Omata Road

Ōmata Road was formed in the late 1840s or early 1850s to provide access to the recently purchased Ōmata Block. Around 12,000 acres of land at Ōmata was acquired and Governor George Grey issued a formal Crown Grant to the land in 1850, allowing the block to be surveyed and subdivided.

Early survey maps show Ōmata Road following almost the same route as it does today from what was then Elliot Road (now Tukapa Street), down to the bottom of the valley where it makes a sharp turn left and then up the hill, across Barrett Road and south to Ōmata.

Eventually, the road from present-day Spotswood toward Ōmata was renamed South Road and later became State Highway 45. However, it was not until the middle of the 1950s that part of Ōmata Road, in the village itself, was renamed Waireka Road East and West.

Ōmata Road remined on the fringes of New Plymouth without any significant residential growth until plans for a subdivision at the Tukapa Street end of the road were submitted to council in 1911. The developer, Edward Marfell, had 16 sections surveyed off between Tukapa Street and Seaview Road.

Following the Second World War and its resulting baby boom, there was an urgent need for more housing in New Plymouth. The economy was improving and the city grew rapidly, with this part of town being no exception. The 1950s and 1960s witnessed a large number of both Government and private housing developments on either side of Ōmata Road, swallowing up much of the original farmland.

With all this new housing came the need to supply residents with basic food items. Before the arrival of large supermarket chains, the local store was a vital part of the community. In 1955 the Sunblest Dairy on Ōmata Road opened its doors to provide this service. Located opposite the entry to Cook Street, the shop would later become the well-known Stocky’s Takeaways and is now the Curry Hub providing Indian and fusion food.  

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related items:

Taranaki DP2905 Sheet 1 (1911), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP7177 Sheet 1 (1951), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP7335 Sheet 1 (1953), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP8747 Sheet 1 (1960), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP8934 Sheet 1 (1961), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP9074 Sheet 1 (1962), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP10148 Sheet 1 (1969), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

New site for part of Omata Road (Taranaki Herald 1 August 1959)