7 minute read
Welcome
from Settling In Franklin
by Times Media
Welcome to the district
Congratulations on choosing to live in beautiful Franklin district where residents enjoy a wealth of lifestyle options and are part of a friendly, vibrant community with a mix of fine man-made facilities and stunning natural heritage.
From its public amenities and facilities for many different interests through to its rural and waterfront playgrounds, the district provides good reasons to make it home.
Embracing land reaching from the Awhitu Peninsula in the west to Hunua and Umupuia/Duders Beach in the east, Franklin is bounded by rural landscapes and beaches.
To the south lies Waikato, and Hamilton city, just 50 minutes away from the top of the Bombay Hills, which are regarded as the gateway to Auckland city in the north.
Franklin’s horticultural and farming roots still dominate today. Early Maori and colonial history is well documented with the Karaka Museum, Glenbrook Railway and Tuakau & District Museum also providing insights to the past.
With the motorway running through the centre of Franklin, access to the north and south is effortless. Recent and ongoing redevelopment of transport links include widening of the Southern Motorway between Takanini and Papakura and the building of a walkway from Drury to Takanini. The motorway is now being widened to three lanes between Papakura and Drury and electrification of the railway line between Pukekohe and Papakura is to start shortly.
While the area enjoys country quietude, Franklin is growing fast with many new subdivisions. New residents are encouraged to visit information and community centres.
Do take advantage of local restaurants – you’ll find plenty to titivate the palate. Visit local markets and make the effort to take part in community events such as local agricultural and pastoral days, vintage shows and sports days.
Most of all just enjoy your new home – you are living in a wonderful part of New Zealand!
Emergencies Police, Fire, Ambulance �������������� 111 Alcohol and Drug Helpline �������������� 0800 787 797 Citizens Advice Bureau ����������������� 0800 367 222 Civil Defence ������������������������ 0800 222 200 Coastguard Auckland ������������������� 09 303 4303 If no reply, phone Police Counties Care A&M (Papakura) ����������� 09 299 9380 Electric Power Lines Down (Counties Power) 0800 100 202 Gas Leaks/Broken Mains (Vector) �������� 0800 764 764 Healthline ��������������������������� 0800 611 116 Hospitals Franklin Memorial Hospital �������������� 09 235 9284 Pukekohe Hospital ������������������� 09 237 0600 Kidz First Children’s Hospital ������������ 09 276 0000 Manukau Superclinic ������������������ 09 277 1660 Middlemore Hospital ����������������� 09 276 0000 Kidsline ����������������������������� 0800 543 754 Lifeline 24 Hr Counselling �������������� 0800 543 354 MPI Animal Welfare Complaints ��������� 0800 008 333
Pest & Disease Hotline (Animal & Plant) 0800 809 966 Noise Control 24 hr service ��������������� 09 301 0101 Plunketline Free Parent Helpline ���������� 0800 933 922 Poisons & Hazardous Chemicals 24 hr service 0800 764 766 Police – Highway Patrol Pokeno ����������� 09 233 6354 – Pukekohe Police Station ���������� 09 237 1700 – Community Constable Tuakau ������ 09 236 7300 – Community Constable Waiuku ����� 09 236 5020 Pukekohe Business Association ����������� 09 910 0137 Pukekohe Family Health Centre ����������� 09 237 0280 SPCA – Mangere ����������������������� 09 256 7300 Watercare (Faults & Emergencies Press 1) ���� 09 442 2222 Womens & Childrens Refuge Crisis Line ��� 0800 733 843 Victim Support ���������������������� 0800 842 846 Useful websites: Auckland Council �������� www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz Citizens Advice Bureau ��������������� www.cab.org.nz Civil Defence ���������������www.civildefence.govt.nz Metservice �������������������� www.metservice.com Neighbourhood Support ������������������������� ������������������ www.neighbourhoodsupport.co.nz New Zealand Immigration �����www.immigration.govt.nz Police ������������������������� www.police.govt.nz Pukekohe Business Association ��� www.pukekohe.org.nz Victim Support ������������ www.victimsupport.org.nz
Living Local, Selling Local Your Franklin Specialist
Selling Franklin One Letterbox at a Time!
Port Realty Ltd Licensed Agent REA 2008 24 Seddon Street, Pukekohe
Pukekohe – a frontier township, ca 1885.
Photo Auckland Library Heritage Collections Footprints 02371
Region grows in prosperity
Aucklanders have seen the light – Pukekohe and the surrounding Franklin district (part of the SuperCity) offer a wonderful lifestyle yet are still within cooee of Auckland’s CBD.
New housing developments have mushroomed from Drury through Paerata to Pukekohe as well as to the northwest around Karaka, Kingseat and Patumahoe then out to Glenbrook and Waiuku while both Pokeno and Tuakau in the south continue to burgeon.
Although growing rapidly, Franklin is by no means a new settlement. In fact, it has a rich Maori and European history. Proximity to the Manukau Harbour and two portages, one between the Manukau and the Tamaki River and the other between the Waiuku arm, Awaroa River and the Waikato River, were once major factors in the development of the area for both Maori and, later, colonial settlers.
The closeness of the Karaka shore to Weymouth, across a narrow part of the harbour’s tidal arm, meant that it was once a well-used waterway.
In addition to the land’s cultural and economic value to tangata whenua, the area has long been in agricultural and horticultural use and land around Pukekohe still has concentrated areas of market gardening.
Paerata was principally associated with the railway, dairying and Wesley College where Paerata Rise, a new estate of 5000 houses is now well underway. The first homes opened there in 2018.
Close to the Southern Motorway, Drury’s development was a colonial settlement focused on the Great South Road, accommodation and rural services. There, too, the new Auranga housing estate is progressing.
The first immigrant farmers arrived in the early 1840s but before that, the region was occupied by Maori tribes. The tangata whenua of the area and Maori occupation dates back centuries with hapu able to trace their whakapapa back to the Tainui waka.
For many years, the Karaka, Pukekohe and
Memorial at Alexandra Redoubt
Opaheke landscape was one of wetlands, creeks and bush supplying natural resources to tangata whenua. Scattered throughout the region were papakainga (settlements), urupa (burial grounds) and vast areas of cultivation with foot tracks skirting swamps e.g. from Maketu to Paparata; Tuamata to Tuakau.
Official records and accounts by church missionaries and kaumatua confirm that the tangata whenua living around Pukekohe were the land barons until the mid-19th century when new settlers began to put down roots.
European crops, fruit and livestock rearing were added to the established freshwater and saltwater fishing industry. Dressed and undressed flax were other commodities. Trade between iwi and settlers was brisk and relations good until disputes about land ownership and possession created a crisis that would not be resolved
The district did not escape the conflicts of the 19th century. There was the musket war period of 1807-1843 and the land wars of the mid 1800s during which a major battle was fought at Pukekohe East in 1863.
When tensions increased throughout the district, much of the Pukekohe area was abandoned apart from military outposts. Growth didn’t re-occur until some years later.
There is so much more to recount about the district’s past but this is not the publication to debate the rights and wrongs of our forebears. Rather it is hoped this snapshot of early times will prompt budding historians to probe further because, indeed, there is some fascinating reading to be had for those keen to delve into the past.
It should also be mentioned that Franklin was initially a New Zealand territorial authority lying between the Auckland metropolitan area and the Waikato Plains.
It was abolished as a formal territory on October 31, 2010 and divided between Auckland Council in the Auckland Region and Waikato and Hauraki districts in the Waikato Region.
KEY PORTAGE
Atranquil scene on the Awaroa River, near Otaua, 1898. A dinghy is moored in the calm waters of the narrow, winding stream. Given the low-lying nature of the land, the trees along the banks are probably moisture-loving kahikatea.
The Awaroa River was an important link for Maori travellers in the portage between the Waikato River and the Manukau Harbour. It continued in use after European settlement began, and a village called Purapura, or Pura Pura, flourished near the watershed of the Awaroa during the late 1850s, linked to Waiuku by a welltravelled cart track. The portage was also used briefly for the transport of military supplies during the early stages of the Waikato War, but after the war, it fell into disuse because of the development of the Great South Road as an alternative route south.
Reproduced by courtesy of Waiuku Museum Society, 149.
