Fairfield, Wellington

Fairfield is an eastern suburb of Lower Hutt, New Zealand, situated in the south of the North Island of New Zealand.

Fairfield
Suburb
Country	New Zealand
Local authority	Lower Hutt City
Population  (2006) approx.[1]
• Total	2,976

	Avalon	Naenae
Epuni	Fairfield
Waterloo	Arakura

Education

Epuni School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students,[2][3] with a roll of 88 as of March 2020.[4]

Notable residents

Montague Ongley [5]

Community

The Common Unity Project Aotearoa located at 310 Waiwhetu Road was founded in 2012 by Julia Milne based on a philosophy of strengthening the community through collaboration.[6]

Epuni Boys Home

Epuni Boys Home was opened in 29 January 1959 at 441 Riverside Drive as a state-run home for "troubled' boys aged between eight and 17. It closed in February 1990. Numerous allegations of physical and sexual abuse have been made by former residents during their time at the Home and these are among allegations under examination by the Royal Commission of Enquiry into State Care.[7][8][9]

References

1. Hutt City Council - 2006 Hutt City Demographic Profile Archived December 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved: 7 January 2009
2. "Epuni School Official School Website". epuni.school.nz.
3. "Epuni School Education Review Office Report". ero.govt.nz. Education Review Office.
4. "Epuni School Ministry of Education School Profile". educationcounts.govt.nz. Ministry of Education.
5. Mason, Allan (2000). "Ongley, Montague". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
6. Klein-Nixon, Kylie (21 December 2019). "Down to Earth: Common Unity founder Julia Milne's love of the Remakery". Stuff. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
7. Somerset, Guy (4 March 2011). "The lost boys of Epuni Boys Home". NZ Listener.
8. Cohen, David (5 May 2018). "Inside Epuni: The hard life served to us as state wards". NZ Listener.
9. Cohen, David (5 October 2020). "Victims, IHC and lawyers combine in new chapter of never-ending process". RNZ. Retrieved 12 October 2020.

Further Reading

Fairfield, formerly the hamlet of Epuni in the city of Lower Hutt, Peters, Edna, Lower Hutt, N.Z. New Zealand Country Women's Institute, 1990, Unpublished manuscript. NLNZ ALMA 995119123502836.

A history of the Epuni School compiled by Lance Hall, a pupil of the school from 1904, and added to by headmasters since 1953. (NLNZ ALMA 99993263502836)

Common Unity website: https://www.commonunityproject.org.nz/