Explore Your Heritage
The Hutt Valley was one of the first areas of organised European settlement in New Zealand. Prior to this it had been a land desired and contested by various waves of Māori settlers.
Its heritage is thus rich and, in part, well documented. This page provides glimpses of this heritage and an outline of resources in the Libraries you can call on to research local history or your own family history.
Web Links
To browse or search for historical photos try Matapihi
- search on ‘hutt’ or ‘lower hutt’ or a local name (eg. 'petone') for hundreds of fascinating images.
A few other sources you might like to dip into:
Matiu-Somes Island Māori history pamphlet.
Waitangi Tribunal report excerpt on Te Whanganui-a-Tara. (wai 145, ch.2)
Te Āti Awa of Wellington (Te Āti Awa history from Te Ara encyclopedia)
Arohanui ki te tangata (Opening of wharenui at Waiwhetu 1960: Te Ao Hou magazine)
New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser 1842-43 (One of the first early settlers newspapers for the Wellington area)
NZ Gazette / NZ Spectator & Cook Strait Guardian 1840-1865 (A newspaper that conveys the business & political struggle of the early Wellington colony)
Water Treatment & Supply - brief history (WRC history of water supply to city)
The 1855 Wairarapa Earthquake Symposium (Papers on the most significant historical local earthquake)
Christ Church Taita (NZ Historic Places Trust article)
Patrick and Adelaide Streets historic houses (Register of Historic Places entry)
Price's Folly (Register of Historic Places entry)
Balgownie (Register of Historic Places entry)
Ford Motor Company Workshop (Register of Historic Places entry)
Lower Hutt Railway Station (Register of Historic Places entry)
Discover Lower Hutt (Hutt City Council gallery of heritage sites)
The Fight at Boulcotts Farm (From James Cowan, The New Zealand Wars, Part 1, 1922 - NZ Electronic Text Centre)
Natural World section of the Community page lists some resources of historical interest.
Early New Zealand Books (Univ of Auckland) links:
Narrative of a Residence in Various Parts of NZ, Charles Heaphy, 1842 (Heaphy’s first sight of the Hutt Valley)
Narrative of a Residence in Various parts of NZ, Charles Heaphy, 1842 (Early description of the Hutt Valley)
Travels in NZ, ‘Excursion into the Valley of the Eritonga’ Ernest Diefffenbach, 1843 (Dieffenbach’s first view of the river & forest of the Hutt Valley)