Early European settlement
A prosperous farming area
A new city
History resources
Manukau City, formed in 1965, is one of New Zealand’s youngest cities, but contains one of New Zealand’s oldest settled areas.
The name Manukau “only birds” dates back to the passage of the Tainui canoe through the Manukau harbour in the fourteenth century. About this time, extensive gardens were established in the rich volcanic soils of Mangere and Manurewa.
The area’s numerous volcanic cones served as fortified pa sites. During the 1820s the region was devastated by tribal warfare. The local people:
- Te Ahiwaru
- Te Akitai
- Ngati Paoa
- Ngai Tai
- Ngati Tamaoho
- Ngati Te Ata - re-established themselves in the late 1830s.
By the time the local people were established traders and missionaries were entering the region. These included William Fairburn of the Church Missionary Society, who controversially purchased a large tract of land between the Wairoa River and the Manukau Harbour in 1836, and established a mission station at Maraetai the following year.
Early European settlement
In 1840 copies of the Treaty of Waitangi were brought south from the Bay of Islands and signed at several places locally:
- On the Tamaki River
- On the Manukau Peninsula
- And at the Waikato Heads.
In 1841 Auckland became the capital of the new colony. European settlement gradually spread southward from the isthmus.
In 1847 fencible villages were established at:
- Panmure
- Howick
- Otahuhu
- Onehunga.
In 1849, by agreement between Governor Sir George Grey and the powerful Waikato chief Potatau Te Wherowhero, a Māori militia settlement was established at Mangere.
During the 1850s farming settlements' were established at:
- Mangere
- Pakuranga
- East Tamaki
- Wairoa (later Clevedon)
- Turanga Creek (later Whitford)
- Papakura Valley (later Alfriston).
In 1862 the Great South Road was extended southwards from Dury to the Waikato River.
The Waikato war that broke out in 1863 led to the confiscation of much of the remaining Māori-owned land in the region.
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A prosperous farming area
In the late nineteenth century South Auckland developed into a prosperous farming area. The flax industry flourished briefly. The railway went through in 1875. Wheat-growing and cattle-raising gradually made way for dairying.
The area was administered by a myriad of tiny road boards until Manukau County and Franklin County were formed in 1912. Otahuhu and Pukekohe became boroughs the same year. Papakura, Manurewa, Papatoetoe and Howick later also became boroughs in their own right.
A new city
After the Second World War the region grew rapidly:
- The southern motorway reached Wiri in 1955
- Large areas of State housing were built at Otara from 1958 onwards
- Industrial development began at Wiri in 1961
- Auckland International Airport was opened at Mangere in 1965
- 1965 Manukau County and Manurewa Borough amalgamated to form Manukau City
- By 1976 a new city centre had been developed on a greenfields site at Wiri.
- 1982 the Rainbow’s End amusement park was opened nearby.
- The Auckland Regional Botanic Gardens were opened at Manurewa in 1982
- In 1989 Papatoetoe City and Howick Borough amalgamated with Manukau City.
The city’s rapid growth has continued since.
Tracts of industry and housing have spread across formerly rural land. The city now links communities of great socioeconomic and ethnic diversity.
Manukau City preserves reminders of its past at locations such as the Otuataua Stonefields Historic Reserve, Mangere Mountain and Howick Historical Village.
Symbols of recent years might include the:
- Manukau millennium sculpture in Manukau City Centre
- Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre, opened in April 2005
- Ormiston Road bridge at Barry Curtis Park, opened in October 2008.
History resources
For more information see 
Manukau Libraries website history pages. Their resources include:
Manukau’s Journey, a chronology of the Counties-Manukau region
Footprints of Manukau, an online photographic exhibition.
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