Johnsonville is a large suburb in northern Wellington, New Zealand. It is seven kilometres north of the city centre, at the top of the Ngauranga Gorge, on the main route to Porirua (State Highway 1). It is commonly known by locals as "J'ville".
History
Johnson's clearing
Johnsonville was originally the site of a Māori track from Wellington to Porirua (the Old Porirua Road), and had no indigenous inhabitants prior to European settlement. Vegetation was dense native forest, dominated by tōtara, mixed podocarp trees (notably tōtara and rimu), rātā and hīnau. Johnsonville was settled in 1841 by, among others, Frank Johnson who had purchased a certificate of selection and had drawn the 100 acre 'Section 11 Kinapora (Kenepuru) District'. Initially called 'Johnson's clearing', Frank Johnson built a house by the Johnsonville stream and a timber mill near the center of modern Johnsonville. He quickly denuded the entire Johnsonville area of virgin native forest, with timber sold to help build the nearby town of Wellington. He soon sold his land at a substantial profit, and returned to England by 1858 leaving the environment massively changed, and on which site a farming industry to support nearby Wellington City grew. The Daisy Hill Farm House was built about 1860, and is still standing.
Over the 20th century, farmland slowly gave way to Suburbia, with the first tiny township of Johnsonville steadily growing to become populated principally by a "mid-level" socio-economic strata. Johnsonville was a town by 1896.
1886: the railway arrives
The opening of the railway to Wellington by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company in 1886 (see Johnsonville Branch and Johnsonville Station) enabled people to commute to Wellington, and the line was electrified with more frequent and faster trains in 1938.
About 1894 stockyards were built in Broderick Road adjacent to the station sidings by Freeman R. Jackson. Stock (cattle and sheep) railed from the Manawatu and elsewhere were driven through the streets and down Fraser Avenue to the Ngauranga abattoir. The suburb got the name "Cowtown", and residents complained about hygiene and noise. So a new siding and stockyard was opened near Raroa station in 1958.
Town Board
Johnsonville was proclaimed a local board in 1874. From 1881 it was a dependent town district, renamed in 1887 the Johnsonville Town District. In 1908 the Town Board became independent. In 1909 John Rod, Chairman of the Town Board, negotiated for electric power; supplied by the Hutt Valley Electric Power Board and installed in Johnsonville by Norman Heath & Co. The board was active in the 1912-1922 period when gas lighting and drainage were installed and streets kerbed and channeled. In 1912 a water reservoir was built for water supplied from Ohariu Valley, and a new reservoir built in 1922. Drainage installed in 1912 was to a septic tank in Ngauranga Gorge. The septic tank lasted to 1953; when Johnsonville amalgamated with the Wellington City Council in April and the council completed a main sewer to the area. Surrounding areas also joined Wellington; like Raroa, which had been in the Hutt County Council.
The Town Board area was extended to the Hawtrey Estate north of Ironside Road from 1 April 1932, and the board installed some standpipes to fill water buckets.
The population grew from 143 in 1874 to 206 in 1878 and 438 (in 83 dwellings) in 1897. The population almost doubled between 1901 (502) and 1911, and was just over 3000 by 1951. In 1976 it was 9230; a 37% increase 1956-66 and 106% increase 1966–76.
Wellington suburb
The town grew rapidly from 1938 with state houses built on the former Native Reserve between Broderick Road and Fraser Avenue; the first was built in Bould Street. From 1938 to 1956, 329 state houses were built.
In the 1960s, the first shopping mall in the Wellington region was built in Johnsonville.
Demographics
Johnsonville, comprising the statistical areas of Johnsonville West, Johnsonville North, Johnsonville Central and Johnsonville South, covers . It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2.
Johnsonville had a population of 11,106 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 870 people (8.5%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 1,866 people (20.2%) since the 2006 census. There were 3,942 households, comprising 5,394 males and 5,712 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.94 males per female, with 2,211 people (19.9%) aged under 15 years, 2,202 (19.8%) aged 15 to 29, 5,349 (48.2%) aged 30 to 64, and 1,350 (12.2%) aged 65 or older.