Hobsonville is a suburb in West Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. Historically a rural settlement, Hobsonville has now developed into a suburb of Auckland.
Hobsonville was one of the earliest European settlements in the area and became a large part of the early pottery industry in New Zealand. Hobsonville later served as a Royal New Zealand Air Force base from 1929 to 2001. Following the closure of the air base a plan for a large scale residential development was undertaken by the Housing Ministry.
Hobsonville is bounded by Whenuapai to the northwest, West Harbour to the west, with the rest of the area bounded by the Waitematā Harbour. The Upper Harbour Bridge connects Hobsonville with Greenhithe.
Geography
The boundaries of Hobsonville with the neighbouring Whenuapai and West Harbour are not defined. Early maps of the area show Hobsonville to cover the entire peninsula. The Hobsonville peninsula rises to less than above sea level. Most of the soil is allophanic. Felton Mathew described Hobsonville in June 1840 as:
History Pre-European Archaeological evidence points to periodic and seasonal occupation of the peninsula by Maori between the 17th and early 19th century. No evidence exists to suggest any permanent settlement of the Hobsonville area. Maori archaeological sites are exclusively located around the coastline, reflecting the importance of the Upper Waitemata Harbour in providing seafood. The poor soil quality around the Wallace and Waiarohia inlets prevented permanent settlement until after European farming techniques were able to improve the soil quality.
Settlement and pottery works
Hobsonville was named after the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson. After landing by sea at the site in June 1840, Hobson thought it suitable as the seat of Government for New Zealand but later rejected this on the advice of the Surveyor-General of New Zealand, Felton Mathew. Hobsonville was acquired by The Crown in 1853 as part of the Waipareira block. An 1854 hydrographical chart refers to it as being fern land. In 1886 Hobsonville had a post office open. In 1908 it was large enough to become a town district within Waitemata County and in the following year it became a town district, but by 1913 it had been dissolved.
The first European settler of the area, Rice Owen Clark, bought land in 1854. As the ground was too moist for farming due to the poor permeability of the soil, Clark developed tiles from the clay to drain his property to enable farming. Other settlers paid Clark to make tiles for their properties and Clark moved from agriculture to pottery as this was more lucrative, later establishing a large pottery work at Limeburner's Bay. In 1867 there were two pottery works in Hobsonville. Steam power was first used at the Carder brothers' Waitemata Pottery at Scott Point. Under Clark's son, Rice Owen Clark II, the pottery works would expand and become the largest in the southern hemisphere through foreshore reclamation and introduction of steam power. Attempts to expand the market for ceramics resulted in the construction of Clark House, which was constructed with hollow ceramic blocks. Several other buildings were built with this method—mostly in Hobsonville—but it never became widely adopted and was eventually abandoned. Another attempt resulted in one of the earliest buildings to use concrete in the Auckland region: a duplex constructed from lime concrete that used pottery and clinker as an aggregate. The church cemetery also contains graves constructed with ceramics.
By 1885 Clark's ceramic works produced 60,000 bricks a week and by the 20th century Clark's business was the largest producer of pottery and ceramics in the Auckland area.
Other pottery works in the area include: Joshua Carder's, Carder was a potter from Staffordshire and set up works in late 1863; Robert Holland's, Holland set up at Limeburners Bay in 1904 but was bought out by Clark 5 years later; and Ockleston's in 1903 at the Waiarohia inlet, Ockleston's was bought around the same time as Holland's by Clark and was the only pottery works not located around the southern part of the Hobsonville peninsula; Some goods at Hobsonville were shipped as far as Napier, Thames, and Waipukerau district.
Much of the land however was not built upon during this time. In 1929 the clayworks closed, as the cost of transporting the dwindling clay resources from the area became too high. During the Great Depression, the West Auckland clay industries amalgamated, and were centralised at New Lynn. These pottery works formed the Amalgamated Brick and Pipe Company that later became Ceramco.
Remnants of the pottery works such as old broken pieces of pottery still exist along the shore around Limeburners Bay. The influence of the industry is also evident through local feature names such as Limeburners and Brickbat Bays and Pottery Creek.
RNZAF
Henry Clark sold of land in Hobsonville to the New Zealand Permanent Air Force in November 1925. The land sold was farmland and featured a few buildings. By 1929 the base had an office, control hut, boat shed, hangar, jetty and slipway, and several houses for airmen. The Hobsonville airbase also had a pigeon loft as they used carrier pigeons in the aircraft before obtaining wireless equipment later.
Hobsonville still has many historical buildings from the 1920s and 1930s relating to the airfield, including officers' residences, barracks, and hangars which were used to house seaplanes and helicopters. In 1937 the New Zealand Permanent Air Force became the Royal New Zealand Air Force. The Cochrane Report led to Hobsonville becoming a seaplane station, with Whenuapai and Ohakea taking non-seaplanes. Munitions were stored at Bomb Bay, becoming the area now known as Bomb Point.
From September 1938 a register of potential tradesmen and groundstaff for any necessary expansion of the RNZAF was begun. "The Munich crisis made it appear that war might break out at any time, and the scheme was put into effect immediately.. [t]he expansion of the RNZAF immediately before the war was so rapid that the Technical Training School at Hobsonville could not train sufficient fitters and riggers for the service."Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45, "Royal New Zealand Air Force," CHAPTER 3 — Establishment of the Royal New Zealand Air Force This led to population growth at the Hobsonville base and necessitated the development of new housing and facilities.
During the Second World War Hobsonville served as a base for testing aircraft before deployment else where in the Pacific. Following the war Hobsonville was used for technical training by the RNZAF. Seaplanes declined following the Second World War and the last seaplane flight at Hobsonville took place in 1967. The station was administratively joined with the airfield at Whenuapai in 1965 to become RNZAF Base Auckland. Since 2001 the operations based in Hobsonville began to be relocated to other bases and defence force land was marked as surplus and gradually sold off.
Redevelopment
Hobsonville was still rural throughout most of the 20th century. Towards the end of the century and into the early 21st century, Hobsonville became increasingly urbanised. Dense housing estates have been developed in recent years but there are still some rural sections left. The start of this growth occurred in 2002, with the sale of the Hobsonville Airfield to Housing New Zealand. Housing New Zealand initially planned to develop the area to have 3,000 homes. This number increased to 4,500 by 2019. The development is known as Hobsonville Point. Led by the Hobsonville Land Company (HLC) a subsidiary of Housing New Zealand, the HLC plans the layout, infrastructure, and amenities whilst private developers build the homes.
Initially plans included some state housing in the development; however, this criticised as an economic mistake by Opposition leader and MP for Helensville (which included Hobsonville at the time) John Key. After the 2008 election, following which Key would serve as prime minister, Key removed the state housing requirements and instead introduced a scheme to help first-time home buyers.
Since 2015 further development has taken place on the Hobsonville peninsula outside of the Hobsonville Point development. With most of Scott Point having been converted from rural to suburban in a decade.
Demographics Throughout the 19th century Hobsonville was a small settlement; in 1883 13 household heads were listed. In 1906 the number of household heads was 48.
Hobsonville covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2.
Hobsonville had a population of 14,025 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 8,979 people (177.9%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 12,333 people (728.9%) since the 2013 census. There were 6,690 males, 7,296 females and 39 people of other genders in 4,977 dwellings. 3.3% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 34.5 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 3,153 people (22.5%) aged under 15 years, 2,205 (15.7%) aged 15 to 29, 7,134 (50.9%) aged 30 to 64, and 1,533 (10.9%) aged 65 or older.
People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 55.3% European (Pākehā); 5.7% Māori; 3.7% Pasifika; 40.6% Asian; 3.7% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 2.0% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 91.1%, Māori language by 0.8%, Samoan by 0.5%, and other languages by 37.1%. No language could be spoken by 3.7% (e.g. too young to talk). New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.2%. The percentage of people born overseas was 49.2, compared with 28.8% nationally.
Religious affiliations were 28.1% Christian, 4.0% Hindu, 2.2% Islam, 0.1% Māori religious beliefs, 2.1% Buddhist, 0.2% New Age, 0.1% Jewish, and 1.2% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 57.0%, and 5.0% of people did not answer the census question.
Of those at least 15 years old, 4,017 (36.9%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 3,753 (34.5%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 1,920 (17.7%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $63,500, compared with $41,500 nationally. 2,688 people (24.7%) earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 6,918 (63.6%) people were employed full-time, 1,119 (10.3%) were part-time, and 198 (1.8%) were unemployed.
+Individual statistical areasName Area(km2) Population Density(per km2) Dwellings Median age Medianincome Hobsonville 2.90 1,827 630 612 36.8 years $52,800 Hobsonville Point Catalina Bay 1.10 3,483 3,167 1,407 35.4 years $72,400 Hobsonville Point Park 1.03 5,562 5,400 2,061 34.5 years $65,000 Hobsonville Scott Point 1.38 3,156 2,287 897 32.8 years $58,300 New Zealand 38.1 years $41,500
Economy Historically the Hobsonville economy was made up of pottery works and farming. Later during the early 20th century Hobsonville was growing grass seed and oats at commercial scale. After the end of the Second World War most of the farmland became pasture for use in agriculture. Market gardens were also common in the period following the Second World War to the urbanisation of the area around the start of the 21st century. Education Hobsonville has four schools, three primary and one secondary: Hobsonville School is a state full primary (Year 1–8) school with a roll of approximately 502 students. Hobsonville School first opened in 1875 operating out of the Hobsonville Church. In 1895 the school relocated to its current premises.