The story of an ‘on the ball’ suburb
Author proud of district
Bruce Murray reckons he began thinking about writing a history of Tawa back in 1965. ‘‘I was teaching geography at the college and you want to teach the kids about where they’re from, along with the nation’s history,’’ he said.
‘‘I began salting a few things away and having lived here 50 years, it was time I did something.
‘‘People are endlessly interesting, so it has been a joy to put together.’’
The History of Tawa is a comprehensive look at the suburb’s colonial beginnings, from clearing dense bush in Tawa Flat in the late 1840s to today, with uncertainty over whether Wellington will become a super-city.
Where possible, Murray said he put Tawa’s development in a regional and national context.
He said there were three distinct periods in Tawa’s history — settlement and early years; the coming of rail in the 1880s and consolidation until World War II; and the subsequent population, housing and education explosion.
‘‘ There was massive growth after World War II,’’ he said. ‘‘Schools were built, the motorway came, there was more self- government and industry here really kicked off.’’
Murray said his role as chairman of the Tawa Historical Society and the organisation’s writing of a number of smaller books over the past few years had helped when it came to putting together his book. He has drawn heavily on the writings of Arthur Carman and Elsdon Best.
It took him most of 2013 to put the book together, he said.
He said the ‘‘do it yourself’’ attitude and strong sense of community that exists in the suburb had been there from the days when there were no roads and electricity was decades away.
There were no starker examples of that attitude than when Tawa became part of Wellington in 1989 and when it was proposed that the suburb’s community board be abolished in 2006.
‘‘People kicked up a real stink, no-one wanted either of those two things to happen,’’ he said. ‘‘Tawa has raised money for its own pool, set up a volunteer fire brigade, organises festivals and events, kids from the college cleared the old cemetery [in Main Rd] – we just get on and do things.’’
The History of Tawa