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 Heritage floor of the
Central City Library.
Greater Auckland
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.
Central Auckland
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.
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.