Jubilee Park

Jubilee Park is situated on the slopes above the Western Hutt Road, just north of the Normandale overbridge. The entrance off the carpark on Normandale Road leads through native bush to Hutt Minoh Friendship House, a feature of the park.

The house is a reflection of the sister city relationship between Hutt City, and Minoh, Japan. The ground floor of the house is available to the public for casual hire, and can be accessed from a driveway, or from steps leading from the carpark off Normandale Road.

A track from the house leads down to a bush gully of beech and titoki, with a stream running down the middle of the gully to a pond and the remains of the fernery, and a replica of a pioneer hut resurrected on the site as an exhibit. The pond, the concrete shell of the fernery and stone chimney of the exhibition hut are features of the original park and form part of the site’s heritage.

Further on from the gully are several open grassed areas that are the sites of former houses which were demolished when the Western Hutt Road was widened in the 1960s. The remains of these homes, which were built in the early 1890s to the late 1900s, also form the heritage character of the park today. Other remnant house sites and sections of driveways have been overcome by vegetation and can be accessed by tracks from the lawn areas.

The house remnants include a swimming pool, tennis courts, garden walls and paths and orchards. Visitors to the park can trace these remains through a series of signs explaining the history of the houses and their occupants. Remains of the domestic gardens surrounding the properties can also be seen including mature trees such as oak and plantings of wisteria, camellia, roses and rhododendrons.

Tracks link the park to Normandale Road and Gaskill Grove, and a track runs parallel with the Western Hutt Road from the Normandale Road carpark to the fernery.

Recreational use of the park includes a skateboarding half pipe accessible from
Normandale Road, walking, jogging and picnicking. A Japanese archery club (Kyudo) uses the lawn off the driveway as a practice area.

History

Jubilee Park originally opened to the public in 1941 after the Lower Hutt Borough Council purchased the land in 1938. The park was named for the 50th Jubilee of the Lower Hutt Borough Council and opened the year Lower Hutt was elevated to city status.

The original park was 13 acres of bush clad gully purchased to provide a sanctuary for native bush close to the city. The upper slopes of the park were originally covered by grass and gorse, but this was cleared and native shrubs and trees were planted.

The highlight of the park in the 1940s was the specially built fernery, said to have “the most comprehensive collection of ferns from all parts of the Dominion”. The displays included ferns from around the country and also greenhouse flowers such as begonia and cyclamen.

Another feature of the park is the remains of a historic pioneer hut which was re-erected on the site following the centennial exhibition in Wellington. The hut was made of totara slabs, had a thatched raupo roof, a chimney of riverstones and was furnished with antiques from early New Zealand. Today only the stone chimney remains.

The former home Norbury, now known as the Hutt Minoh Friendship House was purchased by the Council in 1945 and incorporated into the park.

After the widening of the Western Hutt Road in the 1960s Jubilee Park saw more changes. Carparking near the fernery was lost, and the fernery was eventually demolished. Access to several homes along the Western Hutt Road frontage was lost, and the homes were demolished and the land incorporated into the park.

The house is named to reflect the sister city relationship between Hutt City, and Minoh, Japan. The house is used by community groups and as accommodation for visitors from Minoh. Hutt Minoh Friendship House was formerly known as Norbury and has historical significance for its association with the politically prominent Fitzherbert family as well as with Professor Von Zedlitz, the first professor of modern languages at Victoria College (now Victoria University). The house is listed as a heritage building in the City of Lower Hutt District Plan and is recognised by the NZ Historic Places Trust as a Category I historic building.