Ōmokoroa from the Air: Alf Rendell and the Unsworth Subdivisions

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Today, it is difficult to imagine Ōmokoroa Point as it appeared in the early 1950s. Streets lined with homes, holiday houses, reserves and community facilities now occupy land that was once largely open farmland. The Unsworth Subdivisions at Ōmokoroa from the 1950s through to the 1970s, represent an important chapter in the transformation of the peninsula from farmland to a seaside community.

In 2004, Tauranga City Libraries received a donation from Helen Unsworth, containing records, files, plans and hand-coloured photographs relating to her parents' Ōmokoroa subdivisions over the years. These materials provide a valuable record of the area's growth and the role the Unsworth family played in shaping the community that exists today.

Aerial of Ōmokoroa 1956 (hand-coloured photograph by Alf Rendell) - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries  Photo 21-1307

(The Unsworth farm is across the centre of the aerial photo, showing the new road and its subdivision and butting onto Gerald and Myrtle Crapp's farm on the actual point). 

A Peninsula on the Cusp of Change

Allan and Nelle Unsworth purchased 68 acres on Ōmokoroa Point in 1953, and over the following decades, gradually subdivided the property, creating residential sections. The Unsworth's property originally extended across much of the width of the peninsula, bounded by neighbouring farms and framed by steep coastal land and beaches. It was adjacent to the houses at Ōmokoroa Beach.

When Allan and Nelle Unsworth purchased the farm from Ira and Jean Thomas, their intention was not to create a residential subdivision but to establish a model farm on what was regarded as some of the district's highest-quality farmland. However, circumstances beyond their control changed those plans. In 1954, major slips below the farm damaged the only road providing access to the Point, making it necessary to construct a new road through their property. Permission was subsequently granted to subdivide land along the new roadway. Then, in 1956, the Education Department purchased five acres from the upper part of the farm for the construction of a new school.

Aerial of Ōmokoroa 1956- Photo 21-1305

The new superior stretch of road opened the peninsula to easier access and made new subdivisions more economically viable. What began as a practical response to changing circumstances, evolved into one of the largest private subdivisions undertaken in New Zealand at the time. However, the development attracted the attention of Inland Revenue, which argued that the subdivision profits should be taxed. It was a test case for New Zealand to establish a new legal principle. Allan spent years fighting what he considered an unjust assessment,ending up with the Inland Revenue dropping the case in 1965.

As happened in many coastal communities around New Zealand during the post-war decades, improved roads, increasing car ownership and growing interest in holiday living and retirement, including from overseas, created demand for coastal sections beyond the main urban centres.

Archival records held in Pae Korokī (Ams 259) document this evolving process through plans, financial papers, and promotional material spanning the 1950s to the 1970s. These include detailed survey plans for successive subdivision stages, illustrating how the land was incrementally opened up for development.

 

Subdivision Plans over the years - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 259

Marketing the Coastal Dream

The Unsworth subdivisions were notable not only for the number of sections created, but also for the sophistication of their marketing. Sections were promoted through newspaper advertising, printed brochures and even screen advertising at Tauranga's Odeon Theatre in Elizabeth Street, stating: "You've seen the rest — now buy the best."  Demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit, Allan Unsworth also, promoted the subdivision from the driver's seat, using his car as a mobile advertisement to attract potential purchasers.

Reg Ellis and Allan with Reg's Kingfish, 1969 (Helen Unsworth Collection). At 13 Coppelia Avenue, Ōmokoroa Point, new house with farmland in the background and tractor shed on other side of fence. The tractor shed is still in use at the Ōmokoroa Settlers' Hall.

For many New Zealand families, the newly created sections offered a rare opportunity to own a piece of waterfront peninsula living at a time when coastal property was still within reach of ordinary households. The prospect of easy access to the harbour's fishing grounds was a major attraction. Fishing, being bountiful in those days, was a huge drawcard to the area - there was the wharf and a slipway for boat maintenance. 

What set Ōmokoroa apart from many other seaside settlements was Allan Unsworth's vision for the development. He was determined that the area would become a community of permanent homes rather than a collection of holiday baches. To maintain this standard, he encouraged prospective purchasers to build substantial houses and, if that did not suit their plans, he would direct them instead to the more affordable subdivisions emerging at Pāpāmoa at the same time. This approach helped shape the character of Ōmokoroa as a residential community rather than simply a seasonal holiday destination.

 

Cutting from Bay of Plenty Times advertisement for sections being sold by Allan Unsworth in Ōmokoroa - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 259

Alf Rendell's Aerial Vision

A distinctive feature of the Unsworth Subdivision was its innovative use of aerial photography. Renowned Tauranga photographer, Alfred Hugh (Alf) Rendell, captured images of Ōmokoroa at a time when aerial imagery was still relatively uncommon in local real estate promotion. 
 
Allan Unsworth commissioned a series of six small hand-coloured aerial images of the peninsula over the years. These photographs were not merely promotional; each purchaser received an image of the peninsula, creating a personal and tangible connection to their property and the community around them.

 

The Unsworth's homestead, "Kaharoa" (now 61 Ōmokoroa Road) - Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries -  Photo 21-1269

A Lasting Legacy

This combination of careful planning and visual storytelling made the Unsworth Subdivision unique. Today, the surviving plans and photographs provide a valuable record of a formative moment in Ōmokoroa’s development.

Barrett's Store

Guest article by Max Avery

Barrett’s Store Omokoroa, post-1954
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 06-063

The death of Mrs Freda Elsie Barrett on June 5, 2022  prompted a look back at her family’s link with one of the Tauranga districts best remembered groceries - Barrett’s Store at Whakamarama, once the only commercial enterprise on the highway between Bethlehem and Katikati. The store existed under the Barrett name from 1949 to 1966, and although it was first known as the Omokoroa Store, and carried the names of previous and subsequent owners, most older Tauranga residents remember it as Barrett’s Store. The enterprise had the distinction of two locations, and in its second form became ostensibly the first self-help checkout supermarket with trolleys in New Zealand. Grocery executives from several parts of New Zealand were said to have flown into local top dressing strips to see this American-style innovation in operation.

The original Omokoroa Store, cnr Old Highway/Te Puna Point Rd, western view
Private family collection

The store was first built on the corner of the old Tauranga-Katikati highway and Te Puna Point Road (later becoming Station Rd, Omokoroa Station Rd and finally Barrett Rd and, on the northern side of SH2, Plummer’s Point Rd.) The business was opposite the Tawhitinui Marae and was probably initiated by Ken and Nancy Gordon in 1926. The little motor transport that existed in those years turned off the highway onto Te Puna Point Road as the only way to reach Omokoroa Beach (also known as Crapp’s Point), passing in a cloud of dust in the summer, with mud clogged wheels in the winter. Otherwise only the clip-clop of horses' hooves and the grinding of waggon wheels on the metalled surface disturbed the bucolic peace of what was then known as the Omokoroa Store.

Installation of Plume benzine pumps at Barrett's Store, southern wall
Private family collection

Jack Borrows is said to have bought the store, which included a small living area for the grocer, about 1930. The building was rather oddly sited, close and corner-wise to the road, making it awkward to extend, which is what Mr Borrows was doing when he sold it to Jack and Edna Ewart late in 1939, for Mrs Ewart later described it as “a little and almost new junction store.” The population in the district was by then expanding, and with the store too small to meet the demands made upon it, more extensions began. Later in their tenure a van delivery service, each day to a different area in the Omokoroa-Whakamarama area, was introduced and Plume brand petrol pumps were installed.

Barrett's Store and accomodation, c1940s, northern aspect
Private family collection

When Matthew John (usually known as Jack) and Doris Barrett bought the store on 1 May 1949 it was more associated with Whakamarama than Omokoroa. They arrived from Buckland (between Pukekohe and Tuakau). With three sons, George, Graham and John, and daughter Joan. All helped make Barrett’s Store the service-centre and landmark it became during the next seventeen years. The need for fresh meat was seen early by Jack Barrett, a butcher by trade. Assisted by Graham (Freda Barrett’s husband) he built a butchery adjacent to the store, and Graham became store butcher. George ran the store, until he moved to Auckland in 1957, when John joined the business and took over. Joan distinguished herself by becoming office manager, mastering the cash register-cum-electronic scales at the checkout in the supermarket.

Two houses were built adjacent to the first store on the corner of Te Puna Point Road for George and Graham with help from David Borrell and his sons Billy and Cotty. Early in 1952 Jack (d. 1969) and Doris (d. 1963) moved to a house on the Omokoroa Beach front. At about the same time construction of a new section of State Highway Two from the Te Puna Stream Bridge to Pahoia began. Realising they would be bypassed by the new highway traffic, the Barretts purchased land on the corner of the Te Puna Point Road and the new highway and began the construction of the new supermarket, which incorporated a butchery, hardware, drapery and Mobilgas petrol pumps. Store and highway opened at about the same time,  c. 1953-54. The 470-metre section of the Te Puna Point Road which linked the two highways was renamed Barrett Rd. Enlarged and modernised, the original store building is today residential.

Interior of Barrett's store, Omokoroa, post-1954
Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 06-064

For about a decade the name “Barrett” on the shopfront identified the new enterprise, with family continuing the same service to the district, selling a wide range of foodstuffs, household and farming supplies, and then delivering it throughout the area. In October 1966 they sold the retail business, and since then other names have proclaimed its operators. In the early 1990s the Barrett family sold the building, ending a commercial link of more than four decades with the Omokoroa-Whakamarama district.

Iron over the Water

Early settlement of Tauranga Moana benefited hugely from the natural accessways of its estuaries and waterways – navigable at least to the limits of their tidal swells and occasionally, as in the case of the Waimapu, Kopureroa, Wairoa, and Uretara, quite a lot further inland.  But for the East Coast Main Trunk Railway, the harbour’s wide shallow stretches of mudflats and saltmarsh were impediments. Tauranga’s geography set a major challenge and made for a long gap in time before the railway from Waihi’s goldfields was joined up with the 1910 site of the "first sod" at Awakeri, "51 miles and 5 chains from Tauranga."[1]

Much has been made of the prodigious railway bridge at Matapihi[2] and a useful resource from the Katikati Library Archive[3] explains the extension from the Athenree end of the line as far as Apata. 

But the bits in between – the Waikaraeo estuary, the Bellevue saltmarsh, the Wairoa River, and the not unimportant watery gulfs between three Te Puna peninsulas[4] – also needed bridging.  No fewer than eight bridges of varying lengths were built as the line skirted the harbour edge from Waikaraeo before it turned inland to Apata.  Crossings were needed at the Waipapa Estuary and another minor channel west of Pahoia.  Perhaps the degree of engineering expertise required was not on the scale of the Matapihi construction but these other gaps in the landmass were just as important to fill. 

The survey for the Waihi-Tauranga line had been completed as early as 1908[5].  Its actual building came much later – and the bridges were the last and most expensive items to go in.  And, as usual, everyone wanted to get the most out of them.

Building the railway bridge over the Waikareao Estuary, Watercolour by Ethel McMillan
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. Ams 80/11/43

This exuberant watercolour by Ethel Mcmillan[6] shows why excitement ran high as residents of Otumoetai speculated on the possibilities of a very shortened trip between their rural area and the township.  There was much talk of multi-modal transport (rail and road), "planking" the railway in between trains to allow for road vehicles, and even a Plan C (a mere footbridge) before Minister of Works J G Coates firmly scotched[7] the idea.  His successor Minister K S Williams in fact walked[8] the still-unfinished rail bridge in 1927, but it was to be another thirty-five years before cars went over the Waikaraeo rather than around it.  Boy Scouts, however, were in 1932 allowed a hike[9] that let them loop home via Judea. Trains had been running regularly on the track since 1928.

Wairoa River Bridge construction, 1925, by unidentified photographer
Collection of Tauranga City Library, Pae Korokī Ref. 03-544

The Wairoa River mouth was a significant challenge, well under way in 1925[10].    The flatland of Tahataharoa is in the mid-ground on the right of this image; beside and beyond it Pukewhanake occupies the centre; and the challenges of employing heavy infrastructure on fragile wetland, still felt today, are evident in the marshy wheelmarks on the river shore.  The rather sleek launch and the busy barges – engaged in floating the steel spans into position with the aid of the tide – seem much more at home in this watery environment than the boxy piles and their randomly-angled guardian poles.

Forfeiting the navigability of the Wairoa did not go unquestioned.  As early as 1910 one W R Turner (unrelated, as far as the writer can tell, to the County Engineer Archibald Turner) advocated for the "value of the Wairoa as a waterway.[11]  But the glamour and convenience of road transport was already beguiling both politicians and populace.  Coates pointed out, when asked for a significant Public Works loan for the ECMT line, that he had delivered substantial sums to roading "not yet served by a railway."[12]  The predictable brouhaha about the actual site of the Te Puna Station was significantly influenced by canny hopes that an "adequate" road[13] would align to the railhead for the convenience of farmers.  So it proved.  Te Puna Station Road’s logistic importance will be overcome only when the Takitimu North Link comes into operation, this century[14].

In 1924 construction of the railway between Tuapiro and Tauranga was contracted to Sir William G Armstrong, Whitworth and Company[15].  A great many dignitaries, including the British Trade Commissioner, engaged in a complicated journey from Wellington via Waihi to Athenree (motor cars from there to Te Puna) where a shirtsleeved Minister Coates, having been welcomed by Potaua Tangitu, watched a "steam navvy" cut the first substantial sod in the line on his behalf.  It was a great day for Te Puna, culminating in a grand celebration dinner that "might easily rank as the most notable function ever held in Tauranga."[16]

Omokoroa railway[17]
Collection of Western Bay Community Archives, Ref.

As for the rest?  We know the line made its way through the soft geology of the harbour basin of Tauranga Moana.  We are also fortunate to have some practical idea of how Sir William et al actually did the job. 

Railway Overbridge plan[18]
Collection of Western Bay Community Archives, Ref

Although dated 1917, it is realistic to assume that the blueprints for the Public Works Department bridges were what Whitworth & Co used to make their railway’s shorter jumps over the waterways that had previously served as transport options.  Australian hardwoods took over from sloops and barges.  The harbour that had for centuries been a highway was, from 1927, caught in a steel and imported hardwood web.

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References

[1] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19240620

[2] J Neal, “The East Coast Railway” taurangahistorical.blogspot.com, 6 December 2019

[3] https://westernbay.recollect.co.nz/ East Coast Railways, 2012, Katikati Advertiser Collection

[4] At the end of what is now Newnham Road (the Te Puna Stream estuary).; at Plummers Point; and at Mangawhai Bay

[5] WAI215 AO50.pdf.  Anthony Fisher, Keni Piahana, Te Awanuiarangi Black, and Rahera Ohia, Issues Concerning the Use, Control and Management of Tauranga Harbour and Its Estuaries, Report Commissioned in September 1996 by the Waitangi Tribunal for the Tauranga Claim (Wai215)

[6] https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/57016

[7] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19231203

[8] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19270430

[9] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19321102

[10] Wairoa river railway bridge | Pae Korokī (tauranga.govt.nz)

[11] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19100321

[12] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19221017

[13] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19240320.

[14] https://www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/sh2-waihi-to-tauranga-corridor/takitimu-north-link/

[15] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19240613

[16] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19241110

[17] https://westernbay.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/1208

[18] https://westernbay.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/2335