Early Māori history The Auckland area was an early location visited by many of the
Māori migration canoes, including the
Matahourua,
Aotea,
Mātaatua,
Tainui,
Tākitimu,
Tokomaru,
Te Wakatūwhenua and
Moekākara waka. The crossing of the
Tainui waka is memorialised in the name of
Ngarango Otainui Island in the
Māngere Inlet, where the wooden skids used to haul the waka were left after the trip was made, and other waka including the
Matahourua,
Aotea,
Mātaatua and
Tokomaru all have traditional stories associated with the portage. The
Papakura portage connected the Manukau Harbour at Papakura in the west to the
Wairoa River in the east, likely along the path of the Old Wairoa Road, Settlements in the area were based on what resources were available seasonally, such as Manukau Harbour fish and shellfish. In the 15th century, Tāmaki Māori people created extensive garden sites at
Ihumātao,
Wiri and the slopes of
Māngere Mountain. These garden sites used Polynesian agricultural techniques and traditions, with the stone walls acting acted as boundaries, windbreaks and drainage systems for the crops grown in the area, which included
kūmara (sweet potato), hue (
calabash gourds),
taro,
uwhi (ube yam),
tī pore (Pacific cabbage tree) and
aute (the paper mulberry tree). The environment-modifying techniques used in the Ōtuataua Stonefields allowed early Tāmaki Māori to propagate crops which were not suited to a cooler climate. A number of early
Tāmaki Māori iwi and
hapū are associated with South Auckland.
Ngā Oho was used as a unifying name for Tāmaki Māori who descended from the
Tainui and
Te Arawa migratory waka. Descendants of Tāhuhunui-o-te-rangi, captain of the
Moekākara waka, settled around
Ōtāhuhu and adopted the name
Ngāi Tāhuhu, Over time, Ngā Riki emerged as a group who settled between Ōtāhuhu and
Papakura, and Ngā Oho was used to describe the people who lived around Papakura. Many of the volcanic features of South Auckland became fortified
pā sites for Tāmaki Māori, notably
Māngere Mountain,
Matukutūruru,
Matukutūreia and
Pukekiwiriki. There are few pā sites inland from the coasts, due to the flat land being unsuitable for fortified sites. The pā is known by the name Te Pā-o-te-tū-tahi-atu, a name that describes the pā as temporary, due to the surrounding flat landscape not being ideal for fortifications. In the early 17th century, the area became a part of the
rohe of
Te Kawerau ā Maki.
Waiohua was an important
pā site for
Waiohua and
Ngāti Whātua In the 17th century, three major tribes of Tāmaki Makaurau, Ngā Iwi, Ngā Oho and Ngā Riki, joined to form the
Waiohua under the
rangatira Huakaiwaka. The union lasted for three generations, and was centred around the
pā of
Maungawhau and later
Maungakiekie on the
Auckland isthmus. Other Tāmaki Māori groups such as Ngāi Tāhuhu were considered either allies of Waiohua, or hapū within the union.
Māngere Mountain / Te Pane-o-Mataaho / Te Ara Pueru was a major
pā for the
Waiohua, a confederacy of
Tāmaki Māori iwi. Paramount chief
Kiwi Tāmaki stayed at Māngere seasonally, when it was the time of year to hunt sharks in the Manukau Harbour. To the south, the twin peaks of
Matukutūreia and
Matukutūruru were home to the Ngāi Huatau hapū of Waiohua, Around the year 1740, a conflict between
Ngāti Whātua and Waiohua led to the death of paramount chief
Kiwi Tāmaki, who became the major occupants of the
Tāmaki isthmus and
Māngere. Māngere-Onehunga was the main residence of Auckland-based Ngāti Whātua until the 1840s. The Fairburn Purchase was criticised for the sheer size of the purchase, and in 1842 the
Crown significantly reduced the size of his land holdings, and the Crown partitioned much of the land for European settlers. inviting Lieutenant-Governor
William Hobson to settle in Auckland, hoping this would protect the land and people living in Tāmaki Makaurau. In the winter of 1840, Ngāti Whātua moved the majority of the iwi to the
Waitematā Harbour, with most iwi members resettling to the
Remuera-
Ōrākei area, closer to the new European settlement at
Waihorotiu (modern-day
Auckland City Centre). A smaller Ngāti Whātua presence remained at Māngere-Onehunga. In 1846, the
Wesleyan Methodist Church established a mission at the foot of
Maungataketake, near Ihumātao. The following year, Governor
George Grey established the village of
Ōtāhuhu. The village was created as a way to protect the township of Auckland, and was settled by retired British soldiers of the
Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps. Papakura was established in the late 1840s by a small group of settler families. The South Auckland area flourished in the 1850s, when Manukau Harbour and Waikato tribes produced goods to sell or barter at the port of
Onehunga, In April 1851, the
Tāmaki Bridge was constructed along the
Great South Road, spurring growth in the
Papatoetoe area. and in 1862 one of the first tramways in New Zealand was constructed to transport coal from the mine to the Manukau Harbour.
Invasion of the Waikato in 1863 In 1861, Governor
George Grey ordered the construction of the Great South Road further into the Waikato, due to fears of potential invasion of
Waikato Tainui. On 9 July 1863, due to fears of the Māori King Movement, Governor Grey proclaimed that all Māori living in the South Auckland area needed to swear loyalty to the Queen and give up their weapons. Most people refused due to strong links to Tainui, leaving for the south before the Government's
Invasion of the Waikato. Small numbers of people remained, in order to tend to their farms and for
ahi kā (land rights through continued occupation). Early skirmishes between the Crown and Kīngitanga forces happened in the forested land around Drury and
Pukekohe areas, including the
Defence of Pukekohe East in September 1863. After the war, the Crown confiscated 1.2 million acres of Māori land around the
Waikato, including Waiohua land in South Auckland. The former residents of the Manukau Harbour began returning to the area in 1866, with the
Native Compensation Court returning small portions of land in 1867. and leading to development along this corridor. The township of Woodside in modern-day
Wiri dwindled in importance after the railway opened, slowly being overtaken by neighbouring
Manurewa. Much of South Auckland was known for wheat production, until the 1880s when dairy farming became popular. Between the 1920s and 1940s, significant portions of South Auckland were used for Chinese-owned and operated market gardens. In 1911, the first controlled powered flight in New Zealand took place in
Takanini. The flight took place inside a single paddock within the racecourse of the now-defunct Papakura Racing Club. The flight was piloted by
Vivian Walsh and was carried out in a
Howard Wright 1910 Biplane, the parts for which were imported from England in 1910 and assembled by members of the Auckland Aeroplane Syndicate. During the 1920s, Papatoetoe and Manurewa became some of the fastest growing areas of Auckland. During
World War II, the
Papakura Military Camp was established as an important base for the
New Zealand Army. Areas of Papatoetoe and Manurewa were used as military camps for the
United States Army.
Middlemore Hospital opened in 1947, originally intended to be a temporary military hospital. In the 1950s, Chinese New Zealand gardeners
Fay Gock and
Joe Gock began cultivating
kūmara (sweet potatoes) at their farm beside
Pukaki Creek, using plants donated to them by their neighbours at Pūkaki Marae. The Gocks developed a disease-resistant variety of kūmara that became the modern Owairaka Red variety.
Suburban development and
Māngere (pictured) The development of the
Auckland Southern Motorway in the mid-1950s led to an explosion in the population of Papatoetoe and Manurewa. In 1960, the Manukau Sewage Purification Works (now Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant) was opened in the Manukau Harbour, using algae-based oxidation ponds, around
Puketutu Island. and the volcanic scoria of
Maungataketake and Puketutu Island was quarried for construction material. South Auckland's demographics rapidly changed from the 1950s to the 1970s. Between the 1940s and 1960s, Māori living in rural areas were encouraged to move to cities by the
Māori Affairs Department, in order to create a larger industrial labour force.
Urban Māori populations first settled in the inner suburbs of Auckland and areas close to factories; often areas with poor housing. To counter overcrowding in the central suburbs, the New Zealand Government undertook large scale state housing developments, creating planned suburbs in
Ōtara and
Māngere in the 1970s, and adding large areas of state housing around Manurewa and Papatoetoe. In 1965,
Manukau City was formed by the amalgamation of the
Manurewa Borough and Manukau County. The new city decided to create a new commercial and administrative centre, leading to the development of
Manukau in a previously rural area between Manurewa and Papatoetoe. After the construction of Manukau, South Auckland from Ōtāhuhu to Papakura became a continuous part of the urban sprawl of Auckland. Construction was halted by May 1978, when workers organised a
labour strike over insufficient redundancy payments. The partially constructed bridge was picketed for a period of two and a half years, becoming the longest continuous labour strike in the history of New Zealand. The
Auckland Botanic Gardens opened in Manurewa in 1982, In the 1989 local government reforms, Manukau, Papatoetoe and
Howick in
East Auckland amalgamated into the Manukau City, and in 2010 all areas of the
Auckland Region were merged into a single unitary body, administered by
Auckland Council. Between 2016 and 2020,
Ihumātao was occupied by protesters, who were concerned at the construction of a housing development on the archaeological site, and called for the land to be returned to
mana whenua. In late 2020, the
New Zealand Government purchased the site, with no decision being made on the future of the land. Areas south of Papakura began developing into new suburban housing in the late 2010s. The first of these was
Paerata Rise north of Pukekohe, joined by
Auranga, an area of coastal
Karaka. A major development is planned for the Drury-
Ōpaheke area, to be developed in stages from the 2020s through to the 2050s. Three new train stations will be constructed in the area between Papakura and Pukekohe. In the 2010s, a
light rail line was proposed to link the
Auckland City Centre to Māngere. In the 2040s, the Auckland Council plans to create a new regional park on Puketutu Island. Much of the island was quarried in the 1950s, and is slowly being refilled with biosolids. At the end of this process, the quarried peaks will be reformed. ==Demographics==