Waimea Street

Waimea Street links Tukapa Street in Westown with the suburb of Frankleigh Park and is named after the stream that passes underneath the road at its lowest point.

The name was chosen at a meeting of New Plymouth Borough Council’s Works Committee in March 1919, when it was decided to christen the “hitherto unnamed road leading from the left of the Tukapa Road down to the Waimea stream, near Mrs Goodacre’s property.” At this stage the only residents were those near living near Tukapa Street so  it would be some years before the development of the southern end of Waimea.

The incentive to push the road over the Waimea Stream and through to Frankleigh Park was the formation of a new stock route through town. In October 1931 the Taranaki Daily News reported that a gang of relief workers had taken advantage of a spell of fine weather to culvert the Waimea Stream and lay fill over the top, providing access to stock yards at Waiwhakaiho and the outer suburbs.

This new road link and a tram terminus nearby prompted action from keen local golfers frustrated by the long trek out to the New Plymouth Golf Club links at Waiwhakaiho. In September 1934 a report in the Taranaki Daily News announced plans for a nine-hole golf course on a 50-acre block on the corner of “Tukapo [sic] Street and Waimea Road, the property of Mr C. Clarke”.  

Progress was rapid – land was cleared, nine greens laid down and on 27 April 1935 the Westown Golf Club was officially opened. The club remained on the Waimea Street site until the late 1950s before moving to its present location on the corner of Mangorei and Baker Roads.

The golf club was replaced by Francis Douglas Memorial College which opened in 1959. Rapid population growth in the 1960s meant there was an urgent need for more residential housing and the southern end of Waimea Street was finally subdivided. 

The suburban street also features a church, scout den, bowling club and until recently a dairy on the corner with Tukapa Street. The dairy, although still standing, closed during the Covid-19 lockdown and has not reopened.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related documents and plans:

Early proposal to extend Waimea Road (Taranaki Daily News 25 October 1923)

Formation of Waimea Road (Taranaki Daily News 29 October 1931)

Waimea Dairy Advertisement (Taranaki Herald 26 March 1975)

Taranaki DP5014 Sheet 1 Waimea Road (1927), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP6371 Sheet 1 Waimea Road (1947), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP6657 Sheet 1 Waimea Road (1948), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP8624 Sheet 1 Waimea Street (1960), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)

Taranaki DP9313 Sheet 1 Waimea Street (1963), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)