Victoria Park, Auckland

Victoria Park is a park and sports ground in Auckland City, New Zealand. It lies on reclaimed bay land in Freemans Bay, a suburb directly west of the Auckland CBD. This origin of the land makes it very flat and level. However, it does not have direct connection to the foreshore anymore, as the Western Reclamation and the Viaduct Basin quarter lie between it and the Waitemata Harbour.

It is surrounded by London plane trees on all sides (planted in 1905 for the opening of the park),^[1] which provide an oval frame for the sports fields in the middle. However, urban expansion and traffic needs have not fully bypassed the park, and it is bordered by some of the busier Auckland arterials on the north (Fanshaw Street) and south (Victoria Street), as well as having State Highway 1 pass overhead on a four-lane viaduct in the western part of the park.

Major close-by attractions are the Victoria Park Market, an old rubbish incinerator (once known as the Destructor) now housing an arts & crafts market and several entertainment venues.^[2] The market was to receive a major makeover in the late 2000s, which would have seen many of the older buildings restored (and some of the smaller stores merged for larger tenancies), while the carpark on the northern end of the site was to be moved underground and apartments built in its stead.^[3] However, this project seems to have been delayed or cancelled.

The suburb also has New World Victoria Park, one of only two large supermarkets in the whole of the CBD area, while Westhaven Marina lies close by to the north.

History

The following information is mostly derived from an Auckland City timeline:^[4]

The public park was first mooted at a Council meeting in 1884, and eventually it was opened in 1905 by the mayor Arthur Myers, with the first grandstand pavillon opened a year later.

It has been the home ground of the Ponsonby Ponies rugby league club since their foundation in 1908.^[5]

Asphalt tennis courts followed in 1909, with bowling greens, croquet lawns and a playground added later. In 1907 and 1911 and 1911 the park was also extended both west and east.

In 1910 'Campbell Free Kindergarten' opens in the western part of the park, with funds from Sir John Logan Campbell and Lady Campbell. This building was later used by a sports club, and is owned by Auckland City Council, but fell into disrepair and has not had a tenant for two decades as of 2010, crumbling aways slowly. However, in June 2010 it was announced that NZTA and Council had reached an agreement whereby some Vic Park Tunnel control equipment would be housed in a refurbished building provided as a legacy feature, with a 100-people occupancy community space on the ground floor.^[6]

Victoria Park was the site if the first ever match of international rugby league played on New Zealand soil when Great Britain played against the New Zealand Maori team on 20 July as part of their first ever tour of Australasia.^[7]

During the Second World War, the park was used for accommodation of US Armed Forces and covered with temporary huts. In the early 1950s, the park escaped closure and industrial redevelopment after it was decided that the facility was of regional use and the provision of parks in the outer suburbs would not suffice to replace it.

In 1960, the kindergarten moves to Tahuna Street, with the building now occupied jointly by Grafton United Cricket Club, Ponsonby Soccer Club and the Pipe Band. The building is later abandoned (around the 1980s, with the building now (2007) derelict).

In 1962 the State Highway 1 motorway extension through the park (on an elevated roadway) becomes the first completed section of the inner city transport plan. Later plans to widen the viaduct (which by now is the narrowest part of the motorway in the Auckland area) meet resistance, as it is feared that this would further despoil the park it bisects. Currently (2007), the plan is for a tunnel to be built underneath the park to carry the additional lanes.

In 1989 Auckland City receives ownership of Victoria Park from the Auckland Harbour Board, exchanging it for stub roads used for wharf access in Viaduct Basin.

Tunnel plans

Main article: Victoria Park Tunnel

References

^ Victoria Park Trees (Figure 8) (from the Addendum 2 February 2006 of the Vic Park Tunnel project documentation, Transit New Zealand, Page 8. Accessed 2008-02-20.)
^ History (from the Victoria Park Market official website)
^ Iconic Auckland market to be revamped - NZPA via 'infonews.co.nz', Friday 06 April 2007
^ Timeline of activities at Victoria Park since the reclamation (from the Auckland City Council website, in turn adapted from Adam, 2000)
^ "Ponsonby United Rugby League Club" at aucklandleague.co.nz
^ Gibson, Anne (7 June 2010). "Old kindergarten to get new lease of life". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/local-government/news/article.cfm?c_id=250&objectid=10650215. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
^ John Coffey, Bernie Wood (2008). 100 Years: Maori Rugby League, 1908-2008. New Zealand: Huia Publishers. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-86969-331-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=nklWo8vw-iIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
^ References provided in Victoria Park Viaduct.
^ Dearnaley, Mathew (10 July 2007). "Tank Farm route for $3b tunnel (+map)". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/tank-farm-future/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501045&objectid=10450613. Retrieved 26 November 2011.