Oriental Bay features largely (as we would expect!) in the postcards of very early Wellington which are part of the Wellington City Recollect. This is a new heritage resource launched by Wellington City Council. It’s a database of heritage photos, books, maps and postcards, showing the Capital’s past.

The Constable Collection of Wellington postcards, most of which date from 1905 to 1914, is especially fascinating to Wellingtonians and residents of Oriental Bay. The collection is named after a Mr Constable from the Hawke’s Bay who donated the bulk of the collection to Wellington City Libraries.

We reproduce one postcard here that is dated 1905. With two figures in the foreground, it shows Oriental Bay when trams ran into the city from the Bay. Another, looking north-east across Oriental Bay from the slopes of Mt Victoria, is only five years later but shows how quickly the Bay was being developed. The third is also dated 1910 and shows the boat harbour topped by the almost-completed St Gerard’s Catholic Church.

— Judith Doyle, Bay View newsletter 69, May 2017