Albany, New Zealand
Albany is one of the northernmost suburbs of the contiguous Auckland metropolitan area in New Zealand. It is located on the North Shore, northwest of the Auckland city centre. Albany is found at the headlands of Lucas Creek, and was the location of a portage used by Tāmaki Māori, where waka could be taken between the Upper Waitematā Harbour and the Okura River/Hauraki Gulf. During the 1840s, early European settlers established the village of Lucas Creek, which by the 1880s had become a major fruit growing centre in Auckland. The town voted to change the name from Lucas Creek to Albany in 1890.
During the 1960s, large areas of farmland in Albany were requisitioned for a state housing project. The project was never built, and the land stayed vacant until the 1990s, when it was sold to private developers. Albany rapidly developed in the 1990s and 2000s, during which major projects were constructed, including Westfield Albany and North Harbour Stadium. Much of the land to the north of Albany is semi-rural.
Albany is divided into four areas: Albany, Albany Heights, Albany Village, and Albany Centre. The two former names are official.
Etymologies
From the 1840s until 1890, the settlement was known as Lucas Creek, named after early pioneer Daniel Clucas, who arrived in early 1840s and established a flax mill on the upper Lucas Creek at Albany. Over time, the name Lucas Creek developed bad associations, due to the moonshine operations that operated along the waterway. In 1890, the townspeople voted to change the name from Lucas Creek to Albany, a name suggested by Captain Alexander McArthur, which was suggested due to its associations with Albany, Western Australia, then a major horticulture centre. Albany in Western Australia was named after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, second son of King George III, in 1832. The name Lucas Creek was still in popular use in the early 20th century, and for many years the name appeared hyphenated as Albany-Lucas Creek in institutions and businesses.Three Māori language names are associated with the Albany area. Ōkahukura is the most commonly used name in modern contexts, including the North Shore Ōkahukura District Court, Albany Community Hub Te Pokapū ā-Hapori o Ōkahukura, and a Fletcher Living housing development in Albany. Originally a name for the Lucas Creek estuary, the name refers to the Ngāti Manuhiri tūpuna Te Kura, the wife of Mataahu, who was the uncle to Manuhiri, the eponymous ancestor of the iwi. The word kahukura in Māori usually refers to rainbows or butterflies. Additionally, Lucas Creek is also referred to as Kaipātiki. Another common name for the Albany area is Ōteha, referring to Ngāti Manuhiri ancestor Te Ha Kaiaraara, grandson of Manuhiri. Ōteha was the name of a kāinga in the Ōteha Valley.
Geography
Albany is a suburb of the North Shore of New Zealand. It is located in the upper reaches of the Lucas Creek, an estuarial arm of the Upper Waitematā Harbour, and in the Ōteha Valley. The Oteha Stream is a tributary of Lucas Creek that flows through southern Albany, which in turn has a tributary, Alexandra Stream, which flows north through Rosedale and joins the Oteha Stream at Albany. Albany is bordered the Auckland Northern Motorway to the east and Rosedale Road in the south.Much of the Albany area is formed from Early Miocene Waitemata Group sandstone and mudstone, with areas of conglomerate rock called Albany Conglomerate. The banks of the Lucas Creek were historically kauri-dominated forests. By the mid-19th century, the area had developed into a mānuka and fern-dominated scrubland. Some forest remnants can be found around Albany, such as the Fernhill Escarpment, which includes tōtara trees estimated to be 800 years old.
Climate
History
Māori history
Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries. The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū. Many of the early Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as Ngā Oho, and the Lucas Creek has significance to modern iwi including Ngāti Manuhiri, Te Kawerau ā Maki and Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara. The poor clay soils of the area were not suitable for Māori traditional gardening techniques, but the creek was a good source for eels, crayfish and flounder.An ara connected Lucas Creek and the Ōkura River to the north, which led to Long Bay and the upper Hauraki Gulf. This was used as a portage, where waka could be hauled overland between the two bodies of water, Numerous archaeological sites are found on the banks of the Lucas Creek and the Ōteha valley, because of its importance as a transportation node, which follows the ridge line of Lonely Track Road. The upper Lucas Creek area was the location of several kāinga, of which one had the name Ōteha, referring to Ngāti Manuhiri ancestor Te Ha Kaiaraara, grandson of Manuhiri.
The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore. After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new hapū. His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is the namesake of the North Shore, Te Whenua Roa o Kahu, Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu.
By the first half of the 19th century, the mouth of the Lucas Creek to the southwest of Albany was one of the most densely settled areas of the North Shore by Tāmaki Māori peoples. During the early 1820s, most Māori of the North Shore fled for the Waikato or Northland due to the threat of war parties during the Musket Wars. When Tāmaki Māori returned in greater numbers to the Auckland Region in the mid-1830s, Te Kawerau ā Maki focused settlement at Te Henga / Bethells Beach.
Early European settlement: kauri logging and gum digging
The Albany area was a part of the Mahurangi Block, which was purchased by the New Zealand Government in 1841. While kauri logging was one of the first industries in the area, the supply of kauri was exhausted by the early 1840s. By the late 1840s, kauri gum digging had become a more prominent industry for the Lucas Creek area. Itinerant gum diggers would scour the area for kauri resin to sell at stores, including one located at Schnapper Rock. The first permanent resident in modern-day Albany was William Webster. Daniel Clucas arrived early 1840s, setting up a flax mill at Lucas Creek. While Lucas Creek is names after Clucas, he had left the Auckland area by 1846. Gradually a small settlement developed at the Lucas Creek headwaters; in 1844 three permanent residents lived here, which had increased to 24 by 1857.Lucas Creek township was the local commercial centre for the upper west North Shore, due to the Lucas Creek wharf acting as the main link to the outside world. Ferries took goods and passengers along the Lucas Creek, which connected the village and surrounding areas to Auckland, and a rough overland track connected Lucas Creek township to Birkenhead and Northcote. By the 1860s a church, hotel, school and post office had opened in the village. Most early residents of Lucas Creek came from Great Britain and Ireland, with a small number arriving from Norway in the 1870s.
Albany School, which first began operating in 1865 out of a building called Bruce's Shed, had a permanent school build built in 1876. By the 1880s, the school building had become a community hub for events attended by members of the surrounding communities, such as social dances and phrenology lectures, much to the objection of the Board of Education, who disapproved of the school being used for entertainment purposes.
Fruit growing and rural Albany
While the first orchards were established at Albany in the 1850s, fruit growing only became a major industry for the village in the 1880s, after gum digging and flax processing industries became less prominent. Fruit crops were varied, and included peaches, apples, pears, plums, loquats, cherries, quince and almonds.On 1 December 1890, the township of Lucas Creek officially changed its name to Albany. The name Lucas Creek had developed an unsavory reputation during the 19th century, associated with rough living, and illicit moonshine breweries located along the creek. The name Albany was suggested by Captain Alexander McArthur, referencing Albany, Western Australia, then a major horticulture centre, as McArthur saw similarities between the two areas.
By the 1890s, Albany had become the leading fruit growing area in Auckland. 30,000 to 50,000 cases of apples and pears were being produced each year, with many being exported to Australia. The Albany Fruitgrowers Association formed in 1893, and became a major influencing force in the township, including the establishment of a new post office, and lobbying for road widening projects. 1894 saw the first Fruit & Flower Show, an important local event which grew into the Albany A&P Show. In 1895, Albany resident George Pannill created the Albany Surprise, a variety of grape based on the American isabella. The variety was a success, becoming the most commonly eaten table grape in New Zealand in the early 20th century. The success of the Albany Surprise was followed by the Albany Beauty apple, created by Mark Phillips on Gills Road, at the turn of the century after discovering the variety growing on what was meant to be a Gravenstein apple tree. In addition to these popular crops, large blackberry and strawberry farms became a major fixture of rural Albany by the early 1900s.
Albany fell under the jurisdiction of the Waitemata County, a vast local government area covering West Auckland, Rodney and the North Shore. Residents strongly objected to the actions of the county council, feeling ignored and frustrated at the lack of roading infrastructure in Albany. The first metalled road to Albany was constructed in 1890.
In 1911, the George V Coronation Hall was opened as a local community centre, and operated as a venue for the annual Albany Agricultural Show. This was joined in 1922 with the Albany War Memorial Library, constructed to remember the fallen World War I soldiers of Albany and surrounding areas.
By 1915, North Shore roads had improved enough that regular vehicle traffic began. Over the next 15 years, river traffic decreased, and in 1930 the Kaipatiki ferry ceased operation, and the historic Albany wharf, known as the Landing, was demolished soon after. In the 1930s, dairy farms began replacing Albany's orchards and strawberry farms.