The great Maori explorer, Kupe, is credited as the first person to discover Aotearoa (New Zealand), and also the first person to land on what became the Miramar Peninsula.
Kupe's descendent, Whatonga, captained the Kurahaupo waka and settled in Whanganui a Tara ('the great harbour of Tara) early in the 12th Century.
European settlers began arriving in Wellington in the early 1840s and by the end of that decade James Coutts Crawford and others had purchased much of the Peninsula's land.
By the early 1850s, most indigenous vegetation had been cleared and by the 1890s almost all the Peninsula was farmland. By then the Peninsula was also a popular sporting resort with recreation grounds, a hunt club, polo field, golf links and trotting club.
In 1902, an auction of 132 residential sections attracted huge interest and signalled the beginning of urbanisation on the Peninsula. In 1904 the Miramar Borough Council was formed, the first electric tram reached the Peninsula in 1907, and the suburb was incorporated into the City of Wellington in 1921.
For several decades the area remained a family oriented, predominantly working class suburb with a strong manufacturing base. Today, many of the old industries have gone and the area is home to a number of internationally recognised, creative industries employing a work force from around the world.
