Sugar Workers’ Cottage (Huka Road)

Several homes along Huka Road and Rawene Road were once private cottages occupied by New Zealand Sugar Company refinery workers. When the refinery first opened in 1884, sixty tents were arranged on the hills above the factory for workers. One hundred workers lived in these while many more workers commuted from across the harbour. To encourage workers to live nearby, the company built thirty-five identical, wood-built homes for them, which climbed up the hill near the bottom of Huka Road. The workers’ village also included a schoolhouse, reading room, and an independently owned general store. The community was originally known simply as Duck Creek, after a nearby stream, but Mr Judd, the refinery’s first customs officer, named the village Chelsea after his hometown near London.

By the 1890s, the workers’ village was proving to be an unhealthy nuisance. The cottages were damp and poorly insulated and the quality of life in the village was poor. Most workers were coaxed into building their own homes on the surrounding hills with subsidies from the sugar company. Those who remained, mostly single men, were forced to move in 1905 when the County of Waitemata condemned the homes in the village. Several cottages were relocated to Huka and Rawene Roads. 45 Huka Road is composed of two cottages that have been joined together. Other homes at 22 and 25 are Victorian bay villas and 29 and 33 are Edwardian-style homes, all built by workers using their subsidies.

Continue to the end of Huka Road.