Tawa Historical Society "on the job"

A year after it was established, the Tawa Historical Society is building momentum and has a number of exciting projects planned for the year ahead.

The new society spent much of its first year wondering what it will do, the Committee chairman Mr Bruce Murray says. Now, however, it has decided on the main themes for the year ahead. One is suggesting to Wellington City Council a number of key areas in Tawa to put up signs with historical information.

"We have identified about half a dozen key sites," Mr Murray says. One, for example, could be put up at Takapu Road Station. It could cover the bucket tree, the development of the Takapu area, the old stockade built on the site in the nineteenth century, and the Old Porirua Road. The signs would be similar to the one in Glenside, at the site of the historic "half way house".

Another project will be to work with the City Council to extend the booklet on heritage trails in Wellington, so that it brings in Tawa. A third scheme was "to decide where the heritage trails might go and to develop a walking map to give to people who would like to go for a walk," Mr Murray says.

The Tawa Historical Society has a committee, meets once a month, and has a newsletter. "We're on the job. We're very young though, haven't got much money, and are looking for new members," says Mr Murray.


[Report by Frank Neill for the Northern Courier - November 2002. Used with permission.]