Newmarket Park is an approximately 6 ha large park in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

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 is located in the triangle between three suburbs, northeast of the Newmarket, southeast of Parnell and northwest of

Remuera Remuera is an affluent inner city suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located four kilometres southeast of the city centre. Remuera is characterised by many large houses, often Edwardian or mid 20th century. A prime example of a "leafy" sub ...

. It is located partially on a higher, man-made plateau, with the remainder of the park dropping steeply down towards Newmarket Stream running to Hobson Bay along the eastern edge of the park. In the early 2010s, a major remediation and upgrade of the park occurred.

History

In the early European history of the area, the gully containing the park and the Slaughter House Creek (now Newmarket Stream) was used as a rubbish dump. In the 1930s, an employment scheme created a flat area on the higher western slope of the gully, approximately half-way up to the railway line. This initially served as an athletics track, and later for

midget car racing Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on mos ...

and as a golf

driving range A driving range is a facility or area where golfers can practice their golf swing. It can also be a recreational activity itself for amateur golfers or when enough time for a full game is not available. Many golf courses have a driving range att ...

. After being leased by the Auckland Football Association in 1962, it became the site of New Zealand's national

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stadium, with many international games played here. However, in 1979 a large

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

occurred, which took away one of the

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

s and part of the playing field. After this, the park fell into disuse, with another large landslip also occurring in 1988. In the late 1990s, a campaign was mounted by the Newmarket Park Protection Society (now Newmarket Protection Society), which eventually succeeded in ensuring the park was turned into a recreational park with a playground and decorative small lake - rather than being converted into one of many other proposals, which included a cultural theme park, Japanese cultural centre, a bowling green, botanical gardens, rugby fields, driving range or an artificial skifield.

Remediation works

Newmarket Park Rehabilitation Works, Auckland

During works in the park in recent years, it was discovered that not only was the slope still at risk of further, large landslips, the area was also partially contaminated from the early rubbish dump use, and it was feared that toxins could eventually leach into the watercourse. As of 2011, Council is still in the process of a several-year program of rebuilding the slope in a more permanently stable (slightly less steep) form, after which the landscape will be revegetated, and the parks facilities (which are currently mostly removed or inaccessible) restored, including a local lake. The works are expected to cost $6.2 million. Some locals have expressed concern about the large-scale removal of several hectares of trees for the slope stabilisation and landfill remediation works, and have alleged that Council chose the cheapest option for the works, when other opportunities were available to retain more trees. Council defended the need for the works, while a spokesperson for

Forest & Bird Forest & Bird ( mi, Te Reo o te Taiao), also known by its formal name as the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, is an environmental organisation specialising in the protection and conservation of New Zealand's indigenous f ...

also considered that enough trees would be retained around the cleared areas to reduce impact on local birdlife. After works started, there was further special concern for the (north)eastern part of the park, along Ayr Street, where locals remain insistent that works should avoid mature trees and tree ferns, some of them 60 to 80 years old. They also allege that the rubbish layers do not extend to this area, based on preliminary works undertaken in the remediation. Council has indicated a willingness to assess this possibility. In early 2012, it was noted that the remediation works had planted more than 10,000 native trees and other plants.

References

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External links

Photographs of Newmarket Park
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. Parks in Auckland