Garden
Dr Andrew Sinclair, first owner of The Pines.
Meryta sinclairii : The puka plant
Garden history
The Pines Gardens occupy a unique place in New Zealand’s cultural and horticultural history. The seven acres of land on the slopes of Maungawhau-Mt Eden were first purchased and planted in the 1850s by Andrew Sinclair, then Colonial Secretary of New Zealand and founder of Auckland Museum.
Sinclair, a passionate botanist and field collector, collaborated with Joseph Hooker, the director of Kew Gardens, England, on The Handbook of New Zealand Flora, still in print 150 years later.
After Sinclair’s tragic death in the South Island in 1861, numerous New Zealand plant species were named in his honour, many retaining the epithet sinclairii today.
Further planting was carried out by George Burgoyne Owen and Thomas Bannatyne Gillies, two more of Auckland’s founding fathers, after whom Owens Road and Gillies Avenue are named.
The Norfolk pines that inspired The Pines name were planted in the 1870s by Josiah Clifton Firth, a prominent parliamentarian, whose castle residence, Clifton, still stands just off Mountain Road.
The pleasure garden
Selwyn Robinson with Sir James Fletcher of Fletcher Construction.
100 years later in 1971, Selwyn Robinson - who had by that time owned the Pines for 30 years - realised his dream of preserving the gardens when the residents moved into the newly built Pines Apartments.
The jungle path down to Owens Road
The pool path