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.

Henry Williams and the Herald: Their First Visit to Tauranga Moana

Pilot Bay in the 1800s

Image: John Kinder, Mt Maunganui, Tauranga, 1874, 1937/15/46, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki

On 26th June 2026 the Karuwhā Trust held three events here in Tauranga Moana to commemorate CMS missionary Henry Williams’ first visit. 200 years ago, he arrived on the Herald, a 55-ton schooner captained by Gilbert Mair (senior) [1]. The two of them had helped construct the ship, launched in January 1826, on the beach at Paihia and the prime purpose for its voyage south was to obtain a better food supply for their fellow workers in the north.

Over the next two years Henry and others made at least four visits to Tauranga in the Herald, trading for potatoes.  While here, they were able to broker some peace and bring the good news of the Gospel to this area. They promised to send others to establish a mission station, which did come about in 1835. There were also other voyages undertaken to the Bay of Plenty in the 1830s, but these were in other vessels, as the Herald was unfortunately wrecked (but without loss of life) on the Hokianga bar in 1828. 

 

Dr Samuel Carpenter giving his Karuwhā Trust Lecture 26 June 2026.

Image: Karuwhā Trust

The three events held in June 2026 were very well attended.  The venue for the afternoon lecture by Dr Samuel Carpenter was relocated from the Elms Chapel to the nearby Vintage Car Club rooms to accommodate the demand for ticket sales. This was followed by a short walk to the old mission station and a guided tour for those who were interested in the Te Papa Mission site and its story.

Earlier in the day there had been a mihimihi and karakia at the Mission and Military Cemetery (formerly Otamataha Pā).  In the evening approximately 500 people attended the symposium presided over by Dr Joe Williams at Holy Trinity, where Dr Alistair Reece and others spoke.

Karuwhā Trust Symposium at Holy Trinity, 26 June 2026.

Image: Karuwhā Trust

There have been several previous articles on this website [2] dealing with Henry Williams and his various voyages.  Here I record a few other aspects of his life that I picked up from Dr Carpenter’s lecture and a podcast of an interview with Dr Alistair Reece. 

Henry was born in Gosport, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom in 1792 and rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Following this he became an ordained priest and married Marianne Coldham. In 1823 they were shoulder-tapped by the Church Mission Society to come and help lead the fledgling mission in NZ. They were quite strong and assertive in leadership and the CMS in Pahia began to make headway with the first conversions and baptism of two local Māori in 1830. Henry was strong on the learning of te reo by missionaries and their wives and was very involved in the preparation and signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. He and his brother William were largely responsible for the translation of the New Testament.

Henry Williams and te Kawenata Hou

Left image: Frontispiece, The Early Journals of Henry Williams. Pegasus Press Christchurch. Right image: Title page, first edition New Testament | Kawenata Hou.  https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/1st-Edition-New-Testament-Maori-1837/32152870474/bd

Henry and Marianne had 11 children. One son established Te Aute College, another was a parliamentarian, and a third was appointed a magistrate in the Native Land Court. Two daughters married other missionaries — Octavius Hadfield of Kapiti and Christopher Pearson Davies.  The latter was another connection with The Elms Te Papa. C. P. Davies and his family lived and worked there for seven years.

Notes

[1] The shipwright, not the soldier. See https://wdc.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/4929

[2] These are all by Dr Trevor Bentley and can be found at
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-karere-messenger-and-paihia.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-active-and-rev-henry-williams-1832.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2021/09/arama-karaka-pi-and-taeopa.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/04/during-morning-walks-over-mount.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2019/06/early-european-vessels-and-visitors-to.html
https://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-schooner-trent-and-major-thomas.html

Sources

Karuwhā Trust information online: https://www.karuwha.org.nz/
Dr Samuel Carpenter: I am Henry, lecture and article, 26/6/2026
Dr Alistair Reese podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3mu9FvxYCQRMc5ZECo66a4
Voyages of the Herald: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herald_(1826_ship)
Wendy Davies, descendant of Henry William and Christopher Pearson Davies

F is for a Fisherman’s Priest

Fishing off the Town Wharf, Tauranga, 1960s. Tauranga Museum 0005/20/1194

Childhood memories of casting homemade handlines from local wharves, or from rocks on the harbour’s edge are shared by many. A national survey conducted in 2024 by MPI (Ministry of Primary Industries) reported that approximately half of all recreational fishing takes place along the northeastern coastline of the North Island. This will come as no surprise to Bay of Plenty residents. 

A home-made fishing handline. Tauranga Museum 0092/25

Less expected, perhaps, is the role recreational fishing, especially big game fishing, has played in promoting Tauranga to the world. In the 1920s and 1930s, the lure of catching swordfish, marlin and mako sharks off Tuhua (Mayor Island) attracted the rich and famous to Tauranga, including international bestselling author Zane Grey and Lady Yule, who was at one time the richest woman in Britain. 

 Zane Grey's yacht, the "Fisherman", alongside the railway wharf Tauranga. First visited in April 1927. Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 04-576

Although big game fishing had already enticed international visitors to Tauranga, it was the arrival of the Lerner Expedition in January 1939 that firmly placed the region on the world stage. Led and sponsored by wealthy Americans Michael and Helen Lerner, the expedition's stated aim was to collect specimens of New Zealand marine life for the American Museum of Natural History. Yet the Lerners were also avid big game anglers, and fishing for recreation formed an important part of their visit. Later that year, Michael Lerner established the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), which helped shape modern sport fishing worldwide.

A souvenir of the Lerner Expedition. Tauranga Museum, 1101/06

This fish bat, used to stun or kill the expedition’s catch, is also known as a fishing priest – a name that alludes to its role in administering the 'last rites’. It is signed by all the members of the Lerner Expedition and was given to the donor’s father, Keith Gifford, who served as Secretary of the Big Game Club on Tuhua and accompanied the Lerners throughout their three-week visit. 

A very independent woman

Yatton Park from above, 2026.  Mansel Street is at extreme top-left corner.  The site of the original homestead, above the bend of the Waimapu Stream, is entirely covered by trees. Image: Google Maps

During the Victorian era, intrepid female explorers defied strict societal expectations of domesticity, travelling the globe for adventure, scientific discovery, and personal freedom. Mary Kingsley explored west African jungles and swamps, Isabella Bird the explorer and travel writer rode 800 miles over the Rocky Mountains, while the artist Marianne North ventured to all of the continents and her collection of botanical art is housed at Kew Gardens in London. Another woman, this one Irish-born, Lucy Mansel travelled to New Zealand prepared to break in the land and farm, accompanied by six of her nephews.

As well as her sense of adventure, the family background may also have led to a desire to leave England as her brother and later her sister did, for their father Robert Mansel, who was the Lieutenant Colonel of the 6^th Inneskilling Dragoons, was the first of several illegitimate children fathered by General Robert Manners and his common-law wife Mary Ann Goodchild. Mary was the daughter of a coachman so not of the same class as her partner. Manners never married and died aged 65 in 1823 in London but had lived at Bloxham Hall in Lincolnshire.

Lucy Mansel heard of George Vesey Stewart’s Katikati settlement in New Zealand from a friend and decided to take a big step and emigrate. She was unmarried and, on the Northumberland in 1884, brought with her six nephews: Charles, Herbert, William and Harold Mansel, sons of her brother Robert, and Clement and Robert Dowell, sons of her sister Mary Dowell [1].  She had been caring for Herbert since he was five years old. On arrival in New Zealand, she decided against settling in Katikati with the other Stewart people and instead bought an established farm on the outskirts of Tauranga. It was Yatton, the 320-acre property formerly owned by John Chadwick [2].

Miss Lucy Mansel (centre, holding a dog) and her young relatives, October 1899. Herbert sits in front.

Image: Te Ao Marama Tauranga City Libraries 09-003

Miss Mansel, as she was known in those more formal days, extended the existing house at Yatton to one with eight bedrooms and also built a large barn that was used for balls and other social occasions.  The domestic buildings were built on a high point overlooking the estuary. She was a very strong supporter of the Anglican Church, helping to fund-raise for the new church of St George’s at Gate Pa, and was the only woman on the building committee. She donated the font for the new church. Lucy made the Methodist Sunday School children welcome each year for their annual picnic at her farm after their short voyage up the estuary from Tauranga to the landing at Yatton.  The barn provided shelter if there was poor weather. 

 Miss Lucy Mantel and her boating party on the Waimapu, October 1889.

Image: Te Ao Marama Tauranga City Libraries Photo 09-004

Lucy Mansel was also a committee member of a group of Tauranga women who organised the gift of a photograph album for Mary, Duchess of Cornwall, later George V’s Queen, on the occasion of the Royal Visit in 1905.  It was an album of Tauranga and district photographs by Tauranga’s leading photographer Mary Humphries.

As well as having her nephews working on the farm, she also accommodated farm cadets from England as G.V. Stewart and some of his Katikati settlers did. She never married and left the farm to her nephew Herbert Benbow Mansel, the five-year-old whom she had brought up. It was this legacy to Herbert that prompted Lucy’s niece, Mary Constance Dowell, to contest the will that Lucy had signed in 1910.  Her claims of her aunt’s fading mental facilities and encroaching blindness were disputed by George Maltby, lawyer; Reverend Eric Rice, vicar; Dr Budenell her doctor; Walter Baigent, accountant; and nephew Herbert Mansel.  In light of the information from these men Mary Constance withdrew her objection to the granting of probate.

It is from Herbert’s submission that the family stories are revealed. Robert Mansel and his wife, parents of Herbert and his brothers, retired from the Royal Navy where his rank was Commander, to farm in Africa where he died in 1872. When he married in Tauranga, Herbert built another house on Yatton for his future family, adjacent to Lucy’s. His parents had taken four of his siblings to Africa. Herbert was 17 when he arrived in Tauranga and totally dependent on his aunt. During her lifetime Lucy gave Herbert part of Yatton in trust for his children and helped him financially, including help with the education of his children. Lucy also told him she would leave him the remainder of the Yatton estate. By 1914 she had sold any remaining property in England and brought the money to New Zealand. Lucy’s eyesight did get worse but she lived until 1916. She died in Auckland and is buried in Tauranga’s Anglican cemetery [3].

Subdivisional map of Yatton, May 1919.  Image: Te Ao Marama Tauranga City Libraries Map 20-230

Lucy’s sister Mary Mansel married George Dare Dowell of the Royal Marines.  He won the Victoria Cross during the Crimean War. It was his sons who had travelled to Tauranga in 1884 with their Aunt Lucy. Following Dowell’s retirement, the couple moved to New Zealand until his death in August 1910. His wife died 6 weeks later.

Family military tradition emerged again when the First World War broke out and three sons of Robert Charles Mansel and his wife Beatrix enlisted.  George Victor and Robert Charles Mansel returned home after the war but Herbert Pengelly Mansel died in Palestine from malaria.  Although he is buried in the Jerusalem War Cemetery [4], his memorial can be found in St George’s Church, Gate Pa.

Both images: Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.  
At right: AWNS-19160727-45-25; at left, photo by Janes Bruce Ringer, 3003-2914

References

[1] Rorke, Jinty, entry in Dictionary of NZ Biography 1993: Lucy Mansel

[2] Bay of Plenty Times, 4 April 1941: see Papers Past, National Library. Viewed 16/05/2026.

[3] Will of Lucy Mansel, Archives NZ. Auckland Probates IE48341583. Viewed 17/05/2026.

[4] Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database.

 

A Journey Across the Pacific: Samoan Migration to New Zealand

From Tauranga City Library’s archives

A monthly blog about interesting items in our collection

Image of Virginia Marshall (nee Williams). Taken when immigrating from Apia Samoa to New Zealand on the Matua in 1946 or 1947.

Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Photo 13-1177

 

Among the treasured collections of Tauranga’s Pae Korokī archive is a photograph of Virginia Marshall (née Williams). Taken during her journey from Apia, Samoa, to New Zealand aboard the Matua in the late 1940s. While simple in appearance. This image captures a powerful story of migration, resilience and change. [Virginia M...Pae Korokī]

For many Pacific Islanders in the post-war years, travel to New Zealand represented both opportunity and uncertainty. The voyage itself was not an easy one. Ships like the Matua carried passengers across long distances, often in crowded and basic conditions. Space was limited, privacy scarce, and comfort minimal. Seasickness, unfamiliar routines and the challenges of life at sea made the journey physically demanding.

Beyond the practical difficulties lay deeper emotional challenges. Migrants left behind their homes, families, and cultural foundations. Carrying with them hopes for a better future. For some, English was not their first language, which created barriers in communication both during the journey and upon arrival. The uncertainty of what awaited them in New Zealand employment, housing and social acceptance added another layer of tension.

These journeys were also shaped by the political context of the time. Samoa was under New Zealand administration and movement between the islands and the mainland was influenced by official processes and restrictions. Migration was not always straightforward and many travellers navigated complex systems as they relocated.

Yet, despite these challenges. Such journeys were acts of courage. The photograph of Virginia Marshall represents more than a moment on a ship it reflects a pivotal transition in a person’s life and echoes the broader story of Pacific migration.

Today, images like this remind us of the strength and determination of those who crossed oceans to build new lives, enriching communities like Tauranga in the process.

Sources:

Pae Korokī - Tauranga Archives Online, Photograph of Virginia Marshall née Williams

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Written by John Atafu, Heritage and Research Team Te Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries