Mākara is a locality located at the western edge of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand, close to the shore of the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

. The suburb is named after the Mākara Stream (''mā'' is

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

for white, ''kara'' is a kind of

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

stone). The

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

regards the nearby

Mākara Beach Mākara Beach, previously spelled Makara Beach, is a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand consisting of a small seaside village and its surrounding countryside. The Wellington City Council regards it as a separate suburb to Mākara. Features The ...

as a separate suburb. With winding road access from

Karori Karori is a suburb located at the western edge of the urban area of Wellington, New Zealand, 4 km from the city centre and is one of New Zealand's most populous suburbs, with a population of in History Origins The name ''Karori'' used ...

or Ohariu, Mākara is a rural area with sparse development. It has attracted people who want rural living near Wellington.

History

In the nineteenth century there was a small amount of

gold-mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface, ...

at Terawhiti Station but no large-scale workable deposits were ever found. Tunnels associated with mining activity still exist on the hillside. In 1921 the Makara War Memorial was unveiled, built in memory of local residents who died in World War 1, and another name was added after World War II. There are gun emplacements at Fort Opau which still remain. These were built as part of the

coastal fortifications of New Zealand Coastal fortifications were constructed in New Zealand in two main waves: around 1885 as a response to fears of an attack by Russia, and in World War II due to fears of invasion by the Japanese. The fortifications were built from British design ...

due to fears of invasion during the second world war. A small foreshore reserve of sand dunes was bulldozed during this time as it was felt these could be hiding places for an invading army. This destroyed ecosystem is slowly being restored by local community groups. The Cook Strait Cable comes ashore from the South Island at Oteranga Bay in the suburb of Mākara. The HVDC line came into operation in April 1965 and was at the time the world's largest submarine cable. A radio receiving station was set up in 1944 in the region, at Quartz Hill, to receive overseas shortwave broadcasts for re-transmission by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, close to the NZ Post Office Makara Radio receiving station. Subsequently from 1997 to 2007 the site was leased to a local

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

club, who installed equipment and multiple antennae to contact operators all over the world. In 1973 Makara Riding, formerly under the jurisdiction of a County Council, came under the administration of the

West Wind A west wind is a wind that originates in the west and blows in an eastward direction. Mythology and Literature In European tradition, it has usually been considered the mildest and most favorable of the directional winds. In Greek mythology, ...

, a proposal for a $380-million wind farm by

Meridian Energy Meridian Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generator and retailer. The company generates the largest proportion of New Zealand's electricity, generating 35 percent of the country's electricity in the year ending December 2014, and is ...

was approved by Wellington City Council in 2005. Opponents claimed that the project was too close to a populated area. In 2007 construction began on West Wind along Terawhiti Ridge. A temporary wharf was constructed in Oteranga Bay to move turbine parts into the area without going through Wellington's Central Business District. The 62 turbine farm was completed in 2009 and includes a recreation area. The turbines are 111 metres high and cover a 56 square-kilometre area including Quartz Hill and Terawhiti Station. In 2019, the name of the locality was officially gazetted as Mākara.

Demographics

Mākara is part of the Mākara-Ohariu statistical area.

Facilities

Parks and reserves

The potential of Makara as a possible recreational landscape for Wellington city was recognised from the early 1970s. There is a small boat access at the north end of Mākara Beach into the river. There is a two-hour walk from Mākara to Boom Rock if the Mākara Stream is crossed.

Churches and cemeteries

Mākara Cemetery is Wellington's largest cemetery. It was founded after Karori Cemetery edged towards full capacity in 1940, the first burial occurred in 1965. It is currently about one third full. The burial ground Ngā Iwi o Te Motu Urupā is open for Māori and their whānau in Mākara Cemetery. St Patricks Church was built in Mākara in 1873 by the Catholic Diocese. It is now a non-denominational, community owned church and often serves as a function area alongside the Makara Hall next door.

Education

Makara Model School, a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, is located in Mākara. It has a roll of as of . The school is a community emergency hub.

References

External links

1:50,000 map
* {{Suburbs of Wellington City Suburbs of Wellington City