Wellington City

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Wellington City Council
Territorial Authority
Population:	192,800 (June 2008 estimate)[1]
Land area:	290.11 km² (112.01 sq mi)
Extent:	North to Tawa; includes Makara and Ohariu
Coat of arms:
Mayor:	Kerry Prendergast (since 2001)
Regional Council:	Greater Wellington Regional Council

Astronaut photo of central Wellington (south at bottom left.)

Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Wellington city extends as far north as Linden, and includes the rural areas of Makara and Ohariu. It is New Zealand's sixth-largest city, behind the Auckland cities and Christchurch.

Wellington attained city status in 1886. The settlement had become the capital of New Zealand in 1865, and since then has hosted New Zealand's Parliament and Government.

The city council has used the marketing slogan, "Absolutely Positively Wellington", in an official capacity since the early 1990s. [1]

For a list of past mayors, see Mayor of Wellington.

See Wellington for further information on the greater Wellington urban area.

[edit] Suburbs

Wellington city has roughly 60 officially-defined suburbs; one can group them by the wards used to elect the City Council. Some areas, while officially forming part of a larger suburb (or several suburbs), are considered by some to be separate communities. The officially-defined suburbs include:

Official suburbs of Wellington: the darker tone indicate built-up areas, the lighter parkland, green belt or rural areas.

[edit] Northern Ward

• official: Broadmeadows; Churton Park; Glenside; Grenada; Grenada North; Horokiwi; Johnsonville; Khandallah; Newlands; Ohariu; Paparangi; Tawa; Takapu Valley; Woodridge
• informal: Greenacres; Redwood; Linden

[edit] Onslow-Western Ward

• official: Karori; Northland; Crofton Downs; Kaiwharawhara; Ngaio; Ngauranga; Makara; Makara Beach; Wilton.
• informal: Cashmere; Chartwell; Rangoon Heights; Te Kainga

[edit] Lambton Ward

• official: Brooklyn; Aro Valley; Kelburn; Mount Victoria; Oriental Bay; Te Aro; Thorndon; Wadestown; Highbury; Pipitea; Roseneath
• informal: Mitcheltown; Taitville; Mount Pleasant; Flagstaff Hill

[edit] Southern Ward

• official: Berhampore; Island Bay; Newtown; Vogeltown; Houghton Bay; Kingston; Mornington; Mount Cook; Owhiro Bay; Southgate
• informal: Kowhai Park

[edit] Eastern Ward

• official: Hataitai; Lyall Bay; Kilbirnie; Miramar; Seatoun; Breaker Bay; Karaka Bays; Maupuia; Melrose; Moa Point; Rongotai; Strathmore
• informal: Crawford; Seatoun Bays; Seatoun Heights; Miramar Heights; Strathmore Heights.

[edit] Communities of common interest

Courtenay Place; Courtenay Quarter; Cuba Quarter; Lambton Quarter; Thorndon Quarter

Positively Wellington Tourism, funded by the Wellington City Council, has designated the four inner-city "quarters" as marketing subdivisions to promote international and domestic tourism.

[edit] Educational facilities

Wellington city looking south, with Johnsonville in the foreground

Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington's oldest university, has its main campus in the hill suburb of Kelburn overlooking the centre of the city. It also has two downtown campuses and one in the western suburb of Karori. It originated as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand.

The senate of the University of New Zealand operated in Wellington until its dissolution in 1961.

A branch of Massey University operates in Wellington: it took over the site and some of the courses of the former Wellington Polytechnic. The campus is based at the former Dominion Museum, which has moved to Te Papa. The University of Otago also has a Wellington connection, as the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences is a department of that university.

Wellington Institute of Technology serves Wellington and the neighbouring Hutt Valley. One of the largest polytechnics in the region, it dates from 1904.

Numerous primary and secondary educational institutions operate throughout the city, see List of schools in Wellington, New Zealand.

Wellington has a number of museums and galleries, including Te Papa, the City Gallery and the Museum of Wellington City & Sea. The Wellington Museums Trust runs the latter two, and other museums.

[edit] Sister-city relationships

Sister cities^[2]

• Beijing, People's Republic of China
• Xiamen, Fujian, People's Republic of China
• Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Historical sister cities^[3]

• Harrogate, England, United Kingdom
• Hania, Crete, Greece

Friendly city^[4]

• Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

[edit] History

The City of Wellington has subsumed independent boroughs including:

• Melrose in 1903
• Onslow (Khandallah/Ngaio) in 1919
• Karori in 1920
• Miramar in 1921
• Johnsonville, formerly a Town Board, in 1953
• Tawa in 1989

[edit] Buildings

Wellington Town Hall, incorporating the Mayor's Office & Council Chambers

The Wellington City Council operates from a complex on Wakefield Street, with various extensions each representing a distinctive architectural period. The complex incorporates the Wellington Town Hall which opened in 1904, with the most recent extension completed in 1991 alongside the Wellington Central Library.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• WellingtonNZ.com
• Wellington City Council
• Wellington City Council - official maps of suburbs (PDF format)

Coordinates: 41°17′44″S 174°46′50″E / 41.29556°S 174.78056°E / -41.29556; 174.78056