Royal Oak is a small
suburb in New Zealand's largest city of
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
. It is situated between the suburbs of
Epsom
Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...
(north) and
Onehunga
Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill.
Onehunga is a ...
(south).
Royal Oak is under the local governance of the
Auckland Council.
History
It is named after the Royal Oak hotel that was located on the Royal Oak Roundabout. In 1909 the hotel lost its licence to sell alcohol. For many years it was a pharmacy before being used as the premises of
Barfoot & Thompson Real Estate Agency.
Royal Oak
The Royal Oak is the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. C ...
refers to the tree
Charles II hid up during the
Battle of Worcester
The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell d ...
to avoid capture.
In the middle of the Royal Oak Roundabout was once located the Seddon Memorial. Designed by
John Park, a local architect who was also
mayor of Onehunga on two occasions, the structure was erected in memory of Prime Minister Seddon who died suddenly in office in 1906.
Richard John Seddon (1845–1906) was immensely popular and there are several monuments to him around the country. The Royal Oak Monument was in the form of a Gothic
Market Cross and was a combined tram shelter, gas lamp standard and drinking fountain.
By the middle of the 20th century it was decided that the memorial was an obstruction to traffic and it was removed during September and October 1947. The Royal Oak roundabout served six converging roads but one has been closed off in recent years.
Royal Oak became the site of New Zealand's first
Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in 1971.
Royal Oak Mall was expanded significantly in the 1980s to become a significant source of commerce in the area.
Boyd Zoo
Royal Oak was once home to
Boyd Zoo, one of the earliest
Zoological Garden in New Zealand. It was opened in 1912 by local businessman (and future mayor of
Onehunga
Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill.
Onehunga is a ...
) John James Boyd. It held 600 to 2000 specimens including several lions, bears, wolves, flamingos, and other exotic animals. Most of the animals were kept in relatively poor conditions. There was an abattoir on site where local stray animals such as horses and cats were slaughtered to be fed to the captive animals.
There is an often repeated tale of a lion escaping from the zoo and wandering around the streets of Onehunga, however this story is somewhat erroneous and misleading. The first appearance of the story was in a community newspaper in 1966. The most probable origin of the story was a lion cub which had gotten into a paddock of cows with calves around the Christmas of 1917. Rather than a wild lion roaming the streets, the small cub was backed into a corner of the paddock by the herd until it was lassoed and returned to its enclosure.
Although the zoo was popular with visitors, the noise and smell made it very unpopular with the locals. Boyd was engaged in a constant battle with the local council over the running of the zoo. Eventually, after several attempts to sell his animals to the council, the council finally reached an agreement with Boyd: 11 lions, 6 bears, and 2 wolves were sold to the council for £800. The animals were given to the newly established
Auckland Zoo at
Western Springs in 1922.
![Royal Oak roundabout Aerial Photograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Royal_Oak_roundabout_Aerial_Photograph.jpg)
The Boyd Zoo site was later built on as a temporary hospital for American Marines in 1942, before being converted into Manukau Intermediate School (now renamed as
Royal Oak Intermediate School).
Demographics
Royal Oak covers
and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km
2.
Royal Oak had a population of 5,334 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 417 people (8.5%) since the
2013 census, and an increase of 603 people (12.7%) since the
2006 census
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
. There were 1,881 households, comprising 2,511 males and 2,823 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.89 males per female, with 777 people (14.6%) aged under 15 years, 1,158 (21.7%) aged 15 to 29, 2,415 (45.3%) aged 30 to 64, and 987 (18.5%) aged 65 or older.
Ethnicities were 48.8% 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 ...
, 5.6%
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 ...
, 8.4%
Pacific peoples, 42.6%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, and 2.6% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.
The percentage of people born overseas was 48.4, compared with 27.1% nationally.
Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 38.2% had no religion, 41.1% were
Christian, 0.2% had
Māori religious beliefs, 7.1% 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 ...
, 2.9% were
Muslim, 2.7% 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 2.6% had other religions.
Of those at least 15 years old, 1,770 (38.8%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 516 (11.3%) people had no formal qualifications. 888 people (19.5%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 2,307 (50.6%) people were employed full-time, 585 (12.8%) were part-time, and 162 (3.6%) were unemployed.
Schools
Royal Oak Intermediate is an intermediate school (years 7-8) with a roll of . Royal Oak Primary School is a contributing primary school (years 1-6) with a roll of .
Marcellin College is a state-integrated Catholic secondary school with a roll of .
All these schools are coeducational. Rolls are as of
Other secondary schools in the area are
Epsom Girls' Grammar School,
Auckland Grammar School
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...
,
One Tree Hill College
One Tree Hill College is a Education in New Zealand, state coeducational secondary school located in the district of Ellerslie, New Zealand, Ellerslie in Auckland, New Zealand.
One Tree Hill College, formerly known as Penrose High School, opened ...
,
St Peter's College and
Onehunga High School,.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Photographs of Royal Oakheld in
Auckland Libraries' heritage collections.
{{Puketāpapa Local Board Area
Suburbs of Auckland