarket rail workshops, something ...

Newmarket railway workshops, 1909. From Wiki Commons.

Ah, well. Close up of part of the map.

 

Outside, the east -- a fairly nice square, with metal trees and more walls.

 

And now, we leave Balham, Gateway to the South -- er, sorry, Newmarket Train Station.

So, I have two main grumbles: that reversing lark, and the fact that Newmarket Station proper is further away from the Domain and the Auckland Museum than the now-lost Kingdon Street station. Hopefully, they'll see sense and re-use the old wooden Newmarket station building they have in secret storage somewhere to good use as a Parnell/Museum station in the future? My fingers are crossed and I live in hope.

Groceries and bullets at Mt Eden Road

On the corner of Stokes Road, the bottom part almost completely hidden by produce crates, sits a gem of heritage art on control boxes. It features the Woods Store (still in existence up the road at Esplanade).

 

 

 

At the left of these two shots is the CAC (Colonial Ammunition Company) shot tower, which is also still around (and has a heritage registration). Some more info on the two structures, and on Mt Eden's old industrial area, at the Auckland City Council website.