Auckland City Libraries has a wide range of material relevant to the local history of Auckland city. Much of this material is held in the Auckland Research Centre and Special Collections, while community libraries will also have relevant local material.
Māori Auckland
For an understanding of Māori Auckland, refer to David Simmons' Maori Auckland, including the Māori place names of Auckland collected by George Graham (1987). Also refer to Richard Kay and Heather Bassett's Maori occupation of land within the boundaries of the Auckland City Council 1800-1940 (1997/1998). A major primary source is Paora Tuhaere's A paper giving an account of the genealogy of the ancestors of Ngati-Whatua. This is a manuscript held in Special Collections, Central City Library.
Pakeha settlement
Pakeha settlement of the Auckland area dates from September 1840, but was largely confined to the immediate area around the ports at Auckland and Onehunga. The Fencible settlements to the south and east at Onehunga, Panmure, Howick and Otahuhu increased the population quite dramatically, while the Flagstaff (later Devonport) area on the North Shore remained largely unsettled until the 1870s. Population then spread throughout the isthmus, and North Shore, Papakura, Waitakere and Manukau cities began to grow significantly after the Second World War. The more rural Franklin and Rodney areas are now also quickly urbanising.
Land grants to settlers and speculators at first concerned the Town of Auckland, but settlement soon began to spread into the suburban areas. Many areas on the isthmus were still used for farming until well into the twentieth century. Parnell, Newmarket, Remuera, Herne Bay, Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Mount Eden, Epsom, and parts of the Western Bays and Eastern Bays began to urbanise in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Social divisions between the wealthier eastern parts of Auckland and the less wealthy western parts soon developed.
The best book on this period is John Horsman's The coming of the Pakeha to Auckland Province (1971). On the other hand, for an understanding of the contemporary Aucklander try Metro or the Way of the Jafa. The latter offers a humourous option.
 Looking east towards Albert Park showing the Auckland Public Library, Art Gallery and Municipal Offices, 1905. Photographer: Henry Winkelmann. Photo ID 1-W1248. To order this photograph and view more historic photographs, search Heritage Images Online.
Urbanisation
Areas such as Mount Albert, Mount Roskill, Point Chevalier, Ellerslie, Orakei, Mount Wellington, Glen Innes, Panmure and One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie) began to urbanise in the earlier part of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s with the development of large state housing areas.
Blockhouse Bay, Avondale, Meadowbank, Saint Johns, Mission Bay, Kohimarama, Saint Heliers, Tamaki and Glendowie began to urbanise post Second World War. The Penrose and Otahuhu areas joined the older Onehunga area in providing work in large industries, including freezing, railway workshops and fertiliser works. The emphasis in these areas has now changed to light industry. What is of interest today is the increasing population in the Hauraki Gulf islands, particularly Waiheke and even Great Barrier and Rakino.
Defence and transport
For an excellent work on historical defence installations including the Auckland area, see Peter Cooke's Defending New Zealand: ramparts on the sea 1840 - 1950s (2000).
This includes details, maps and sometimes photographs of Fort Britomart, Fort Bastion, Fort Cautley, Fort Resolution, Fort Takapuna and Fort Victoria. It also includes similar details for Torpedo Bay, the various Batteries around Auckland, anti-tank ditches and the Albert Park Tunnel Shelter. Sean Millar's The New Zealand railway, tramway and bus bibliography (2000), includes references to 58 Auckland area items.
Pictorial history
Graham Stewart's Auckland before the Harbour Bridge (2002) provides a fascinating visual journey through the Auckland metropolitan area to 1959. Many images are in colour, and there is a good background text. Richard Wolfe's Auckland; a pictorial history (2002) covers similar ground. |
