Ellerslie

History

The suburb was named by early local politician and entrepreneur Robert Graham, after his father's home in Elderslie (sic) in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Graham arrived in Auckland in October 1842 as an assisted immigrant from Scotland. In 1848 Graham bought two blocks of land where, after his marriage to Sophia Swann in 1852, he built the ‘Ellerslie House’ as a family homestead. Adjacent to this home was a track along which Mrs Graham was in the habit of riding her horse every morning, now a street called Ladies Mile. Many of the local streets bear names of Graham family members. Ellerslie is now a desirable suburb with convenient access to the city centre for commuting (via rail and bus links) and ready access to the nearby Southern Motorway for road users. The town centre is pleasant with good services, while retaining a sense of community. Housing in the area is well planned and close to a number of attractive parks, such as Michaels Avenue Reserve and Waiatarua Reserve. Māori gave the name ‘Waiatarua’ to the site which later became the Ellerslie Racecourse. Translated as "two songs" the name refers to a waiata or song that emanated from caves. Thanks to the long-term strategy of the local business association, it is now increasingly oriented towards lunchtime shoppers and again has many prosperous smaller businesses. At 9.00 am on 12 June 2004 a meteorite crashed through the roof of the home of the Archer family in Ellerslie. The meteorite landed into the living room of the house, bouncing off the couch and hitting the ceiling. The home owners heard an explosion and saw dust everywhere, but nobody was hurt. This meteorite is officially named the Auckland Meteorite, despite tradition demanding that a meteorite is named after the nearest post office. However, an…