Khandallah

Suburb in Wellington City, New Zealand

Khandallah
Suburb
Khandallah Village in 2005 with Mt. Kaukau in the distance
Coordinates: 41°14′46″S 174°47′24″E / 41.246°S 174.790°E / -41.246; 174.790
Country	New Zealand
City	Wellington City
Local authority	Wellington City Council
Electoral ward	Wharangi/Onslow-Western Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori Ward
Area [1]
• Land	368 ha (909 acres)
Population  (June 2024)[2]
• Total	8,640
Railway stations	Khandallah, Box Hill, Simla Crescent

	Johnsonville, Broadmeadows
Ngaio	Khandallah	Ngauranga
	Kaiwharawhara

Khandallah is a suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) northeast of the city centre, on hills overlooking Wellington Harbour.

The northeastern part of the suburb is dominated by a large area of parkland, which stretches north towards Johnsonville. Three parks that make up this reserve land total almost 2 km² (0.77 sq mi) of the slopes of Mount Kaukau. The summit of this 445-metre (1,460 ft) peak, which is topped by Wellington's main television transmitter tower, provides impressive views of the harbour. Khandallah has a reputation for being one of the most affluent of Wellington's suburbs.

The Khandallah village shopping centre in Ganges Road has a New World supermarket, restaurants, dairy and a pub as well as the Library and Town Hall. Here nineteen new shops opened in the 1920s, overtaking the original shops around the railway station.^[3]

Box Hill was named after a sentry post that was established during the "Māori Scare" of 1846, near the present Anglican Church;^[4] see Old Porirua Road.

Khandallah, comprising the statistical areas of Khandallah Reserve, Khandallah North, Khandallah South and Onslow, covers 3.68 km² (1.42 sq mi).^[1] It had an estimated population of 8,640 as of June 2024, with a population density of 2,348 people per km².

Khandallah had a population of 8,583 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 369 people (4.5%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 732 people (9.3%) since the 2006 census. There were 3,099 households, comprising 4,092 males and 4,482 females, giving a sex ratio of 0.91 males per female, with 1,755 people (20.4%) aged under 15 years, 1,377 (16.0%) aged 15 to 29, 4,278 (49.8%) aged 30 to 64, and 1,170 (13.6%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 84.3% European/Pākehā, 5.9% Māori, 2.1% Pasifika, 12.7% Asian, and 3.4% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

The percentage of people born overseas was 30.4, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 53.7% had no religion, 35.5% were Christian, 0.1% had Māori religious beliefs, 1.5% were Hindu, 1.0% were Muslim, 0.8% were Buddhist and 2.1% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 3,708 (54.3%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 333 (4.9%) people had no formal qualifications. 2,982 people (43.7%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 3,906 (57.2%) people were employed full-time, 1,026 (15.0%) were part-time, and 189 (2.8%) were unemployed.^[5]

Khandallah Library was opened in 1953 in the middle of Khandallah village on Ganges Road, after a 1947 petition by local writer Fanny Irvine-Smith. The library serves an average of 1600 customers a week. The Greater Wellington Regional Council local rain gauge is located here.

The Khandallah Town Hall has a capacity of over 350 people, including 140 seats and 20 tables and has a stage, kitchen and gallery.^[10] It was built in 1912 as the Khandallah Public Hall.^[11]

Nairnville Recreation Centre features a multi-purpose sports hall suitable for basketball, netball, volleyball, and badminton. A squash court is available for hire and an upstairs community room with kitchen facilities.^[12]

Nairnville Park features sports fields that are used for football, rugby and cricket. An artificial turf was added in March 2009.^[13] The park also includes a children's playground, cricket training nets and a skateboard half pipe.^[14]

Nairnville Park and Recreation Centre are named after James and Louisa Nairn who owned farm land in the area.^[15]

Khandallah summer pool is a 30-metre unheated outdoor summer pool at the end of Woodmancote Road.Between 2022 and 2024 Wellington City Council considered future options for the pool, including demolition. In June 2024, Council voted to keep the Khandallah Summer Pool open for another season while looking for solutions to refurbish the pool with a budget allocation of $7.5 million.^[16]

The suburb is served by the Johnsonville Branch commuter railway which connects it to the central city and surrounding suburbs. It has three railway stations; Khandallah, Box Hill and Simla Crescent. Parts of the suburb nearer the harbour and some distance from the stations are served by several Metlink bus routes.^[17]

Khandallah is within the enrolment zones for Wellington Girls' College, Onslow College, Raroa Normal Intermediate and St Oran's College.^[18]

Khandallah has three primary schools.

Cashmere Avenue School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students,^[19][20] with a roll of 306 as of August 2024.^[21]

Khandallah School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students,^[22][23] with a roll of 329.^[24] The school is on Clark St and the site was first occupied by a school in January 1893.^[25]

St Benedict's School is a co-educational state-integrated Catholic primary school for Year 1 to 8 students,^[26][27] with a roll of 229.^[28] The school is on Nicholson Road and was opened in 1952 by Archbishop Peter Cardinal McKeefry. The school was integrated with the state school system in 1981.^[29]

Khandallah is named after Khandela, Rajasthan,^[30] or may be Khandala and supposedly means "Resting place of God" in an unspecified language.^[31] It is noteworthy that KhānAllāh means the hostel of God in Arabic. Hence the suburb and those surrounding it have many place names connected with the Indian subcontinent; e.g. Calcutta Street, Ganges Road and Simla Crescent.

The name may have come from a homestead built in the area in 1884 by Captain James Andrew, who had recently returned from duty in India and had been consul in Baghdad. When the railway was laid through the area by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, Andrew is reported as insisting that the railway station be named Khandallah with the h on the end of the name,^[32] and reportedly gave land for the Khandallah station provided all trains stop there.^[33] However, Edward Battersbee (also spelt Battersby) was listed in the 1864–1865 Province of Wellington electoral roll as living at Khandallah, Porirua Road on 23 April 1864 some 20 years earlier than Andrew.^[34] In addition Battersby had worked for the East India Company as a veterinary surgeon in the Bombay Light Cavalry, thereby making him the more likely originator of the suburb's name.^[35] In January 1868 Battersbee placed his 450-acre property, named in the advertisement as Khrandalah, on the market for sale.^[36]

Another settler from the British Indian Army was Captain Charles Sharp of the Bombay Native Infantry who lived elsewhere but bought land around the Khandallah railway station and let it to sheep farmer Captain John Kirwan. In 1894 Robert Hanna bought it for subdivision.^[37]

When the formation of the Borough of Onslow was proposed in 1889, Khandallah was already described as a District, and was a part of the Onslow Borough until it merged with Wellington in 1919.^[38]

Khandallah was largely farmland to the 1920s; James Nairn built a farmhouse in 1869 on the old Ngatoto Native Reserve, now Nairnville Park.^[39] The opening of the railway to Wellington in 1886 (now the Johnsonville Branch) enabled people to commute into Wellington, and the line was electrified with more frequent and faster trains in 1938.^[40] The population of Khandallah increased from 766 in 1916 to 2,498 in 1938.^[41]

Access was originally via the Old Porirua Road until new access roads opened; Onslow Road down to the Hutt Road in the 1920s and Burma Road to Johnsonville (superseding Fraser Avenue) in 1936.^[42]

• Jessica Hammond, New Zealand politician^[43]

• Bremner, Julie (1983). Wellington’s Northern Suburbs 1840–1918. Wellington: Millwood Press. pp. 73–79. ISBN 0-908582-59-5.
• Bremner, Julie (1987). Wellington’s Northern Suburbs 1919-1945. Wellington: Millwood Press. ISBN 0-908582-80-3.
• Churchman, Geoffrey B (1998) [1988]. The Story of The Wellington to Johnsonville Railway (2 ed.). Wellington: IPL Books. ISBN 0-908876-05-X.
• Kenneally, Joseph (1979). Khandallah: Looking Back. Wellington: Colonial Associates & Khandallah Home and School Association.

• Wellington City Libraries' Khandallah page
• Khandallah in the Cyclopedia of New Zealand, 1897
• "Borough of Onslow & Khandallah, 1897". NZETC. 1897.
• "A rail outing to Khandallah? (cartoon)". New Zealand Free Lance. 22 December 1900 – via Papers Past.
• "Photo of Khandallah from Box Hill, 1974". WCC Archives. 1974.
• "Photo of Ngaio and Khandallah from Mysore St, 1974". WCC Archives. 1974.