15 minute read
North Shore History: David Verran
1_W0686 courtesy of Auckland Libraries Heritage Collection: dated 9 September 1925, this looks down the Terrace towards the corner with Anzac Street and Lake Road, showing the extent of the tram sheds.
Waiwharariki Anzac Square, a background history By David Verran
Following the Mahurangi land purchases from Māori, the Parish of Takapuna was surveyed by Allan O’Neill in 1843. That area covered from Devonport and Narrow Neck Beach to Lake Pupuke and across to Birkenhead, Glenfield and Northcote. On 1 February 1845 Andrew Rooney purchased Lot Eighty of that surveyed area for four hundred and eight pounds, eleven shillings and one pence. The total area of the Lot was thirty-nine acres, three roods and eighteen perches, and included all the land to the north of what became Northcroft Street, to the west of what is now Hurstmere Road and to the south of what is now Anzac Street, as far to the west as Pupuke Road, Takapuna. Likely that land was then used for pastoral purposes, including crops such as wheat or oats, or running horses, cattle or sheep.
By 1863, the Terrace now intersected what is now Anzac Street, at that time called Katrine Street. This divided Lot Eighty in two, with Lots Four and Five of the new Section Ten, immediately to the west of Hurstmere Road, included later in Edwin Harrow’s Lake Hotel estate. Lot One of Section Ten later became Hall’s Corner.
Significant transport changes came to Takapuna with the formation of the Takapuna Tram and Ferry Company in 1907 to provide a tram service around Lake Pupuke and Lake Road, with a ferry service at Bayswater. This required a depot and tram shed in Takapuna and according to David Balderston in his ‘The Bayswater harbour ferries of Auckland to Takapuna’ (2015) this was initially to be on the western side of Lake Road opposite Halls Corner, where the Takapuna Branches of the ANZ and BNZ are now. However, by March 1909 R H McCallum had been contracted to build the depot and tram shed on the eastern side, near the corner of what was still Katrine Street.
The tram and ferry service began on 22 December 1910 and Katrine Street was renamed Anzac Street in September 1916. At that time, other streets in the Takapuna Borough area were also named or renamed to acknowledge people who served in the First World War. Also, the nearby Takapuna Primary School War Memorial Gates were unveiled on 10 May 1923, acknowledging 107 men and one nursing sister who served. Sixteen ex-pupils never returned.
A September 1924 map shows the tram depot on Lot Eight, Section Ten. However, the above photograph from 1925 shows the fuller extent of the depot. When the tram service ceased on 27 April 1927, the land was taken by North Shore Transport Company for their bus depot. An office, bus shelter and petrol bowser station were later added. On 29 March 1929 a deed of settlement confirmed Frederick Seymour Potter’s donation to the Takapuna Borough Council of one acre of land at the Anzac Street corner for what has become a park and rose gardens.
With the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in May 1959, the retail part of Takapuna became at that time the largest shopping centre on the North Shore. Accordingly, the Takapuna City Council used a targeted rate on local businesses to purchase the North Shore Transport Company’s site for a carpark. It was opened in 1964.
More recently, the carpark site has also become the venue for the Sunday Takapuna Markets. A July 2003 report on the market dates it back to 1969, but at that time it wasn’t based on the current site. It was on to the carpark site from at least the early 1990s and at that time called the Takapuna Fleamarket. In 2015 a decision was made by Auckland Council to proceed with the creation of a new town square in Takapuna, consultations then followed and work has started this year.
One of my difficulties in researching this article has been lack of access to Auckland Council archives. I hope to be able to provide more details once that is available again.
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Takapuna Bowling Club.
Takapuna Bowling Club Club of the Year three times over in 2021!
It’s no secret that Takapuna Bowling Club has become a shining light in the local sports club scene and this has been recognised with the club being named the Harbour Sport Club of the Year in their 2021 Sports Awards. This comes on the top of recent accolades that have included being named Bowls North Harbour Club of the Year and Bowls New Zealand Club of the Year. 2021 was a good year for the club!
The Harbour Sport Community & Sporting Excellence Awards were announced on March 1st. Takapuna Bowling Club was chosen as the Club of the Year ahead of other finalists – North Harbour Synchro (Artistic Swimming), North Shore Amateur Swimming Club, Ngātaringa Tennis Club, North Shore Rowing Club and Takapuna District Cricket Club.
This has been hard-earned success for the central-Takapuna club, coming off the back of some strategic planning that was put in place four years ago.
“This club has a wonderful history having been around now for 110 years,” says Chairperson Graham Dorreen. “We are very focussed, however, on the future which is why we established our Future Planning Group (FPG) initiative back in 2018. The work of this group, led by Fay Freeman, has been an integral part of the success we are now seeing. The brief of this group – that represents a wide crosssection of the club, younger and older – has been to look at what the club should look like in the next 10 years and their work is ongoing.”
Success for Takapuna Bowling Club really stretches right across all areas of the club operations. Membership is at an all-time high, growing four to five times the size that it was when the club’s centenary was celebrated in 2012. There are big groups of casual/ social bowlers who meet three times a week. The club has also enjoyed success on the greens at a national level as well with nine very competitive bowlers on the national stage with two members currently holding national titles and being New Zealand Bowls squad members. These are Selina Goddard (27) in women's bowls and Graham Skellern (B5-B8), which is the highest level for those with a disability. The club has no less than 20 teams now entering regional and national bowls competitions.
“The FPG initiative has been an important cog in the wheel as it focuses on the future, keeps us forward thinking and focussed on
Graham Skellern, Takapuna’s national champ in the B5-B8 competition.
Legendary New Zealand cricketer, the late Bert Sutcliffe, bowling for Takapuna in the 1980s.
becoming a very good all round bowls club. Our (Krak A Jack) Business Bowls on a Wednesday evening attracts 26 teams of three people for 12 weeks over the summer which is also lots of fun and introduces 80-plus new people to the game and the club. We are also engaging with the local schools and have had Westlake Boys pupils experiencing bowls recently and this is something we want to do with other local schools as well.” The club is also financially strong which has been a focus of the seven-strong board led by Graham Dorreen. Other board members are Fay Freeman, Ken Noble, Paul Balchin, Jacqui Belcher, Lindsay Knight and Ian Hardy. Club President Robyn Walker, secretary Heather Stevens and treasurer John Auckram also play key roles.
Sponsorship clearly plays an important part in the success of Takapuna Bowling Club. There are no less than 30 sponsors – many of them prominent business brands – with fresh clean club signage that clearly does the club and sponsors proud. Two key sponsors are Forsyth Barr and Ryman who have naming rights to club greens.
Takapuna Bowling Club also continues to invest in club facilities for the benefit of the members as well as extra revenue for the club to host social and corporate functions. An upstairs space that was previously underutilised has been renovated to offer an additional mid-size function option to the larger downstairs area. The central Takapuna location means the facility is an excellent function venue.
When you visit the club’s comprehensive website their comment about their recent successes captures what the club is all about. It says, "This really does sum up the Takapuna experience and approach to bowls. If it's serious competitive bowls you want then we can certainly deliver. If it's the more relaxing fun bowls and the social side you're after, you'll also find that in abundance at Takapuna. And, if you just want to play casually, or occasionally with friends, that's no problem either.”
Well done Takapuna Bowling Club. We love celebrating the success of our local clubs!
Takapuna’s Selina Goddard holds national titles and is a member of the national bowls squad.
Benefitz invests in Swiss machinery
Despite the problems created by Covid19 over the past two years, Benefitz will continue its commitment to the latest technologies with the purchase and installation of a brand-new state-of-the-art grand format printing machine in March/April. This machine is called the SwissQ Nyala 4S.
The North Shore company prints many of New Zealand’s biggest images and this new machinery will enhance that capability – being faster and more efficient than existing machinery – and also provide environmental improvements. As the name suggests the machine is coming from a Swiss manufacturer, SwissQprint, based in Kriessern, Switzerland.
“The SwissQ Nyala 4S is fast and flexible and can print as a ‘flatbed’ machine on rigid substrates and also on flexible substrates for billboards, banners, wraps and point of sale etc.,” explains Rob Gunston, GM at Benefitz. “We have chosen the option that is the most productive of the SwissQprint range, printing up to nine colours that can include special white ink or a clear coat. It’s capable of printing up to 370 square metres per hour.
“We have a policy of continuing to invest in new technology for both efficiency and to constantly improve our environmental performance. Every time we make an investment like this, the advancement in the technology offers huge environmental benefits. We feel sure our customers appreciate this commitment to cleaner technologies.”
The new Benefitz SwissQ Nyala 4S will print (up to 3.2 metres wide) using LED curing technology. LED curing is cooler, having neither a warm-up nor a cool-down time. As well as having the eight colour (plus extra) print capability, it has an addressable resolution up to 1080 dpi and a visual resolution up to 2160 dpi. It also has an added feature called ‘droptix’. This means that print items can be enhanced with 3D effects.
Benefitz operates 12 different machines in the large and grand format printing space with the biggest capable of printing up to five metres wide and virtually any length. The company recently printed all the big images for the Michelangelo exhibition held in Auckland with one print being 19.8 metres long by 4.6 metres wide. This big image print capability is complemented by a range of print finishing machinery as well as signage, digital printing, offset printing and design services.
Benefitz Parkway Drive manufacturing plant is powered by solar energy. With the move to new premises in 2020 Benefitz installed a significant solar energy system capable of powering the entire business. It is one of the biggest in the country.
“We are looking forward to the new SwissQ arriving during March and April and getting it into production,” adds Rob Gunston. “We feel sure our customers will enjoy all the advantages that it will provide and it will bring in new business as well.”
Benefitz plays a part in BEST Awards Gold!
The Benefitz team is thrilled that a project we were involved in manufacturing won Gold at the recent BEST Awards. The project was titled 'Tū Ana Ngā Pou Angitu’ designed by Benjamin Thomason and Angie Frires of Wai Creative for Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency.
Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency approached WaiCreative to design and create some contemporary Māori art pieces for their 2021 Hui. The brief was wide, to reflect their kawa and kaupapa of the hui in a contemporary sense. They worked closely together to ensure the designs properly reflected the concepts behind Te Kawa o Whānau Ora. Further development saw a deeper link to Te Ao Māori by creating six different Pou, each designed to reflect the six different uara or values.
From their wonderful designs, Benefitz was commissioned to created six different Pou, with a brief that they wanted them illuminated and they needed to be self-standing.
An initial prototype was made. With one of the images the Benefitz team router cut different thicknesses of acrylic at various depths. We then applied a light source to see which one gave us the best light refraction. The desire of the client was also to change the colour and control each Pou individually so we sourced wifi RGB strip LED’s. We created a housing to stop the light spilling from the outside edges with aluminium ‘U' channel and seated with rubber beading. A weighted base was created to house electrical components. The base was wrapped in vinyl along with the aluminium channel edging.
Once approved all six of the Pou were created. Cases were also made so the Pou could be transported.
Great work here from Benefitz Account Manager Paul Barratt and Rob Brind of the Benefitz sign fabrication team who took the brief and came up with the solution, including the LED lighting.
