A bay by any other name

Wellington’s beautiful Oriental Bay has a glowing beach, wonderful harbour views and pricy homes.
But would it be quite so flash if it was called Duppa Bay?  Which it was originally.
It was all because of the first European resident George Duppa.
George Duppa was born in 1819 in Maidstone in Kent to Baldwin Duppa and his wife Mary.
In 1839, he purchased eight properties in Wellington for £800 from the New Zealand Company in London and at 21-years-old set off across the world.
On arriving in Wellington on January 1, 1840 - then Port Nicholson - he found, like a lot of others, that the surveying had not been done and he could not have the land.  In fact it was in the Wairarapa, on land that had not yet been purchased from the local Iwi.
After an initial attempt to clear land in the Hutt he was defeated by a flood, an earthquake, then a fire.
So he moved to what would become Oriental Bay and built a house.  He had had the prefabricated home brought out from England.  It sat just below where the monastery is now.
He was the only one there - the area was considered a dreary looking spot that was only used as a quarantine area  with a tent and a nurse on the beach and whalers.
In 1841, his brother Bryan suggested a second settlement to the New Zealand Company.  It would go on to become Nelson.  George was requested to go with a ship to report on the area.
Meanwhile George could not get his land in Wellington recognised so opted to leave.
He imported cattle from Australia and squatted on unoccupied land at Allington in the Wai-iti valley.
George was also granted 200 acres in the Waimea and an 8000 run in the Upper Wairua Valley  then granted the lease of part of the Lower Peaks country forming the foundation of the St Leonards station.
He wasn’t, however, always a good guy. He encouraged his sheep to graze on neighbours land as well as avoiding paying his annual dues to the Commissioner of Crown Lands along with an attempt to defraud Robert Ross, the manager at St Leonards.
In 1862, he sold St Leonards for a huge amount and returned to England and bought back his ancestral home in Kent.  That gave him the life of a country squire.  He married society beauty Alice Catherine with whom he had a son.
George was considered one of the first men to have made his fortune in New Zealand.
He died on January 5, 1888 and is buried at the All Saints graveyard in Kent.
And Oriental Bay ended up with the name because the Oriental was the ship George arrived in.   Duppa Street in Berhampore is named for him.

​