Māori history

Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries.^[9][10] The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū.^[11] Many of the Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as Ngā Oho.^[12] While the poor soils around the East Coast Bays hindered dense settlement,^[6] traditional resources in the area included fish, shellfish and marine birds,^[13] and kūmara is known to have been planted at Mairangi Bay.^[14] The traditional name for the coast between Murrays Bay and Campbells Bay is Waipapa.^[15][14] The modern name of the suburb comes from a locality name, Ōmairangi, a name which refers to an ancestor, Mairangi.^[4]

The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore.^[16][17] After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new hapū. His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is the namesake of the North Shore, Te Whenua Roa o Kahu ("The Greater Lands of Kahu").^[18][19] Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha, Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu.^[19][20]

By the 18th century, the Marutūāhu iwi Ngāti Paoa had expanded their influence to include the islands of the Hauraki Gulf and the North Shore.^[21] After periods of conflict, peace had been reached by the 1790s.^[22] The earliest contact with Europeans began in the late 18th century, which caused many Tāmaki Māori to die of rewharewha, respiratory diseases.^[23] During the early 1820s, most Māori of the North Shore fled for the Waikato or Northland due to the threat of war parties during the Musket Wars. Most people had returned by the late 1820s and 1830s.^[10][21][24]

European settlement

In 1841, the Crown purchased the Mahurangi and Omaha blocks; an area that spanned from Takapuna to Te Ārai. The purchase involved some iwi with customary interests in the area, such as Ngāti Paoa, other Marutūāhu iwi and Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, but not others, such as Te Kawerau ā Maki or Ngāti Rango.^{[25][26][20][27]} The Crown spent until 1873 rectifying this sale, by making further deals with stakeholders.^[26][27]

In 1880, the land was sold to English settler Thomas Murray, from Newcastle upon Tyne, who converted the mānuka and harakeke scrubland to a sheep and cattle farm, and planted crops including corn, wheat and English grasses. Murray was a lifelong bachelor and devout Christian, who taught Sunday school classes in Takapuna. Murray's farm grew to 174 acres in size, and the bay became known as Little Murrays Bay (Big Murrays Bay was the name for Murrays Bay to the north).^[28][29] Murray sold kauri gum as an additional source of income, constructed a windmill at the site of modern-day Scarboro Terrace, and developed orchards to supply the Auckland market with fruit.^[30][31]

After Big Murrays Bay was renamed Murrays Bay in 1900, locals created petitions to suggest new names. A local solicitor, Mr. Rennie, suggested Awatea Bay, but the name Mairangi Bay, based on the Māori name Ōmairangi, was successful.^[14] Mairangi Bay was sold and subdivided in 1912.^[14] After the Murrays Bay Wharf was constructed in 1916,^[28][32] Mairangi Bay became a popular spot for holidays and day trippers from Auckland, who arrived by ferry.^[33] Housing developed in Mairangi Bay in the 1920s, primarily used as holiday homes.^[32] The Mairangi Bay post office opened in 1930, and the first shops and local services began operating from the 1930s and 1940s.^[32] During World War II, pillboxes were constructed at Mairangi Bay in various locations: at the beach, on the clifftops to the south of the suburb, in the modern-day Mairangi Bay School grounds, Elizabeth Place and on Kowhai Road. A searchlight emplacement was constructed at Whitby Crescent, as well as an anti-tank stone wall.^[34]

Suburban housing developed in Mairangi Bay after the opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959, and the shops in Mairangi Bay were the first that opened for trading on Saturdays.^[35] The Mairangi War Memorial Hall was constructed in 1953 as a community hub,^[36] and in 1956, a new high school was opened in the suburb, Murray's Bay High School. Later renamed Rangitoto College, the school grew to become the largest high school in New Zealand.^[34] In 1966, the first supermarket in the East Coast Bays area was constructed at Mairangi Bay.^[37] In the late 1970s, industry developed in the area when the Takapuna City Council zoned a 70 acre industrial estate along Sunset Road, in modern-day Rosedale.^[6]

In 1991, the Mairangi War Memorial Hall was renovated and opened as the Mairangi Arts Centre.^[36] Since 2004, Mairangi Bay and the adjacent beaches have undergone civil works projects since 2004 to improve stormwater management.^[38]