Naenae State Suburb

In 1945 the Labour Government which had in 1937 initiated the building of state houses selected Naenae as the location for a designer community. Naenae’s success and failures invite comparison with the twenty first century example, Hobsonville Point. Central to each was the idea of creating a community as well as meeting an housing shortage.

Naenae was based on garden-city ideas with all the houses built by the State, placed on curvilinear streets and surrounding a amenity and shopping area.The chief designer was Ernst Plischke who had in mind European cities built surrounding a central square. The design included New Zealand first pedestrian mall, Hillary Court. A rail station provides easy commuter access to Lower Hutt and Wellington. For a period a consumer’s co-operative operated.
At the time of its construction Naenae was must see place to visit.

Naenae Olympic Pool was the jewel in the crown when it was added to the mix, until an untimely hiatus closed it in 2019 thanks to earthquake safety concerns.

However as Ben Schrader elaborates the full community ideal was not fully realised. Transport out of the suburb was easy and there were limited local employment sources while there were initially no long standing kinship or friendship ties among the inhabitants.

Author Lloyd Jones was brought up at 20 Stellin Street on the fringes of Naenae and in his engaging memoir A History of Silence provides a picture of the lifestyle of those living in the area as a background to his story of the his discovery of his family history.

Although it's role as a home for lower income New Zealanders led it into some purported disrepute of a gang nature during the 1970s and onward, it still holds it's own as a convenient and comfortable suburb for workers. Many of the current residents are new immigrants and refugees from various parts of the globe, housed in state houses, many of which have turned to private ownership. The transport links remain excellent, schools are healthy, and the shopping area, though a little shabby in parts, serves the populous well. A degree of gentrification is taking place in some parts of Naenae, but cannot take over completely.

Hobsonville stands a better chance of developing as a community. It is designed to be walkable. Built to a higher density,it has a wider range of building types designed to be accessible to a “diverse range of New Zealanders” including social housing, affordable housing as well as private developments. A ferry service provides a connection to Auckland.