The New North Road area has been settled by
Tāmaki Māori since the archaic period of
Māori history. Traditional stories involve many of the lava caves located around the former swampland of
Kingsland, known as Ngā Anawai, and the lava caves of
Ōwairaka / Mount Albert. During the early 18th century, the
Auckland isthmus was heavily populated by the
Waiohua confederation of tribes. Ōwairaka / Mount Albert was the western-most hill-top
pā of Waiohua and had extensive terraces and cultivations, although not as many as
Maungakiekie or
Maungawhau to the east. After a conflict between Waiohua and
Ngāti Whātua in the mid-18th century, the New North Road area became part of the
rohe of Ngāti Whātua. As Ngāti Whātua had a much smaller population than the Waiohua and preferred to live near the coast, much of the inland area fell into disuse. On 29 June 1841, the
Mount Albert area was sold to the
Crown by Ngāti Whātua, as a part of a 12,000 acre section. The terrain of the area was rough, meaning the area saw slower development compared to other parts of the Auckland isthmus. The modern road began life as a rough track in the 1850s, known as the Whau Road. In December 1853, a survey was commissioned to build the route, however by January 1854 the proposed route was scrapped, due to opponents of the scheme highlighting that the allocated funds for the programme could only be spent on road construction, when land also needed to be purchased from early
Mount Albert landowners
Allan Kerr Taylor and George Bray. By 1855, Auckland settlers petitioned the
Auckland Provincial Council for funding, as many properties had no road access, limiting growth in the area. In May 1864, a meeting was held at Whau School (modern Avondale Primary School) to discuss the creation of a new
Great North Road (then the major route west from Auckland township), to address the issues caused by a lack of roading. By September 1864, the treasurer of the Auckland Province announced that the Whau Road Extension was surveyed, and due for construction. In 1865, allotments for the new village of
Morningside were sold. In October 1866, the Mt Albert District Highway Board was formed, to collect rates to administer and develop New North Road. Tensions formed between two groups of ratepayers in the highway district: the city-side ratepayers at Eden Terrace, and the mountain-side ratepayers in the rural west, with the former believing that they paid too high rates for a road that "led nowhere". In June 1875, the Eden Terrace Highway Board was formed, splitting the city-side area of the road from the rural. The New North Road corridor grew as a suburban area between the 1900s and the 1930s, due to the
Auckland tramlines. The tramline opened at
Kingsland in 1903, followed by
Morningside in 1912,
Mount Albert in 1915 and eventually
Owairaka in 1936. In the 1950s, New North Road north-east of Kingsland was transformed into an industrial and commercial area. During this period,
Dominion Road was proposed as a site for a new motorway. While the motorway never progressed, a large flyover interchange was constructed at the intersection of Dominion Road and New North Road in the early 1960s, which removed extensive areas of housing and commercial buildings. ==Notable locations==