Pukeori Street is a new street in the New Plymouth suburb of Marfell which was named after a nearby historic pā demolished in the late 1960s to make way for a housing development.
The street connects Cook St to Banks St through the Cook Street Reserve and is part of the new Marfell Kiwibuild development which opened in 2020.
The New Plymouth District Council’s Te Huinga Taumatua committee recommended the name in 2021 as a way of restoring the name of this pā with the area, even though the pā was actually located a short distance away, in the area of the junction of Omata and Blagdon Roads.
The large pā was first partially excavated in 1959 when Ōmata Rd was re-routed south through part of the pā in order to cut off a sharp corner. Then, in 1969, the whole pā was removed to make way for a 23-section sub division, described at the time as a “modern terraced housing block”.
Although the pā being noted as being in a good state of preservation with particularly well-defined defensive works, the decision was made to level the pā. “We can’t keep them all. As much as we would like to, there are so many of them that some have to go,” one authority was quoted as saying in the local newspaper.
The pā was one of four within about 200m of each other. The other three being Oronga, Ngakauaeawaki and Whakawhitiwhiti. Whakawhitiwhiti is the only remaining pa that has not been lost to subdivision and development.
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