Flagstaff is a suburb in north-east Hamilton,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It was originally called Dulverton on council plans, but it was officially named ''Flagstaff'' in 1986 when it was declared as a suburb. The area was heavily developed in the 1990s. Sometimes the name Rototuna is used to collectively refer to all of the city north of Wairere Drive and east of the

Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...

, including Flagstaff and its developments of St Petersburg and Magellan Rise. The name "Flagstaff" comes from the flagstaff that was located on the hillock at the western end of Sylvester Road in the 1870s. A flag was raised by the local farmer when a steamer passed to alert the port authorities in the settlement 7 km further south. Flagstaff is connected to Pukete by a 5 m wide

pedestrian bridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

that connects with a series of walkways on both banks of the

. The suburb is served by a shopping centre with parks for 50 cars. It has 18 shops and a gym. Two playgrounds serve the new suburbs in northern Flagstaff at Hare Puke Park and Te Huia Reserve.

History

The District Plan lists two middens in the Te Awa O Katapaki valley. Like most of western Waikato the land at Flagstaff was

confiscated Confiscation (from the Latin ''confiscatio'' "to consign to the ''fiscus'', i.e. transfer to the treasury") is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, ...

following the 1863

invasion of the Waikato The Invasion of the Waikato became the largest and most important campaign of the 19th-century New Zealand Wars. Hostilities took place in the North Island of New Zealand between the military forces of the colonial government and a federatio ...

. It was surveyed into 50-acre parcels as grants to militiamen of the Fourth Waikato Regiment.

Roads

Until Hamilton's suburbs extended to Flagstaff in the 1990s, the only roads through the area were Rototuna School Rd, River Rd and Sylvester Rd. River Road was shown on an 1865 map of the military settlements and extended form Hamilton to Ngāruawāhia by 1879. A request to improve Flagstaff Hill Rd was made in 1909 and it was inspected in 1910. Rototuna School Road was also on the 1865 map and was gravelled in 1909. In 1908 J. and C. Sylvester asked Kirikiriroa Road Board for a road and by 1917 the Board were planning to improve the road.

Geography

Southern Flagstaff is in the Te Awa O Katapaki stream valley, which has a catchment. It has

short-finned eel The short-finned eel (''Anguilla australis''), also known as the shortfin eel, is one of the 15 species of eel in the family Anguillidae. It is native to the lakes, dams and coastal rivers of south-eastern Australia, New Zealand, and much of t ...

s, mosquitofish and common smelt. In 2013 fish passage was improved by a new culvert under River Rd. Flows from the urban area are attenuated by Lake Magellan. The north of Flagstaff is in the long southern branch of the Otama-ngenge stream valley. Giant kokopu live the stream. Glaisdale West lakes and wetland were built in 2015 to attenuate flows from the developed area and keep heavy metal run-off from vehicles out of Otama-ngenge stream.

Demographics

Flagstaff covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Flagstaff had a population of 9,831 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 3,933 people (66.7%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 5,886 people (149.2%) since the 2006 census. There were 3,234 households, comprising 4,695 males and 5,133 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.91 males per female, with 2,373 people (24.1%) aged under 15 years, 1,617 (16.4%) aged 15 to 29, 4,530 (46.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 1,311 (13.3%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 67.5% European/

Pākehā Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non- Māori New Z ...

, 9.0% Māori, 1.6% Pacific peoples, 27.3% Asian, and 3.3% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity. The percentage of people born overseas was 34.7, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 49.8% had no religion, 35.5% were Christian, 0.3% had Māori religious beliefs, 3.5% were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

, 2.0% were Muslim, 1.1% were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and 3.1% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 2,406 (32.3%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 912 (12.2%) people had no formal qualifications. 1,905 people (25.5%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 4,026 (54.0%) people were employed full-time, 1,005 (13.5%) were part-time, and 201 (2.7%) were unemployed.

Individual census areas

Flagstaff now encompasses three census areas, North, East and South. For censuses prior to 2018 it formed a single census area. Growth has mostly been in the northern and southern areas since 2006. In 2018 there were still 63 houses being built (48 North, 3 East, 12 South). In 2018 the main ethnic groups were -

Education

Endeavour School and Te Ao Mārama School are coeducational contributing primary schools (years 1–6) with rolls of and students respectively as of Endeavour opened in 2015 and Te Ao Mārama opened in 2019.

References

{{Hamilton, New Zealand Navbox Suburbs of Hamilton, New Zealand Populated places on the Waikato River