Learning Intentions: Students are learning to
- Analyse Wellington’s growth as an urban settlement and make comments on general trends over time including projections for the future.
- Understand centripetal and centrifugal movements with reference to Wellington.
Success criteria (How do students know they have achieved success?)
- Students will be able to give reasons why Wellington grew so rapidly after WWII and where these areas of expansion occurred and what processes were involved.
- Students will be able to spatially demonstrate areas of suburban expansion (locate on a map and provide an explanation that references ideas of location).
- Using Porirua as a case study, students will be able to explain Myrdals’ Model of Cumulative Causation.
Relevant Film Archive Footage
Disk One: Growth of Wellington: State Housing: Rehabilitation
Disk One: Growth of Wellington: State Housing:
Post War Housing Boom: Hutt Housing / Naenae Taita Expansion / Wainuiomata / Porirua Housing Expansion (The Wainuiomata and Porirua footage may have been used in Lesson 8-10)
Disk Two: Economic Characteristics: Upper Hutt / Industry Downturn / Porirua City
Disk Three: Urban Change: Wellington In-Fill Housing: Apartments: Port Nicholson Apartments / The Apartment Revolution
Disk Three: Urban Change: Projections
Activities
- How do we measure growth or decline of an Urban Settlement? Discuss possible indicators.
- Do students think Wellington is growing or declining? Why? In what ways?
- View footage of postwar housing and industrial growth. Complete the chart (Handout 1) to show the reasons for the key growth areas. Make sure students include the waves of migration for Porirua.
- On an outline map of Wellington (Handout 2), locate and label areas of State Housing post WWII- include the main areas in the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wainuiomata. Discuss the meaning of dormitory suburbs and the twilight zone.
- Discuss social and economic impacts of industrial closure-view footage Industry Downturn 1980s
- Measuring growth. Prove that Wellington has grown over time and is projected to further grow using this website: http://www.bigcities.govt.nz/pdfs/2007/Quality_of_Life_2007_People.pdf
- Future growth: What form will this take? View footage Wellington In-Fill Housing: Apartments.
- Complete a PMI Chart (Handout 3) on why people would/would not choose to live in Wellington.
- Give two examples of centripetal and centrifugal population movement with reference to specific places e.g. Porirua and complete a cumulative causation diagram based on Myrdal (Handout 4).
Handouts
Teacher Notes
Significant features of the Wellington region are that:
- It is growing but at a slower rate than New Zealand as a whole
- It is ethnically diverse and will continue to be so.
- The population is mobile and aging.
- Regional economic growth is slow and there is a strong focus on service industries. Other significant industries for employment are government administration and defence, property and business services retail trade, finance and insurance, construction, education, and health.
- Employment growth is stronger than the New Zealand average but there are some pockets of higher than average unemployment in Porirua and Hutt Valley.
- It has a strong cultural industry.
Ref: Regional Facilitation Report prepared by Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Wellington Institute of Technology.
