Māori history pā overlooking the
Waitematā Harbour and close to an important shark fishery Māori settlement of the
Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries. The North Shore was settled by
Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the
Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū. Many of the early Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as
Ngā Oho.
Boat Rock (, "The Rat's Tooth") in the Waitematā Harbour southwest of Birkenhead was a location of great significance to Tāmaki Māori. The rock was the location where
Te Arawa chief
Kahumatamomoe placed a mauri stone (a stone of religious significance), naming the Waitematā ("The Waters of the Stone") after the mauri stone. The warrior Maki migrated from the
Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the
Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as
Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore. After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new
hapū. His younger son Maraeariki settled the
North Shore and
Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the
Ōrewa River. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is the namesake of the North Shore, ("The Greater Lands of Kahu"). Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including
Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha,
Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and
Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu. The poor clay soils of the inland forest of the hindered development. Most Māori settlements of the Birkenhead area focused on fishing and harvesting food from the forests. The focal point of Te Kawerau ā Maki on the North Shore was ("The Brow of Mana"), a headland
pā at Kauri Point in modern-day
Chatswood, and ("Wind Shelter"), the
kāinga below the cliffs at Kendall Bay. was named after the ancestor Manaoterangi, who was the rangatira of the pā in the mid-18th century, including important rangatira such as
Kiwi Tāmaki and later Tarahawaiki. By the early 19th century, the eastern headlands the
Upper Waitematā Harbour, including along
Oruamo or Hellyers Creek were some of the most densely settled areas of the North Shore by Tāmaki Māori. Oruamo or Hellyers Creek was an important transportation node for the North Shore area. and were raided and destroyed in a night raid around the year 1823. The de Jersey Grut family established a farm and manor near Duck Creek in the 1850s, but struggled to establish a farm. The poor soil led to starvation, and the servants needing to share food with the de Jersey Grut family members, and cattle would often wander off into the bush. The de Jersey Grut family left in 1865, and had their house shipped to
Orewa. Henry James Hawkins, established a fruit orchard in the Birkenhead area in the 1850s. Despite the poor clay soil, Hawkins became a famed horticulturalist, winning prizes for crops such as apples, plums, peas, gooseberries, strawberries. Fruit became a major industry for Birkenhead from the 1860s, notably apples, pears, and two varieties of strawberry, Marguerite and Duke of Edinburgh, which flourished well in clay soils. Birkenhead was subdivided and promoted as a township from 1863, alongside other settlements such as Allandale and Balmain (neither of which eventuated). Residents of the village survived through subsistence farming, and profited from bountiful seasonal strawberry crops. In 1879, William Francis Hammond bought at Birkenhead Point, establishing Raven Hill estate, followed by Charles E. Button who established a second grand house at Birkenhead Point in 1883. Hammond, the son of a London auctioneer, was a keen promoter of Birkenhead, surveying the area and promoting Birkenhead subdivisions and estates at auctions, and constructing a bridge across
Little Shoal Bay, better connecting the community to Northcote. Lake Road, connecting Northcote and Birkenhead, was significantly improved in the 1870s, helping development in Birkenhead. This was aided further by the
Auckland Harbour Board constructed a wharf in 1882, which was followed by a post office in 1884. The new wharf allowed orchardists in Birkenhead to better transport produce to the Auckland market, further helped by larger orchardists building their own jetties on Oruamo or Hellyers Creek in the north. In 1886, the Birkenhead and Northcote Fruitgrowing Association was formed. By the 1880s, itinerant
gum diggers roamed Birkenhead, searching for
kauri gum. Birkenhead residents loathed the gum diggers, who would often destroy roads, orchards and farms in order to locate kauri gum. In response, the
Waitemata County Council lobbied the Crown to allow the country more direct control over the gum digging industry.
Chelsea Sugar Refinery and Birkenhead Borough in 1885 In 1881, the Australasian
Colonial Sugar Refining Company chose Birkenhead for the site of a new sugar refining factory, after founder
Edward Knox visited Auckland. The refinery was chosen due to Auckland's relative proximity to the sugarcane plantations of
Fiji, and south-eastern Birkenhead was chosen as it was one of the few deep water anchorages of the Waitematā Harbour, and due to its proximity to the fresh water Duck Creek. the gardens featured a wide range of exotic edible plants and palm trees, becoming a well-known tourist spot. In the following year, theatre company manager
Henry John Hayward, who lived at Birkenhead, began showing films at Foresters Hall in 1912. Birkenhead became the second suburb of Auckland to have a cinema, and by the 1920s the Foresters Hall had become a major attraction for people across Auckland to attend dances and film showings. By 1913, Birkenhead had grown to have 12 stores (compared to 42 in Devonport), including the 1913 Hellaby's butchery, the first building with a tiled ceiling constructed in Australasia. An increased population led to plans for a new school to open in 1914 on a portion of Edward Skeate's Highbury estate, but plans for a school were delayed until 1919, due to the outbreak of
World War I. 261 men and boys from Birkenhead served in the war. This greatly affected the community, which was further impacted by the
1918 flu pandemic. Highbury developed more commercial and residential housing in the 1920s, and was the location of the Birkenhead Borough Chambers. A small state housing area was constructed at Hammond Place, and in the mid-1970s the Highbury Bypass was constructed, linking Mokoia Road to Onewa Road, without the need to drive through Highbury. In 1997 after expansions, the mall was renamed Birkenhead Shopping Centre, and later renamed to Highbury Shopping Centre in the mid-2000s. In November 2010, the suburb was included into the North Shore ward, one of the thirteen administrative divisions of the newly-formed
Auckland Council. Under the council, Birkenhead is part of the
Kaipātiki Local Board Area. ==Demographics==