Task 3: What did the original suburbs surrounding Wellington look like?

As Wellington developed as a city, suburbs grew and became more developed as more people arrived in Wellington. These are some of Wellington’s original suburbs are how they have developed over time:

Thorndon was first inhabited by Taranaki tribes in 1820s. They built little villages there though the Europeans arrived in 1840 and colonilised the area. Over time it became the location for New Zealands Parliament. In the 1870’s the population of Thorndon was large and still expanding. Already 4,000 people lived there. More and more houses were built in Thorndon to accommodate the large flow of people to Wellington in the 1920s and 1930s. As the main suburb in Wellington, Thorndon peaked to over 7,500 people in 1920s. Though as time went on, Wellington developed in to the capital and became a lot more commercial with large high rise buildings going up everywhere. Slowly those living in Thorndon moved out of the inner city to suburbs further out for private houses and more land. In 2006 the population of Thorndon was down to 3,837.

Thorndon 1880

Karori
Another suburb that was one of the first in Wellington is Karori meaning ‘the rope of bird snares’, due to it’s large birdlife and current bird sanctuary. It is in a sort of basin in Wellington, though is a little cold and hilly around. Europeans arrived in 1840s and already 215 people lived there. Over the years Karori has grown out and over the hills as Wellington grew. It became a very popular place for business people working in central Wellington though wanting a get away when they go home. Also Karori has a lot of land so many parks, schools, library and even a small mall has been built there, creating more an more people to move to the community. In 2006 the population of Karori was 14,010.

Karori 1890

Northland, Aro Valley and Kelburn - 2006 population;11,085

These three suburbs were developed at around the same time in the 1860s Aro Valley developed as a small suburb just out of Wellington, perfect place for students and people that need to be close to town yet affordable homes.
Kelburn just below Northland and Karori, is on the hills near town. It’s also an attractive place for students to live due to Victoria University built there in 1904.
Northland is seperated from Kelburn by a gully. It was all farm land until Wellington started to develop in the 1900s and the city needed more outer suburbs to develop from farmland to houses for people working in the city to commute to nice homes.

Kelburn 1930

References:

Lowe, J. http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~j_lowe/LocalHist2.htm

WellingtonArchives http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/archives/services/services.html#Aa

Task 2: Examples of Urban Sprawl

These are some of many photos taken on our day in town researching Urban Sprawl, the are examples of urban sprawl around Wellington:

This first photo was taken from Waitangi park in central town, and as the photo shows the large urban sprawl that has occurred. The houses have been developed and built higher and higher to accommodate for Wellington’s growing population.














In this second photo (look closely) and you can see a few high rise buildings, behind the large buildings you can yet again see an example of urban sprawl in Wellington. Houses built in Khandallah and Wadestown, even though it’s very hilly and hard to build on Wellington needed to expand and grow from the central Wellington. This photo was taken from outside the boat shed at the wharf.














This third photo is taken also from the wharf but looking into the centre of town. Even in town the buildings have gotten higher to accommodate for more businesses to grow in town. Though as businesses grow the houses left in town are being turned into business buildings, and some large apartment blocks.

Task 2

-On the 7th of August at 10.20am we went to the top of Mt Victoria in Wellington and took photos of the surrounding suburbs, including central Wellington, Miramar and the Airport.

Photo of view from Mt Vic showing Wellington airport and urban sprawl radiating out from it.

-Between 10.30am and 12.00pm we collected historic maps and photos from the Wellington City Archives. We found maps showing how the urban settlements in Wellington sprawled out to the top of Cuba St and into farmland.

-We then went to the Wellington Film Archives and took notes on Wellington's development over the years, this included the construction of the Hutt motorway, the tramlines, high-rise buildings, and the amount of land in the city.

-In the afternoon we walked around Wellington City to locations showing urban sprawl so we could take photos. Some of these are shown above in the other section of Task 2.

-We went to locations such as the top of Cuba St and saw where the city has sprawled over the years, transforming the area from farmland to a residential and shopping area.

Photo of view up Cuba St, showing significant urban sprawl into farming land.

Task 3: What is Urban Sprawl?

Urban Sprawl is the spreading out of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. Sprawl occurs because land becomes scarce in the city centre and the population grows. Urban Sprawl started in Wellington in the early 1900s when transport and technology developed, and the suburbs surrounding the city started to grow, eg Miramar, Khandallah and the Hutt Valley. Urban Sprawl still occurs today in Wellington and all over the world.

This photo of Wellington City shows how the city has extended back into the hills surrounding Wellington, it is an example of urban sprawl.

References:

• www.wikipedia.com
• www.realestateglossary.com/real-estate-glossary/u.html

Task 3: How far was the fringe of town from the CBD in certain years?

series of pictures from WCC

Map from www.sellingwellington.co.nz

The map directly above shows the division of suburbs today that exist in the Wellington City Area. The top pictures are a representation of the growth of suburbs and settlements in Wellington from 1900 to 2004. The increasing size and spread of the red dots shows the rapid growth and urban sprawl of settlements in the Wellington City Area over the past century.

As the series of pictures of the Wellington area above show, initially in 1900 the fringe of town focused around Wellington City and the accessible flatland. Between 1900 and 1909 Wellington City sprawled dramatically as settlers flooded into the area. Suburbs close such as Northland, and flat areas such as Newtown, began to grow. From 1910 to 1929 Karori began to be inhabited and suburbs as far from the central city as Seatoun and Ngaio started developing. Between 1920 and 1949 new suburbs further away from the city did not develop as fast, but already existing suburbs grew greatly and housing became more dense. By 1969 suburbs as far north as Paparangi were well developed and the fringe of Wellington was further extended as train lines and transportation was established. Karori also became vastly populated and Island Bay was the southwestern edge of the city suburbs. 1969-1989 suburbs did not sprawl further but once again became more densely occupied. Between 1990 and 2004 the existing suburbs spread, for example the area around Johnsonville spread east and west with the development of Broadmeadows and Churton Park. The fringe of the Wellington City area was no longer confined to heavily populated suburbs either, as farmland was subdivided throughout Ohariu Valley, Makara, Grenada and Takapu Valley into lifestyle blocks. As people overcome problems with topography and accessibility of land they do not need to be focused around larger suburbs and are able to sprawl out.

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References:

suburbs map from http://www.sellingwellington.co.nz/

urban growth 1900-2004 maps from Wellington City Council

information from Wellington Film Archives

Task 3: What factors have lead to/influenced Urban Sprawl in Wellington?

In Wellington Urban Sprawl first started in the early 1900's. This was due to many things including new transport developments, a population increase and new technology.

Trams were the first things that allowed the Wellington population to live in the suburbs around the city and work in town. Before trams started in 1904 the only way you could work in the city was if you lived in the city. The land around the city in suburbs like Karori and Khandallah was cut off and used as farmland. The tram made it quick and easy for people to commute into the city.

Later advancements in transport such as trains and buses also allowed Urban Sprawl to increase and the fringes of Wellington got even further from the city centre. This is because transport options became more convenient and faster. It no longer took five hours to get to work each day.

Over the years a population increase has also lead to urban sprawl. As more people moved into the city it became very crowded and people wanted to leave the noise and move to the suburbs. This was made possible by the improvements in transport. Also, land became so expensive in the centre of town because of the great demand for it. Although, if the large number of people had not moved to Wellington city, the population would not have increased and there would not have been as much urban sprawl.

Like the other reasons for urban sprawl, my third reason, new technology and roads also relates to transport. New roads have made it quick for people to live far from the Wellington City. This made it easy for small businesses to start up because they could get new stock in quickly, making it easy for people to live in the newly developed suburbs. Roads like the Ngaraunga Gorge, Hutt motorway and streets to ‘airport’ suburbs all helped contribute to urban sprawl.

The photo above shows the Karori tram that started in 1904. This was one of the first things that started urban sprawl.

This photo shows Miramar in 1910. As you can see it was mainly farmland and is greatly different to what it is today.

References:

http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/archives/index.html#Aa

Wellington Film Archives

Wellington City Archives

www.wikipedia.com

Task One

Topic:
"How the process of Urban Sprawl has influenced spatial patterns within the Wellington urban settlement?"

Research Questions:

What is urban sprawl?
What did the origional suburbs surrounding Wellington look like?
How far was the fringe of town from the CBD in certain years?
What factors have influenced urban sprawl?

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Information that will be useful, sources and recording:

- Definitions of urban sprawl from online dictionaries and encyclopedias.

- Photos of Wellington now in areas that used to be fringes of the city, eg. top of Cuba St. Taken by us and found on Google Images.

- Maps of Wellington from the 1900s and suburbs within Wellington, from Archives Wellington that are found both on their website and at their office in Wellington City.

- Data on population growth found in census books at Wellington Library.

- Old photos of Wellington city from Wellington Archives.

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Four different methods for presenting our information:

- Photos of olden day Wellington suburbs compared to now.

- Maps showing the edge of Wellington city.

- Graphs showing the population growth influencing the urban sprawl.

- Written answers to our research questions.

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