Grafton, New Zealand

Grafton
Basic information
Local authority	Auckland Council
Population	2,052 (2001)
Facilities
Train station(s)	Grafton Train Station
Hospitals(s)	Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital
Surrounds
North	Parnell
Northeast	(Auckland Domain)
East	Newmarket
Southeast	Epsom
South	Eden Terrace
Southwest	Newton
West	Auckland CBD
Northwest	Auckland CBD

One of the many historic houses in Grafton.

The Medical School of Auckland University and two large hospitals bound the north side.

Grafton is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and was once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting its history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades. According to the 2001 census, Grafton has a population of 2,052.

The suburb is characterised by its many historic buildings, many of them essentially unchanged from the early decades of the 20th century. While the extents of the suburb have shrunk with the motorway and arterial road construction of the middle 20th century, the remaining smaller suburb thus has a highly cohesive structure, which is recognised, for example, in the residential zoning which discourages demoliton of existing buildings.

Grafton has a local resident's association, abbreviated as the GRA.

Landmarks

• Grafton Bridge: Grafton Bridge is an iconic Auckland bridge spanning Grafton Gully and connecting the Auckland CBD with Grafton and parts further east. Built in 1910, it was the largest reinforced concrete bridge of its time, spanning almost 300 metres.

• Auckland City Hospital: As early as 1842 this area was seen as an ideal spot for the colony's hospital; a sunny, north facing location a short distance from town but fairly isolated should there be an epidemic of any kind. The first buildings of the 1850s and 1860s were wooden and have long disappeared. The main building was designed by Philip Herepath in 1878 in the Italianate style. It was demolished in the early 1960s and replaced by a 10 story modernist block which still stands on the hill. In the 1880s and 1890s new brick buildings of some size were built including the Costley block (now demolished) which was the legency of local benefactor Edward Costly. Close by are several other specialist blocks from before and after the first world war. In 2003, a new hospital was completed adjacent to the existing one. This new hospital amalgamated services of the old hospital's Acute Adult care, as well as Greenlane Hospital's Cardiothoracic services and National Women's Obstetric, Gynaecological and Neonatal services. Acute Paediatric services are delivered by the adjoining Starship Children's Hospital. By bringing all these services on to one campus, Auckland City Hospital gained the status of being the largest hospital in New Zealand.

• On the other side of Park Road, the large grey brutalist bulk of the 1967 Auckland Medical School buildings (Stevenson & Turner architects) complements the hospital.

• Auckland Domain: This park, established in the 1840s, is one of the city's greatest assets. The Auckland War Memorial Museum and Cenotaph are perhaps its most dominant features.

• Outhwaite Park lies on the corner of Park Road and Carlton-Gore Road. This was the residence of Auckland's first Registrar of the Supreme Court, Thomas Outhwaite. From the 1840s onwards Outhwaite and his French wife Louise established a beautiful garden with many interesting specimen plants. In 1927 the last of their four children gave this land to the city as a park. The house does not survive but the basic layout of the grounds and many of the mature trees date from the Outhwaite family's time. Other nearby land of the Outhwaite family, on the other side of Khyber Pass Road, forms the main site of St Peter's College and Outhwaite park offers an expansive view of St Peter's College, Auckland Grammar School and of Mt Eden.

• Grafton Campus: The Medical School of the University of Auckland is located on Park Road, opposite Auckland Hospital. Close by is Grafton Hall of Residence.

• In 1861 the Auckland Bowling Club in Stanley Street was established, with its fields in the Auckland Domain. This club still exists and was the first bowling club established in New Zealand.

• Geologist located a 'forgotten volcano', Grafton Volcano, under the suburb in 2011. While it had long been known that the nearby Auckland Domain was underlain by an approximately 50,000 year old crater, it was only now found out that most of the area of the current Grafton suburb was formed on a slightly older volcanic crater.

Famous people

During the late 1840s Chief Putatau Te Wherowhero resided in the lower part of the Auckland Domain in a house provided for him by the Government, [somewhere on the slopes of Grafton Gully below the Hospital and above the Bowling club in Stanley Street, probably in the vicinity of Centennial Drive]. Here he was visited by the then Governor, George Grey.

Another famous resident of the area was Gustavus von Tempsky (1828–1868) who lived on Grafton Road in the early 1860s. The early settler Outhwaite family resided in their Grafton house for nearly eighty five years.

Pauline Kumeroa Kingi CNZM is a notable current resident.

References

• The Heart of Colonial Auckland, 1865–1910. Terence Hodgson. Random Century NZ Ltd 1992.
• Colonial Architecture In New Zealand. John Stacpoole. A.H & A.W Reed 1976
• Decently And In Order, The Centennial History of the Auckland City Council. G.W.A Bush. Collins 1971.
• Auckland Through A Victorian Lens. William Main. Millwood Press 1977.
• The Lively Capital, Auckland 1840–1865. Una Platts. Avon Fine Prints Limited New Zealand 1971.
• Grafton Heritage Trail, Grafton Residents Association 2005