Panmure, New Zealand

The Māori name for the area from Panmure south-west towards the Manukau Harbour area was Tauoma.[7][8] Te Tō Waka and Karetu, two of the traditional portages between the Waitematā Harbour and the Manukau Harbour were near here. 4.6 km up the Tāmaki River Māori would beach their waka (canoes) at the end of a small creek (that now passes under the southern motorway) and drag them overland (where Portage Road is now) to the Manukau Harbour.

In the mid to late 18th century, land along the Western shores of the Tāmaki River were given as a tuku (strategic gift) by Te Tahuri, daughter of Te Horetā of the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei hapū Ngā Oho, to the Hauraki Gulf iwi Ngāti Pāoa. Te Tahuri's sister Te Kehu had been married to Te Putu, an important figure within Ngāti Pāoa, for which Te Tahuri was derided and called foolish by people concerned by what the outcomes of such a tuku would cause.[8] Ngāti Pāoa leader Tangi-te-ruru built Mauināina pā (also known as Maunga-inaina and Taumata-inaina) at the headland between the Panmure Basin and Tāmaki River, and along the Tāmaki River was an extensive kāinga (unfortified village) called Mokoia.[8] In the late 18th century, war broke out between Ngāti Whātua and Ngāti Pāoa after a joint shark hunting trip, and both Te Tahuri and her husband Tomoaure were killed in the resulting skirmishes,[8] with hostilities ending around the year 1793.[9] By the time missionaries Samuel Marsden and John Gare Butler visited the isthmus in 1820, there were thousands of inhabitants living along the shores of the Tāmaki River at Mokoia.[10]

During the Musket Wars in late September 1821, Mokoia and Mauināina pā were attacked by a Ngāpuhi taua led by Hongi Hika, Pōmare I (Ngati Manu) and Tuhi (Te Ngare Raumati of Pāroa), during a time when the Tāmaki isthmus was relatively unprotected, as many Ngāti Whātua warriors were touring the lower North Island on the Āmiowhenua war party expedition.[8] Defenders of the pā placed stakes into the landing areas to slow the Ngāpuhi taua's progress, and over the course of two days, the taua was pelted with stones. When the pā was under siege, the taua found that the muskets were ineffective due to the defenders sheltering behind an earthen wall, so built a platform which overlooked the pā, and shot at those who were inside.[8] The fighting devastated what had been the Ngāti Pāoa population centre of the Auckland isthmus during pre-European times which had a population of about 7,000.[1] Three thousand men with up to 100 muskets took part in the defense of the pā but after a close and bitter battle were defeated by the combined northern alliance who had between 500 and 1000 muskets.[11] Mokoia and Mauināina pā were destroyed, and the land became tapu for Ngāti Pāoa due to the large number of deaths, and was not resettled.[8]

In 1841, the Government bought the Kohimaramara block from Ngāti Pāoa. In January 1842 Felton Mathew surveyed "Tehmaki" (sic.) into 37 farms totalling 3,856 acres. Part of this became the Fencible settlement of Panmure, between Maungarei and the Tāmaki River. In 1848, 80 Fencible families came here from Ireland and England on the ship Clifton and established a settlement with 99 raupo huts on the eastern shores of the lagoon. They called the area Maggotty Hollow. Located on the Tāmaki River, Panmure was favoured by Felton Mathew to be the new capital of New Zealand. William Hobson, however, decided otherwise, and the new town of Auckland arose further to the west along the shores of the Waitematā Harbour.

Panmure was then instead created as a fencible settlement, where retired soldiers were contracted to defend the settlement in return for land. The soldiers had to give 12 days military service per year and parade on Sunday in full military equipment. The only time they were called to arms was in 1851 when a flotilla of 20 waka took about 350 warriors to Mechanics Bay to attack Auckland. The Panmure fencibles were issued ammunition to defend the Tamaki River and stop any armed Maori attack. Only the Onehunga fencibles were marched to the hill overlooking Mechanics Bay to join a British line regiment. In the 1863 attack on Auckland the government used mainly professional soldiers instead.[1][12]

Panmure was an important town and port as it was strategically placed near the narrowest part of the isthmus, and during the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s it became a very busy place. In 1865 the Panmure Bridge opened, connecting the Auckland isthmus to eastern Auckland farmland and the fencible settlement at Howick. Even after the railway reached Auckland in 1908, Panmure somewhat continued as a transport hub – steamers from Auckland en route to the goldfields in the Coromandel and Firth of Thames would call in here. Panmure prospered partly due to being on the route between Auckland and the much larger fencibles settlement of Howick in the 1800s. People and goods used the ferry at the narrow point below Mokoia Pa.[13]

Until about the middle of the 20th century, Panmure remained a prosperous but mostly pastoral setting, the smallest borough of Auckland, and described as "a quarter of a square mile of farmlets surrounding a sleepy village that boasted little more than a church, post office, a handful of shops, and a two-storey hotel that was widely known from horse and buggy days".[1] Panmure Township merged with Mount Wellington Borough in 1955.[14]

It was only with the explosive growth of suburbia around it after World War II, and better bridges to Pakuranga that Panmure relatively suddenly started to grow significantly, and become a commercial centre.[1]