HAMILTON’S HISTORY
• Hamilton’s earliest settlers – Maori from the Tainui waka – called the area Kirikiriroa, which means long
strip of gravel.
• In the 1860s the New Zealand Wars and the policy of raupatu (land confi scation) resulted in subsequent
European settlement.
• A military outpost was established mainly in Hamilton East.
• Formal European settlement was established on 24 August 1864, when Captain William Steele
disembarked from the gunboat Rangiriri and established the fi rst redoubt near today’s Memorial Park.
• The name Kirikiriroa was changed to Hamilton in honour of Captain John Charles Fane Hamilton, a
Crimean and Waikato war veteran and commander of the Esk, who was killed at Gate Pa in 1864.
• In 1867 the road was opened to Auckland and a regular coach service commenced, followed by railway
from Auckland in 1877.
• The Borough of Hamilton was established on 27 October 1877 with a population of 1245 and an area of
752 hectares, through the combining of East and West Hamilton settlements.
• Sixty-eight years later, on 13 December 1945, Hamilton became a city with 20,000 citizens.