Long Bay (Māori: Oneroa)[4] is one of the northernmost suburbs of the North Shore, part of the contiguous Auckland metropolitan area located in New Zealand.
The origin of the name Long Bay is unclear. It is either a geographical description of the long beach,[5] or named after Alfred or Arthur Long, some of the early farmers in the area.[5][6] Traditional Māori names for the area include Whakarewatoto, referencing a battle in southern Long Bay,[7][8] and Te Oneroa ō Kahu ("The Long Beach of Kahu"), referencing the Ngāti Kahu ancestress Kahu.[7] The shortened version of this name, Te Oneroa, was used to describe the Ngāti Kahu settlement in the area until the 1850s,[9] and the name Oneroa is used in modern contexts.[4]
Long Bay is a suburb of the North Shore of New Zealand, and the northernmost suburb of the North Shore along the east coast of the Hauraki Gulf.[10][11] The suburb has two major streams: Vaughan Stream / Awaruaika Creek,[12][13] and the Awaruku Creek in the south (also known as the Waikariwatoto Creek).[14][5] The bay forms the eastern border of the suburb, and looks out to the Hauraki Gulf and the Coromandel Peninsula.[15]
The eastern coast is occupied by the Long Bay Regional Park, and the shoreline is in Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve, which opened in 1995.[16] The beach is sandy and swimming is safe. It offers forest walks and scenic cliffs.[17] This beach has low tide water.[18][19] Smaller beaches to the north, such as Pohutukawa Bay, accessible except at high tide, are among Auckland's most popular naturist spots;[9][20] The headland at the northeast of the suburb is called Piripiri Point.[21]
The land at Long Bay is primarily made up of Waitemata Group sandstone, which formed during the Miocene approximately 16 to 22 million years ago on the seafloor. Gradually, the seafloor was uplifted due to tectonic forces.[5] Prior to human settlement, inland Long Bay was primarily a northern broadleaf podocarp forest, dominated by tōtara, mataī, miro, kauri and kahikatea trees. Pōhutukawa trees were a major feature of the coastline.[22]
Māori settlement of the Auckland Region began around the 13th or 14th centuries.[23][7] The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū.[24]
Many of the early Tāmaki Māori people of the North Shore identified as Ngā Oho.[25] While the poor soils of the East Coast Bays area was a barrier to agriculture and settlement, Long Bay was one of the three most densely settled areas of the North Shore,[26] and the area features extensive archaeological sites.[12] Long Bay was a focal point for transport in the wider area, with many ara (overland paths) connecting Long Bay to Ōkura over the cliffs, and to Oteha and the Lukas Creek in Albany to the south-west.[24][26]
The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century. Maki conquered and unified many the Tāmaki Māori tribes as Te Kawerau ā Maki, including those of the North Shore.[27][28] A major conflict between Maki and Ngā Oho occurred in southern Long Bay called Te Whakarewatoto,[7] which became a name his Ngāti Manuhiri descendants used for the area.[8]
After Maki's death, his sons settled different areas of his lands, creating new hapū. His sons Manuhiri and Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast. Maraeariki's daughter Kahu succeeded him, and she is both the namesake of the North Shore, Te Whenua Roa ō Kahu ("The Greater Lands of Kahu"),[8][29] and the beach and bay of Long Bay, Te Oneroa ō Kahu ("The Long Beach of Kahu").[7] Many of the iwi of the North Shore, including Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Maraeariki, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Poataniwha, Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua, can trace their lineage to Kahu.[29][30]
From the conquest until the early 19th century, Ngāti Kahu and Ngāti Poataniwha, two hapū who descend from Kahu, lived at Long Bay.[12][13] A defensive headland pā was constructed at Te Piripiri (Pipiri Point),[13][5] and a kāinga was settled at Te Awaruaika (the shores of Awaruaika, or Vaughans' Stream).[26][13] By the 18th century, the Marutūāhu iwi Ngāti Paoa had expanded their influence to include the islands of the Hauraki Gulf and the North Shore.[31] After periods of conflict, peace had been reached by the 1790s.[32] The earliest contact with Europeans began in the late 18th century, which caused many Tāmaki Māori to die of rewharewha, respiratory diseases.[33] During the early 1820s, most Māori of the North Shore fled for the Waikato or Northland due to the threat of war parties during the Musket Wars. Most people had returned by the 1830s,[12][8] and remained at Te Oneroa until the 1850s.[9]
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The first Europeans to visit the area were in the 1830s, when timber merchants and kauri gum diggers harvested resources from Long Bay.[12] In 1841, the Crown purchased the Mahurangi and Omaha blocks; an area that spanned from Takapuna to Te Ārai. The purchase involved some iwi with customary interests in the area, such as Ngāti Paoa, other Marutūāhu iwi and Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, but not others, such as Te Kawerau ā Maki or Ngāti Rango.[34][35][30][36] The Crown spent until 1873 rectifying this sale, by making further deals with stakeholders.[35][36]
The first European settlers arrived in the 1850s,[12] including Alexander Pannil and Joshua Alias, who worked to clear the bush for farming.[6] In 1860, Captain Charles Cholmondeley-Smith and his family leased land at Long Bay for a sheep farm, but left after three years as the venture was unsuccessful.[6] In 1862, the Vaughan family purchased 600 acres of farmland at Long Bay, where they ran a sheep and cattle farm for 100 years.[12][37] The historic Vaughan Homestead was constructed in 1863.[13]
In 1929 Tom Vaughan, opened a campground for holidaymakers at the southern end of the beach, near the Awaruku Creek.[5] After the death of their mother Margaret Vaughan in 1935, the Vaughan sons Bert and Tom split the property into two east and west sections and farmed these separately.[38] During the Second World War, a gun emplacement was built on the coast north of the park in case to defend against invasion by Japanese forces.[39]
The area was sparsely populated in the first half of the 20th century, with only five cottages in Long Bay existing in 1942.[6] After the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959, the population of the area began to gradually increase.[40] In 1965 the Vaughan family sold the eastern section of their farm to the Auckland Regional Council,[12] who developed Long Bay Regional Park in the early 1970s as one of the first regional parks in Auckland.[13] Long Bay College was established in 1975,[5] when the surrounding area was still predominantly rural farmland.
In the 1990s zoning changes at Long Bay enabled significantly more housing to be constructed.[41] Areas of farmland above Long Bay Regional Park were protected from development by an Environment Court ruling in July 2008.[42][43] Due to changes in the Auckland Council's Unitary Plan, major housing developments were constructed at Long Bay in the late 2010s.[44][45]
The first local government in the area was the Lake District, which was established in 1866, followed by the Weiti Highway Board in 1867.[46] From 1876 the area was administered by the Waitemata County, a large rural county north and west of the city of Auckland.[47] In 1954, the area to the south formed the East Coast Bays Borough, with Long Bay remaining a part of the Waitemata County.[47][48]
On 1 August 1974, the Waitemata County was dissolved,[49] and Long Bay became a rural area incorporated into Takapuna City.[50] In 1989, Long Bay was merged into the North Shore City.[48] North Shore City was amalgamated into Auckland Council in November 2010.[51]
Within the Auckland Council, Long Bay is a part of the Hibiscus and Bays local government area governed by the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board. It is a part of the Albany ward, which elects two councillors to the Auckland Council.
Long Bay covers 2.85 km2 (1.10 sq mi)[2] and had an estimated population of 2,930 as of June 2023,[3] with a population density of 1,028 people per km2.
Long Bay had a population of 1,365 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 1,182 people (645.9%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 1,218 people (828.6%) since the 2006 census. There were 414 households, comprising 672 males and 693 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.97 males per female. The median age was 35.3 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 282 people (20.7%) aged under 15 years, 282 (20.7%) aged 15 to 29, 687 (50.3%) aged 30 to 64, and 111 (8.1%) aged 65 or older.
Ethnicities were 48.1% European/Pākehā, 2.2% Māori, 1.1% Pacific peoples, 49.5% Asian, and 3.3% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.
The percentage of people born overseas was 64.6, compared with 27.1% nationally.
Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 57.1% had no religion, 33.2% were Christian, 1.5% were Hindu, 0.7% were Muslim, 1.8% were Buddhist and 1.8% had other religions.
Of those at least 15 years old, 411 (38.0%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 84 (7.8%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $38,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. 303 people (28.0%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 546 (50.4%) people were employed full-time, 186 (17.2%) were part-time, and 30 (2.8%) were unemployed.[55]
Long Bay College is a secondary (years 9 - 13) school with a roll of 1782 students.[56] The college celebrated its 25th jubilee in 2000.[57] Long Bay School is a contributing primary (years 1 - 6) school with a roll of 540 students.[58][59] Both schools are coeducational. Rolls are as of August 2024.
