Abstract:
On January 22nd. 1840 the first white settlers landed on the Petone foreshore to find a land clothed with mixed podocarp-broadleaf forest. Dense bush covered the hills and most of the valley floor. White’s Line and Wakefield St., lying approximately parallel to and about one mile north of the present shore line were formed at the edge of the bush growing on the riverflats. (1) & (2).
Establishment of a settlement necessitated clearing some of the forest for agricultural purposes and to provide timber for dwellings. The rapid growth of the village was accompanied by extensive felling of the easily accessible timber trees and by the formation of roads to these points. By 1842, the Western Hutt Road extended beyond the forest margin for a distance of more than a mile, while by 1843 the Eastern Hutt Road had been formed as far as Silverstream. In the following year it had reached Upper Hutt. Road development on the Western side of the river was however much slower and it was not until 1852 that this road reached Belmont. No further extension of the Western Hutt Road was officially undertaken until the railway to Upper Hutt was constructed, this line reaching Silverstream in 1875.
