Early history The Botany Downs area is part of the
rohe of
Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, who descend from the crew of the
Tainui migratory waka, who visited the area around the year 1300. Ōwairoa is the traditional name used to describe the swampy inland areas away from the coast. The wider area was extensively cultivated, but as the area was relatively exposed, two fortified
pā were constructed: Paparoa Pā at the south-eastern end of
Waipaparoa / Howick Beach, and Tūwakamana Pā above
Cockle Bay. During the
Musket Wars in the 1820s, Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki sought temporary refuge in the
Waikato. When English missionary
William Thomas Fairburn visited the area in 1833, it was mostly unoccupied. In 1836, William Thomas Fairburn brokered a land sale between Tāmaki Māori chiefs covering the majority of modern-day
South Auckland,
East Auckland and the
Pōhutukawa Coast. The sale was envisioned as a way to end hostilities in the area, but it is unclear what the chiefs understood or consented to. Māori continued to live in the area, unchanged by this sale. In 1854 when Fairburn's purchase was investigated by the
New Zealand Land Commission, a Ngāi Tai reserve was created around the
Wairoa River and
Umupuia areas, and as a part of the agreement, members of Ngāi Tai agreed to leave their traditional settlements to the west. The area was developed into suburban housing in the mid-1970s, and Botany Downs Primary School opened in 1975. The school decided to name itself after Carr's former farm, a fact that displeased Carr. and in 1989 a new bridge on Botany Road was constructed over the Botany Creek. In the year 2000, a 153 unit condominium development called Sacramento was constructed in Botany Downs. The development was part of the
leaky homes crisis, and led to a multi-million dollar lawsuit by the occupants. ==Demographics==