History of our area
Te Momi swamp –“A place near the (western Hutt) railway, which lies Wakefield Street and the Lower Hutt railway station.
This was the former swamp, in part originally covered with puketea forest, created by the discharge of streams from the hills at Normandale, accumulating on the flat land to form a large water-logged area. Open water collected at the lower end of the swamp to form a lagoon known to the early Pakeha settlers as the “Duck Pond”, and Moreings Creek carried the overflow to the Hutt River at the western side of Gear Island. The swamp apparently covered an area of over 30 acres.
It is widely thought that where Hutt Central School sits was the ‘food basket’ of this area.
Te Momi was called the Black Swamp by the early European settlers. The name is now spelt ‘Mome’, as in Te Mome Street, Lower Hutt.
Initially a farming settlement, Alicetown was settled from the early 1900s by workers from Petone’s factories. Situated next to the main railway and road to Wellington city, the suburb also attracted warehousing and light industry.
Maori mythology and the ancient formation of the Hutt Valley
Mythological history tells of two taniwha, Ngake and Whaitaitai who lived in Wellington Harbour when it was just a lake. The lake eventually became too small for the taniwha and they longed to escape into the ocean to the south. Ngake positioned himself on the northern edge of the lake and using his tail as a spring thrust himself towards the southern shores, smashing a passage way through to what is today known as Cooks Strait.
The force of the release of Ngake’s coiled tail carved Awakairangi – the Hutt Valley. Awakairangi – river of food from the sky. As the name suggests, the Hutt Valley was once densely forested and abundant in bird life. Seafood formed a staple part of the diet of local Maori and until the early 1940s eel, crayfish and watercress were harvested from the Waiwhetu River.
Naming the river
Early residents such as the Ngāi Tara people called the Hutt River Te Awakairangi, ‘the watercourse of greatest value’. It was navigable by canoe far inland, giving access to plentiful food. Later tribes knew it as Te Wai o Orutu, ‘the waters of Orutu’, a Ngāti Māmoe ancestor. When European settlers arrived it was known as the Heretaunga River, after the district in Hawke’s Bay.
In 1839 the Heretaunga River was renamed Hutt by William Wakefield after the founding member, director and chairman of the New Zealand Company, Sir William Hutt.
This was the former swamp, in part originally covered with puketea forest, created by the discharge of streams from the hills at Normandale, accumulating on the flat land to form a large water-logged area. Open water collected at the lower end of the swamp to form a lagoon known to the early Pakeha settlers as the “Duck Pond”, and Moreings Creek carried the overflow to the Hutt River at the western side of Gear Island. The swamp apparently covered an area of over 30 acres.
It is widely thought that where Hutt Central School sits was the ‘food basket’ of this area.
Te Momi was called the Black Swamp by the early European settlers. The name is now spelt ‘Mome’, as in Te Mome Street, Lower Hutt.
Initially a farming settlement, Alicetown was settled from the early 1900s by workers from Petone’s factories. Situated next to the main railway and road to Wellington city, the suburb also attracted warehousing and light industry.
Maori mythology and the ancient formation of the Hutt Valley
Mythological history tells of two taniwha, Ngake and Whaitaitai who lived in Wellington Harbour when it was just a lake. The lake eventually became too small for the taniwha and they longed to escape into the ocean to the south. Ngake positioned himself on the northern edge of the lake and using his tail as a spring thrust himself towards the southern shores, smashing a passage way through to what is today known as Cooks Strait.
The force of the release of Ngake’s coiled tail carved Awakairangi – the Hutt Valley. Awakairangi – river of food from the sky. As the name suggests, the Hutt Valley was once densely forested and abundant in bird life. Seafood formed a staple part of the diet of local Maori and until the early 1940s eel, crayfish and watercress were harvested from the Waiwhetu River.
Naming the river
Early residents such as the Ngāi Tara people called the Hutt River Te Awakairangi, ‘the watercourse of greatest value’. It was navigable by canoe far inland, giving access to plentiful food. Later tribes knew it as Te Wai o Orutu, ‘the waters of Orutu’, a Ngāti Māmoe ancestor. When European settlers arrived it was known as the Heretaunga River, after the district in Hawke’s Bay.
In 1839 the Heretaunga River was renamed Hutt by William Wakefield after the founding member, director and chairman of the New Zealand Company, Sir William Hutt.
