The heart of NZ’s automotive industry

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What we see here is Titahi Bay in Porirua, New Zealand, somewhere on a particularly lovely summer’s day in the 1930s. While beaches have always been popular for amusement, it seems that most visitors on this particular place were mostly attracted to the dunes instead. With the beach used primarily for parking. And there’s some great machinery to be found in the bay back on that day.

We took a little look into New Zealand’s pre-war automotive industry and found that this actual beach was pretty much surrounded by car manufacturers, distributors and assembly plants. Hudson and Essex cars were imported from the US from 1908-on just 20 kilometres down south in Wellington. Closer by, even, the Ford Motor Company of New Zealand built a brand new factory in 1936 at Seaview in Lower Hutt. And just around the corner from there, Vauxhalls and Bedfords were being assembled also. This while General Motors of New Zealand, too, had its own assembly plant here - since 1926, building Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles. GM reported that they sourced much of the materials used in their cars locally also: wool in the upholstery, timber for commercial bodies, glass, carpets, varnishes, glues, enamels, padding and numerous small parts. I think we can say that this was the heart of NZ motoring at the time.

So, surely some of the people on that sunny beach must have worked in the automotive trade, and surely some of the cars seen here must have been locally built ones..?

Words by Jeroen Booij.

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