Purau, Christchurch
33 council reports since September 2015, the 107th busiest suburb in the city. 29 photographs on record. 75 people at the most recent Census.
The record also holds 2023 Census snapshot· 29 photographs· 5 old photographs· 2 heritage places· 40 documents· 5 mentions on the wire
Live source links
Link-outs to the source’s own live pages, chch.live does not copy their live values or source text.
Living here rent · the ground · the day-to-day
Rent: too few new bonds lodged here for Tenancy Services to publish a median this quarter, the last figure it released was about $575 a week, and it counts this under the much wider Diamond Harbour area, this locality sits inside it, so read the figure as the district’s.
Median and quartiles of weekly rents on new private bonds, by quarter. New bonds are fresh lodgements, not the whole rental stock; under five bonds the rent is withheld, and counts are randomly rounded. Source: Tenancy Services rental bond data: provisional while the bond system migrates.
Lately the record’s mostly roads & footpaths, 5 reports in the year to 13 October 2026, the newest 5 August 2026.
One for the quiz, Purau enters the written record on 31 March 1855, “JURY LIST. (Lyttelton Times, 31 March 1855)”, Papers Past.
2023 Census snapshot SA1 areas grouped here
About 1,536 people and 693 occupied private households in the “Diamond Harbour” and “Teddington” areas, grouped from 13 SA1 areas. A wider statistical area stands in for this suburb, so this is a proxy rather than a count for the suburb boundary.
Stats NZ’s 2023 Census uses fixed random rounding to base 3. Unavailable or confidential cells are left out, not treated as zero. individuals · households · geography · CC BY 4.0.
About the suburb
Purau is a small town in Canterbury, New Zealand, facing Lyttelton Harbour.
As reported 29 on record
The suburb, back then 5 in the archive
Placed by the record’s locality join or the name in its own title, a lead, not a claim each frame stood here.
The shape of it outline © OpenStreetMap · recent reports, pinned
The record on Purau
- Purau enters the written record on 31 March 1855, “JURY LIST. (Lyttelton Times, 31 March 1855)”, Papers Past.
- “Purau” appears somewhere in 143 of the archive’s records, title, description or body.
- A Papers Past search for the name surfaced 30 records, leads by provenance, not by phrase.
- The first report the feed ever carried here: roading/streets, 13 September 2015, at 150–164.
- The street that keeps coming up is Purau Port Levy Road, reported on 8 separate days.
- For elections the suburb’s centre falls inside Banks Peninsula ward, the Banks Peninsula community board is its local layer. The whole roll is at /wards.
Lately the newest reports
Overgrown Vegetation11A Purau Port Levy Road
3 cabbage trees and one other tree on waterways land in full contact with power lines
General RequestPurau Bay Ramp 50 Purau Avenue
These pollution signs need to be collected up around the Diamond Harbour area. This one at the Purau boat ramp will soon blow into the sea causing pollution…
Fallen Tree68 Purau Port Levy Road, Diamond Harbour
Large dangerous dead tree on council berm. It dropped a large dead branch onto Old Port Levy Road missing me by about 3 meters. Needs to be removed…
General RequestPurau Bay Ramp 50 Purau Avenue
Large macocapa log has come down Purau stream and is now floating amongst the moored vessels off the Purau jetty. Is a nav safety issue
Animal - Deceased175 Purau Avenue, Diamond Harbour
Large dead seal - possibly a leopard seal - Diamond Harbour end of Purau Beach - likely to get very smelly soon!
Facility - General Request50 Purau Avenue
A step at Purau jetty has a board missing and others are displaced, leaving a gap. This is extremely dangerous when covered by the tide due to poor visibility…
Facility - General Request50 Purau Avenue
Purau jetty. Steps that form part of the dinghy launching ramp have detached from the stringer. A temporary repair was made but has failed due to rotten timber…
General Request50 Purau Avenue
Unsafe wharf treads at purau wharf, accident recorded, as I went to swim on Saturday the 7th 8.30 am. Photo attached, showing treads out of place, I could not…
Reports per year down 43% 2024→2025
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What gets reported
Exactly what people say
The suburb today
No boundary is on record for Purau, the joins that count inside an outline (the crash tally, the ground layers, the area figures) stay unanswered rather than guessed.
Before any of that
On the register here
Documents 40
What the archive’s sources say about Purau, titled for it, turned up by a search for one of its places, or carrying its name in the text. These are leads and citations: the originals live at the provider, linked from each row.
151850s
281860s
51870s
71880s
121890s
481900s
141910s
71920s
71930s
21940s
1990s
82000s
92010s
JURY LIST. (Lyttelton Times, 31 March 1855)
…ner day george frederick oxford st lyttelton mariner day james timaru servant dean george purau port victoria landowner deans john level station akaroa servant de moulin william royal hotel christchur…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
JURY LIST. (Lyttelton Times, 04 April 1855)
…william christchurch country district laborer revell thomas kaiapoi farmer rhodes robert purau port victoria farmer rhodes alfred oxford st lyttelton boatnha rhodes israel flea bay stockowner rich al…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
Evans, Charles, Papauni Laboure (Lyttelton Times, 20 February 1856)
…church district labourer rees wiiiiam chiistchuich district labourer rhodes robert heaton purau port victoria farmer rhodes alfred lyttelton boatman richards joseph christchurch carrier rickman robert…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
JURY LIST. (Lyttelton Times, 20 February 1856)
…er j day william lyhelton mariner j day georjre frederick lyttehou mariner j dean joliffe purau port victoria landowner j denby christopher a near christen dairyman denton john frederick heathcote far…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
Page 9 Advertisements Column 3 (Lyttelton Times, 10 February 1858)
…ner deacon roger colombo street south brewer deal james 5 rangiora labourer dean jolliffe purau port victoria laudowner dean george purau port victoria boatman denlopp william heatheote valley farmer…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
Page 10 Advertisements Column 3 (Lyttelton Times, 10 February 1858)
…ntleman woodford richard avon mill miller george 13 x christchurch caipentev wood charles purau farmer wood william derisley christcburch mil-1 ler…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
Page 10 Advertisements Column 2 (Lyttelton Times, 10 February 1858)
…dward thomas korotueka farmer revell frederick henry kaiapoi farmer rhodes robert ileaton purau port victoria farmer rhodes alfred lyttelton boatman rickman robert lincoln road farmer rickman frank li…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
Page 9 Advertisements Column 1 (Lyttelton Times, 10 February 1858)
…farmer ashby john papanui road farmer ashton phillip christchui-ch farmer ashwcrth james purau farmer atkinson thomas cashel street christeburch carpenter back alexander lower lincoln road surgeon be…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
Provincial Council. (Lyttelton Times, 20 February 1858)
…be effected both rotes were adopted the next item proposed was branch from akaroa road to purau bush 500 ewoisjcc of mis itwasistafea was to provide j lyttelton with timberposts and rails c j jlr alpo…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
Page 6 Advertisements Column 2 (Lyttelton Times, 17 March 1858)
…and thence by land a by the usual foot track via port levy to pigeon bay and akaroa b to purau and thence across to port levy valley proceeding up the valley into the akaroa and purau direct road if…Lyttelton Times · Papers Past · National Library of New Zealand · · text held
The rest are a search away, the whole shelf, for the name →
The wire on Purau 5 lately
Pioneer held their Club Championship at Purau Bay last weekend with 30 riders taking part on what was a warm Canterbury day. The property has seen a lot of development with a new road and better…Flickr · nzpeterb ·
Aussie pygmyweed seen — Purau 8972, New ZealandiNaturalist · alice_shanks ·
Mossy Stonecrop seen — Purau 8972, New ZealandiNaturalist · alice_shanks ·
Banks Peninsula Button Daisy seen — Purau 8972, New ZealandiNaturalist · shamptonz ·
Banks Peninsula Sun Hebe seen — Purau 8972, New ZealandiNaturalist · shamptonz ·
40 more documents came up in searches for Purau's places and have not been read yet, a lead is a search result, not a fact, until somebody reads it.
Next door
Compare Purau with Diamond Harbour · Port Levy · Charteris Bay · Lyttelton · Corsair Bay · Cass Bay, same record, side by side.
Questions, answered briefly
What is Purau?
Purau is a small town in Canterbury, New Zealand, facing Lyttelton Harbour. The public record holds 33 council reports for it, the first filed in September 2015.
How many people live in Purau?
75 people at the the most recent count Census.
How many people does the 2023 Census count for Purau?
About 1,536 people and 693 occupied private households (wider SA2 stand-in): grouped from Stats NZ SA1 areas through this site’s suburb join. Indicative, not a LIM.
What gets reported in Purau?
33 reports on record, most often roads & footpaths (11), trees & parks (8), everything else (7). 5 of them in the year to 13 October 2026.
What stood in Purau before?
The heritage register holds 2 places here, Dwelling and Setting, Purau, Dwelling and Setting, The Whare. The written record goes back further: the shelf, for the name →
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