Dingle Dell Reserve (Auckland, NZ)

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History
Prior to 1840 the vegetation on Tamaki Isthmus consisted of fern and manuka on the ridges and slopes, forest remnants in the gullies and flax and raupo in the swamps. All the significant original vegetation had been destroyed by pre European occupation and cultivation.

The area now known as Dingle Dell was once part of one of Major Thomas Bunbury’s four farms purchased by him in 1842. During his occupation he planted hawthorn hedges and shelter belts, oaks, weeping willows and other exotics. Many of these plantings and other introductions such as gorse, blackberry, privet and pine trees became rampant and dominant on the land.

About 1880, the Northcote and St. Heliers Land Company bought about 600 acres of land
including the holding of Major Bunbury, to develop a model seaside suburb of Auckland. The requirement by law for the company to set aside a certain area of land for public recreation resulted in approximately 21 acres of the hilly slopes at the head of the main valley being set aside for this purpose. Grazing by horses and cattle continued. Another reserve set aside was the foreshore park.

By memorandum of agreement dated 23 September, 1904 the N.Z. River Plate Land Mortgage
Company Limited (which had presumably taken over the interests of the Northcote and St. Heliers Land Company) the area was formally transferred to the “Inhabitants of Tamaki West Road District”. The present Dingle Dell reserve to be held in trust and used “as a reserve of native bush” and to be managed in the same manner as if it were a reserve set apart for recreation purposes within the meaning of the Public Reserves Act 1881 Amendment Act 1885, the Reserves and Domains Act 1953, now the Reserves Act, 1977, having superseded the 1881 statute.

On the 1 April, 1928 the Tamaki West Road Board was merged with the Auckland City Council. In February, 1930 the title of the two reserves was transferred to the Council. The regenerating native flora in the reserve at this time was manuka, kanuka, red matipo, cabbage tree and raupo in the swamp. During the depression of the thirties an employment scheme formed Fern Glen and Dingle Roads with the excavated material being used to fill the swamp, thus making the present dry lower lawn areas. Local fund-raising about this time enabled a man to be employed by the district to cut a track linking Parkside and Dingle Roads.

In 1933 following submissions from Mr. Todd Smith since 1925, the Council accredited the reserve with the present name. It is believed the name of the Dingle Road leading to the reserve may have inspired some residents familiar with the works of Charles Dickens to combine it with the word “Dell”. Thus Dingle Dell which is reminiscent of Dingly Dell the fictional name which Dickens gave to both a town in Kent and to the manor farm of the “Pickwick Papers” At the same time animals were excluded by fencing and Messrs. Kealy and Goldsboro took the initiative in planting a selection of natives including pohutukawas, tree ferns, rimu, totara, nikaus, tanekaha, kohekohe and Southland Beech. The latter did not survive. Resultant of this planting is a fine stand of kohekohe and tanekaha at the head of the main valley.

In 1950 the St. Heliers Beautifying & Progressive Association was formed and with a close liaison with the Council’s Parks Department, planting schemes and development were accelerated. Existing tracks were upgraded and extended tracks constructed. Selective thinning of inferior vegetation was carried out to allow better growth of selected specimens. Weed infestations were reduced, Specific plantings were undertaken to commemorate events and persons.