Tawa, New Zealand

Suburb:	Tawa
City:	Wellington
Island:	North Island
Surrounded by - to the north - to the east - to the south - to the west	Linden Greenacres Redwood -

Tawa is a locality between Wellington and Porirua in the North Island of New Zealand. It takes its name from the broadleaf tree, which was once prolific throughout the area, although its most famous tree is the Bucket Tree, a group of large macrocarpa with the topiary of an upside-down bucket. [ [http://www.wcl.govt.nz/wellington/tawa.html Wellington City Library page on Tawa] ]

According to the 2006 census, Tawa has a population of around 13,000.

Local Government

Originally the area was part of the Tawa Flat Borough, which was later renamed Tawa Borough. In 1989 Tawa came under Wellington City Council and elects two city councillors. The current Mayor of Wellington, Kerry Prendergast, is from Tawa.

History

ettlement

Tawa Flat was first settled by Pākehā in the mid-19th century, under direction of Edward Gibbon Wakefield of the New Zealand Company. It was originally divided up into 100- and convert|1|acre|m2|sing=on blocks, much the same as any other early New Zealand settlement. Much of the eastern side of the Tawa valley was owned by a single family until the demand for housing land overtook the benefits of farming the land. In 1951, a Town District was established covering Tawa and Linden. Within two years this had become Tawa Flat Borough.

Development

In the late 1930s, the North Island Main Trunk Railway was deviated from Kaiwharawhara by the Tawa Flat deviation. The main line previously followed a circuitous route via Johnsonville and had been built by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company in the 1880s; the line was not incorporated into the New Zealand Railways Department network until December 1908. The two routes diverged just south of the present day Tawa Railway Station, and the connection to Johnsonville was severed on 19 June 1937. The Johnsonville route now operates in truncated form as the Johnsonville Branch. [John Yonge (editor), "New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas", fourth edition (Essex: Quail Map Company, 1993), 16.]

In the very early 1960s, the Wellington Motorway was built through Tawa, on the eastern side of the valley, following the line of the North Island Main Trunk railway. Tawa was starting to become a fairly large suburb of Wellington city, with land being at a premium in the steep terrain of the region. In 1961, Tawa College was built on land that straddles the motorway, with the main school campus being west of the motorway, and playing fields to the east. Because of Tawa's conservative nature it was the last place in New Zealand to allow the purchase of alcohol and tobacco goods.

Since the mid-20th century, Tawa has been expanding more slowly, mainly spreading eastward up onto the hills of the Belmont range, which separates the Tawa valley from the Hutt Valley.

Notable residents and former residents

* Mark Gillespie, Black Caps medium pace bowler
* Murray Mexted, All Black
* Elsdon Best, Māori ethnologist.

Schools

Schools in Tawa include:
*Greenacres School
*Hampton Hill School
*Linden School
*Redwood School
*St Francis Xavier School
*Tawa College
*Tawa Intermediate School
*Tawa School

Sources

* Carman, Arthur H (1956). "Tawa Flat and the Old Porirua Road."

References

External links

* [http://www.tawalink.com www.tawalink.com]
* [http://tawahistory.wellington.net.nz/ Tawa Historical Society]
* [http://www.worldfm.co.nz/ WorldFM - low power hobby FM station broadcasting to Tawa]