The suburb of Khandallah is located northeast of central Wellington on hills overlooking Wellington Harbour. Its proximity to the city, not to mention its good schools, early childcare centres, parks, sporting facilities and other amenities, means this tranquil and green area is popular with families and professionals. The name Khandallah means ‘resting place of the gods’ and the people who live here know they’re in paradise thanks to the sun, views, birds and bush surrounding them.
Khandallah Village in Ganges Road is the heart of Khandallah, a quaint retail and dining street with the historic Khandallah Town Hall at its centre. Established in the 1920s, Khandallah Village has grown to offer a supermarket, cafes & restaurants, fashion retailers, a pharmacy, physio & medical centre, a garage, hairdressers & beauty therapists, a vet and numerous other professional services from drycleaning the legal advice. Opposite the Town Hall is Khandallah Library which the Wellington City Council calls “a good representative example of 1950s Modernist architecture [which] can be seen as the quintessential representative of the suburban library of which many were built in Wellington in the 20th Century.”
Khandallah’s most famous natural landmark is Mt Kaukau, which, at 445m is the highest point overlooking Wellington harbour. Mt Kaukau, also known as Tarikaka, is topped with a 122m transmission mast. Part of the Northern Walkway, our maunga is popular with walkers, sightseers and mountain bikers. Khandallah Summer Pool at the entrance of Khandallah Park is a much-loved community facility but Khandallah boasts a number of fantastic playgrounds as well as the Nairnville Recreation Centre.
Khandallah is a short drive from Central Wellington but is also well-served by public transport, with regular buses and trains providing easy access to the city and beyond.
British settlers started farming and living in Khandallah in the 1840s. The suburb is said to have been named by a British Army officer who was inspired by his time in India. Though history cannot agree who, some say it was Captain James Andrew, who gifted the land for Khandallah Homestead (built on the corner of Burma Road and Kim Street in 1884). Captain Andrew also gifted the land for Khandallah Railway Station, which opened in 1885. Captain Edward Battersbee, who had also spent time in India and lived in the area earlier, is sometimes credited with naming the suburb.
Khandallah’s first streets were named after families who settled in the area, but many were changed to reflect the links with India in the 1920s. Many of those early buildings have since disappeared, but the area has many other notable places of more recent history. The Khandallah Town Hall in Khandallah Village is still well-used by the community, a century after it was erected. The Khandallah Telephone Exchange on Khandallah Road, built in 1921, is the second oldest exchange of its kind still standing in New Zealand. It was decommissioned in the 1980s and is now the home of the Onslow Historical Society.
One of Khandallah’s most famous and recognisable homes is the ‘Athfield House’, that sprawls down the hillside facing the harbour. The house, designed by renowned Wellington architect the late Ian Athfield as his home and studio, was begun in 1965 and is a fantastical mixture of styles and building materials.