City Guide: Papaioea Palmerston North

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With a population of 80,000, Papaioea Palmerston North is one of the nation’s largest provincial cities. The smart alec would ask: “Why is it there?” It does not have the natural port or landing point which spurred the development of most other New Zealand cities. The trigger was much more modest – a clearing in the forest. Ngāti Rangitāne whakapapa to the area and, in the 1860s, the Crown acquired the clearing. Scandinavians were among the first Pākehā settlers and the milling of the surrounding forest became an early industry. The railway spurred growth when it arrived in 1886, the line running through the centre of The Square, giving the city a heart and life. The Square continues to define the city’s layout today but the railway line was relocated to the northern outskirts in 1963 and 1964. Extraction of the line left key streets uncannily wide and The Square suffered, despite attempts to reinvigorate it. The seven-hectare green space gives the CBD a sense of spaciousness but it is too big to be urban.

The population reached 20,000 in 1930 and Palmerston North was proclaimed a city. The construction of a public hospital, Massey University (from 1927) and Linton Military Camp (from 1942) all helped to ensure further growth. The Technical School that would become the