Avalon is a suburb of Lower Hutt in New Zealand, formed as a private residential development in the 1970s on land formerly occupied by market-gardens on the left bank of the Hutt River. It features mostly California-inspired designed houses, often split-level, with 3 or 4 bedrooms. The Hutt City Council formally defines Avalon as the area bounded by Percy Cameron Street and the Wingate Overbridge in the north, the Hutt Valley rail line in the east, Fairway Drive and Daysh Street in the south, and the Hutt River in the west.
Avalon Studios
Avalon came to the attention of most New Zealanders as the early centre of the country's nationwide television-broadcasting production, particularly with the opening of the purpose-built Avalon Studios in 1975. Given that New Zealand started regular public television-broadcasting for the first time in 1960, and instituted networked television in 1969 with only a single channel available to viewers, the sole provider of television-broadcasting acquired a monopoly position of immense influence within the New Zealand mass media, and the name "Avalon" summarised and expressed that clout for many years. Avalon also became the focus of New Zealand film-production - through and building on the National Film Unit, which Peter Jackson bought in the late 1990s and incorporated into his Park Road Post facility. Avalon was the filming location for the 2002 television show100 Hours. Television New Zealand inherited the Avalon real-estate and continued to operate some functions from Avalon, even though its activities mostly moved to Auckland in the course of the 1980s. Avalon produced television-shows such as Good Morning and the New Zealand Lotteries Commission's live Lotto draw. However, in 2011 TVNZ announced that it would sell off the site for good by 2013 and shift its remaining shows to Auckland, thus consolidating the broadcaster's Auckland focus. According to Wellington-based TV personalities, the northward drift began in 1980 with the formation of TVNZ, and the subsequent relocation of the TV One newsroom and headquarters to Auckland under then Prime MinisterRob Muldoon. In April 2012 a consortium, Avalon Holdings, bought the Avalon Studios with the expectation of officially taking possession in early 2013. In 2017 the studio facilities were used for filming of the Scarlett Johansson starrer Ghost in the Shell. In March 2019 an application was lodged to transform the 10-storey Avalon Tower into 61 residential units.
