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Walks

Walks, or Site visits are arranged from time to time, these are opportunities for members to mingle, develop camaraderie, perhaps personal relations, or their business networks.

There is plenty of scope here, for Civic Trust Auckland is dedicated to various aspects of entertainment and education, in its "walks and talks" operations.

Purewa valley

Sunday 20 November 2005

Roy Clements, vice president of Civic Trust Auckland organized this walk, which was attended by the Mayor and many important others. The importance of this valley and its several reserves is described in our sub-committees section and cannot be overstated.

Photographs taken by Roy Clements show some of the activity during the day. Roy also takes parties to some of the reserves in this locality at other times, on clean up and tree planting ventures.

Epsom walk

Saturday 28 October 2006

Margaret Barriball of Civic Trust Auckland, also a member of the Eden Epsom historical Society, organized this walk for the combined organizations, which began from the Epsom community Centre, itself an interesting venue (previously the Epsom Works Depot, of which a number of photographs were taken by Munroe Graham on the day). It had been acquired initially in 1915 by the Epsom Road board, which then built the little pumping station about 1918, the staff house in 1920 and the Works Depot about 1932. It was closed as the Works Depot in 1978.

Photo's of various buildings within the Epsom Community Centre

The walk was led by Dr Graham Bush, editor of the recently published History of Epsom and continued to 3 Kohia Terrace, which opened in 1928 and was a former model country school, now Kohia Terrace School.

74 Epsom Ave was seen next. It opened in 1925. Memorial gates were dedicated in 1935. It was requisitioned during World War II. In 1966 the secondary teachers College was built and in 1976 the old brick building was demolished. The complex is now known as the Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. Part of this land is the site of Pouhawaiki volcano - but that is another story.

Nearby on Poronui Street, Auckland normal intermediate school was investigated. It had been built as normal primary in 1927 and in 1943/4 the hall and timber block was built and later, in 1945 it was opened as normal intermediate school. In 1984 the original brick building was demolished.

Melville Park was the next venue an area acquired in 1882 as Epsom domain. It was developed in the 1930s as a depression project and officially opened in 1939 by Ellen Melville.

On Manukau Road the Sir John Logan Campbell statue and memorial fountain unveiled in 1906 was visited and on the opposite side of the road, the former Epsom Post Office was seen at number 311. The post and telegraph department acquired the site in 1908. The Post Office opened in 1909, with major alterations in 1937. It was closed and sold to the private sector in 1990.

Nearby at number 347 the De Luen and Barrow service station was inspected. It had been built in 1925 for De Luen and Hardly (later Barrow) and closed in the 1980s. This building was acquired by John Fernyhough, for conversion into a car Museum, with a street front shop. In 2005 the front portion was converted into a café, which has become quite popular. The museum itself features a good range of British sports cars, several very rare, mostly from the 1950s.