New Zealand - Avondale - Avondale Hotel - View of the Avondale Hotel on the Great North Road at Avondale, with people and two horse drawn vehicles outside - 1910's - Photographer: Richardson, James Douglas History of Avondale - The first European settler in the area was John Sheddon Adam in 1843, but settlement did not occur in larger numbers until the late 1850s, with the completion of Great North Road. - Expansion was rapid, with churches, stores and a public hall built by 1867. With a railway connection to the settlement in 1880, the rate of settlement increased further. - Te Whau became Avondale District on 5 June 1882, although the old name survives in the Whau River, an estuarial arm of the Waitematā Harbour, which runs along the western edge of the suburb. - A prominent community leader and Member of Parliament was John Bollard, who lived in Avondale from 1861 to 1915. - Early industries included brickyards, tanneries, mills and pottery works. Avondale also had numerous market gardens, especially on the Rosebank Peninsula. - It was here that the "Hayward" cultivar of the Chinese gooseberry, later known as the kiwifruit, was developed by Hayward Wright. - From the mid-1920s Avondale became increasingly suburban. - In 1927 the Avondale Borough Council was absorbed into the Auckland City Council. - The so-called Avondale spider (Delena cancerides), an introduced species of a spectacular but harmless Australian huntsman spider, was for decades only found in the area surrounding Avondale, and thus received its New Zealand name. - It was introduced to New Zealand in a shipment of timber to the Aitkins Timber Yard in Patiki Road, and was left to spread, so its distribution pattern might help with the identification of future introduced species dispersal. - In 2017, the council-controlled organisation Panuku Development Auckland announced a major redevelopment of Avondale town centre, including a new library building, community and recreation centre, increased housing and local business development. (source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avondale,_Auckland)