Flat Bush

Flat Bush (also known as Ormiston or Flatbush) is an Eastern suburb in the city of Auckland, New Zealand. It has recently become one of the city's largest new planned towns after being developed as an urban area of Auckland for several decades. Plans for substantial expansion began under the former Manukau City Council — having bought 290 hectares in the area in 1996.

As of 2023, substantial residential development means the area has grown to over 45,000 people, a similar population to Nelson, and includes a large shopping centre: Ormiston Town Centre.

The Flat Bush area is part of the rohe of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, who descend from the crew of the Tainuikomanawa waka, who visited the area around the year 1300. The traditional name for the wider forested area was Te Hūnua, a name now essentially applied to the Hūnua Ranges. Ngāi Tai centred life along the coasts between the Tāmaki River and Wairo River, settling at locationsin an annual cycle of encampments based on what resources were seasonally available. Puke-i-Āki-Rangi was a defended Ngāi Tai pā site. The name literally means "The Hill That Way Propelled Skyward". Over time, Ngāi Tai formed unions with many Tāmaki Māori groups in the area, including Waiohua and Ngāti Pāoa. During the Musket Wars in the 1820s, Ngāi Tai Ki Tāmaki sought temporary refuge in the Waikato.

In 1836, English missionary William Thomas Fairburn brokered a land sale between Tāmaki Māori chiefs covering the majority of modern-day South Auckland and East Auckland. The sale was envisioned as a way to end hostilities in the area, but it is unclear what the chiefs understood or consented to. Māori continued to live in the area, unchanged by this sale. In 1854 when Fairburn's purchase was investigated by the New Zealand Land Commission, a Ngāi Tai reserve was created around the Wairoa River and Umupuia areas, and as a part of the agreement, members of Ngāi Tai agreed to leave their traditional settlements to the west.

In 1847, Howick was established as a defensive outpost for Auckland, by fencibles (retired British Army soldiers) and their families. During the 1850s, the area was generally referred to as the Howick Ranges. The first recorded references to the area being called Flat Bush are from 1859, the name coming from the kahikatea forests of the area, which looked especially flat when viewed from the surrounding hills. The name was well established by the 1860s.

The wider East Tāmaki area was settled primarily by Scottish and Irish Presbyterian settlers. Originally growing crops such as potatoes, oats and wheat, by the turn of the century, many of these farms were converted into dairy farms. Baverstock Road School, the first school in the area, was established in 1875, renamed East Tamaki School in 1884 and Flat Bush School in 1894. It was closed in 1937 when the Howick District High School was opened. In 1921, the East Tāmaki Co-operative Dairy Company was formed, producing milk and butter for the wider Auckland area.

The Manukau City Council identified Flat Bush as a crucial site for future urban development in the 1970. In 1997, the former Manukau City Council drafted a development plan for Flat Bush, with the first construction beginning in 1998 in the Chapel Park subdivision. Swathes of new residential subdivisions were dubbed Ormiston in the mid-2000s. The name Ormiston originated from Ormiston Road, which was named after Tom and Mary Ann Ormiston, who farmed in the area from 1915. By the mid-2000s, the population of Flat Bush was greatly increasing.

In 2007, Fo Guang Shan Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in New Zealand, was officially opened In the following year, New Zealand's first cable-stayed bridge on Ormiston Road was constructed. The suburb contains the 94-hectare Barry Curtis Park, named in recognition of Manukau's longest standing mayor, Barry Curtis,