Lower Hutt - History

History

Prior to European settlement, the Hutt Valley was thickly forested, with areas of marshland close to the river's mouth. Māori inhabited the shoreline, with a pa at each end of Petone beach.

The Māori welcomed the arrival of the New Zealand Company ship Tory in 1839, and William Wakefield (the company's agent) negotiated with local chiefs to allow settlement.

The first immigrant ship, the Aurora, arrived on 22 January 1840, still celebrated every year as Wellington's Anniversary Day. The settlement, Britannia, was established close to the mouth of the Hutt River, and settlers established the country's first newspaper and bank.

The city takes its name from the river, which was named after the founding member, director and chairman of the New Zealand Company, Sir William Hutt.

Within months of settlement the river flooded, and the settlers decided to move the new colony to Thorndon, in what is now the heart of Wellington, though some settlers remained at the north end of the harbour.

In 1846 there was conflict between settlers and Māori, which led to skirmishes. In 1855 a major earthquake raised part of the lower valley, allowing land to be reclaimed from swamp.

The arrival of the railway from Wellington in 1874 and the subsequent location of the railway's engineering works at Woburn in 1929 led to a rapid expansion of the area's population and economy. Other industries were soon attracted to the district.

The present boundaries of the local body have evolved from a series of amalgamations and boundary changes over the years.

The Hutt County Council was established in 1877 and covered the region from Wellington’s south coast up to Waikanae, excluding Wellington City Council area. As the region grew, urban parts of the Hutt county became autonomous boroughs: Petone in 1888, Lower Hutt in 1891, Eastbourne in 1906, Johnsonville in 1908, Upper Hutt in 1908, Porirua in 1962 and Kapiti in 1974.

In 1941 Lower Hutt became a city and was joined by Normandale in 1957.
In 1987-89 the Government forced local authorities to consolidate, which led to Lower Hutt amalgamating with the adjacent Boroughs of Petone and Eastbourne and the Wainuiomata District (which had its own independence for barely a year) and the abolition of the Hutt County Council.