Pukaka Street

Pukaka Street in Fitzroy, New Plymouth is named after a small native reserve that was located between Paynters Avenue and the Waiwhakaiho River.

This land formed part of the Fitzroy purchase, a Crown acquisition of mainly Te Ātiawa land, made in 1844 under Governor Robert FitzRoy. Following the purchase, some parcels of land were set aside for Māori as Native Reserves. The area that gave its name to Pukaka Street was formally known as Native Reserve 18, Pukaka. It should not be confused with Pūkākā Pā, which stood atop what settlers later called Marsland Hill in central New Plymouth.

Over time, Pukaka Reserve became subject to the Native Reserves Act 1856. As a result, Māori gradually lost decision‑making authority over the land. Portions were sold, while others were later acquired by the Crown.

A railway reserve was pushed through the northern boundary of this land in the 1870s when the New Plymouth to Waitara rail line, the first in Taranaki, was created. In the 1980s during the Think Big era, land next to the railway line was used to create a new northern exit for the city, known as Northgate.

Some of the land bordering Paynters Avenue had been owned by Leslie Nolan, who operated the successful New Plymouth auction house LA Nolan and Co for many years. Nolan began subdividing and selling his land, creating many of the street’s earliest residential sections. Pukaka Street itself was named and formed in the 1920s.

At the end of Pukaka Street stands Sacred Heart Girls’ College, which opened on this site in 1960. The land on which the college sits was purchased in 1925 by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, an order of Catholic nuns from France. They bought the property from Thomas Cameron, who had farmed the land.

The Sisters had arrived in New Plymouth in the 1880s and had operated a Catholic school since 1884 from an impressive three‑storey convent building on Powderham Street. After purchasing the Fitzroy land, they leased some of the farmland and used other parts, including the original farmhouse, as a residence, school, chapel, and a place of retreat for the nuns and school boarders living in town.

The school relocated permanently to Fitzroy in the 1960s. The convent building in the town centre was sold and later demolished in 1973.

Today, Pukaka Street is also home to the college’s boarding facility, Elizabeth House, and the Adele Senior Living complex, formerly known as the Mission Rest Home.

Related Items

Title Histories of native reserves made in the Fitzroy, Grey and Omata purchases in Taranaki (1844-1848), report for the Waitangi tribunal, Janine Ford (1991)

125 Years, Sacred Heart Girl's College (2009)

Taranaki's First Railway, A B Scanlon (1977)

Fitzroy Street Names (1975)

Taranaki DP2413, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP5728, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP2836, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)