Normandale is a semi-rural suburb of Lower Hutt City, New Zealand, on the western hills of the Hutt Valley. It consists of two main roads – Normandale Road and Miromiro Road – and the hills between, and is a five-minute drive from the Lower Huttcity centre. Normandale contains historic woodland reserve Jubilee Park and part of Belmont Regional Park, Wellington's largest Regional Park. It also has many other smaller sections of native bush reserve, so native birds are very common; since 2019 Kiwibank has funded the suburb to suppress bird-killing predators as part of New Zealand's Predator Free project. Normandale is home to a primary school, a kindergarten, a church, a cattery, and a dog boarding kennel, and is otherwise entirely residential. As an older suburb made up entirely of narrow and steep hills, it is dominated by trees.
Geography
Normandale is defined by the area bordered by its two main roads: Normandale Road, starting with the bridge from Alicetown over State Highway 2 / Western Hutt Road and the Melling railway line; and Miromiro Road, which branches off after the bridge. Normandale Road is almost 4.5 kilometers long, whose top few kilometres, at around 200m altitude, serves small farms and lifestyle blocks. It connects north to Sweetacres Drive, Belmont. From the top of Miromiro Road, Dowse Drive connects upward to Normandale's pair suburb Maungaraki, with Poto Road connecting back down to Normandale Road in the opposite direction. The other connecting roads meet Normandale Road: Pokohiwi Road to Pekanga Road in the middle, and Cottle Park Drive and Stratton Street at the upper end bordering Belmont Regional Park.
Jubilee Park
Jubilee Park opened in 1940 to commemorate Wellington's centenary. Mostly consisting of native bush, it also includes sites of houses built in the 1890s, a replica pioneer hut with the original chimney, heritage plantings, picnic areas, bush walks, three lawns, and a calisthenics station. Jubilee Park contains Hutt Minoh Friendship House, a Heritage New Zealand :Category:New Zealand Historic Places TrustCategory I listings|category 1 building. Originally named Norbury, it was built in 1904 by Lower Hutt's first mayor William Fitzherbert, to house his daughter Alice and her husband George William von Zedlitz, Victoria University's first professor of modern languages. It was acquired by the City Council in 1945 to house the park caretaker. Today it is used to promote Japanese culture and Lower Hutt's link with its sister cityMinoh, Osaka, whose mayor funded its restoration. It includes New Zealand's first kyūdō dojo.
used two major routes between Porirua Harbour and Wellington Harbour. One of these, called the Old Coach Road by the Pākehā settlers, ran from the Pauatahanui arm of Porirua Harbour south over the hills, exiting through what is now Normandale, into the Hutt Valley. It was a proposed road connection between the two harbours in the 1850s, and was used by coaches until the mid 1880s when it was abandoned in preference to the Haywards Hill Road. Today Old Coach Road is part of the track system in Belmont Regional Park, and the section between the sealed Stratton Street end and Belmont Road junction is a Heritage New Zealand :Category:New Zealand Historic Places Trust Category II listings|category 2 area.
Founding and development of the suburb
Normandale was founded in 1901 under the village settlement scheme of the Liberal Government, New Zealand's first political party government, along with its westerly neighbours Maungaraki and Korokoro. It was named after Ann Normandale, mother-in-law of Richard Seddon. It was initially part of Hutt County, and became a part of Lower Hutt City on 6 October 1957. Substantial development took place during the 1960s and 1970s. The population was stable between 1996 and 2013, with few new dwellings and a decline in the average number of residents per dwelling.
Education
Normandale School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students, with a roll of as of.
