Glenfield (Māori: Te Wairau)[3] is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, located on the North Shore.

[6] In 1912, local residents petitioned the post office to change the name of the area to Glenfield.

[9] The first name on early colonial maps associated with the area is Opuawananga, which refers to puawānanga, a native species of clematis.

[10] In 2013, Glenfield College adopted the name Te Puawānanga for the school's whare wānanga.

[12][13][14] The highest point in the suburb is a hill between Colin Wild Place and Chivalry Road, which reaches a height of 83 metres (272 ft) above sea level.

[15] Prior to human settlement, the area was a kauri and mixed podocarp forest,[16] which by the 19th century developed into a mānuka-dominated scrubland.

[21][22] The North Shore was settled by Tāmaki Māori, including people descended from the Tainui migratory canoe and ancestors of figures such as Taikehu and Peretū.

[27] The warrior Maki migrated from the Kāwhia Harbour to his ancestral home in the Auckland Region, likely sometime in the 17th century.

His younger son Maraeariki settled the North Shore and Hibiscus Coast, who based himself at the head of the Ōrewa River.

[35] One of the earliest land sales to European settlers in Auckland took place near Glenfield on 17 April 1837, when Ngāti Whātua rangatira Nanihi and Tuire sold Te Pukapuka, a 320 acres (130 ha) block to American whaler William Webster, at the north-eastern headwaters of Oruamo or Hellyers Creek, near Bayview.

Webster on-sold the land to Thomas Hellyer on 13 October 1840, who established the Retreat, a house which included a kauri sawpit, a hut, and a workshop.

[36][9] On 22 December 1841, Hellyer's body was discovered at the Retreat, and while an investigation took place, no person was convicted of his murder.

[38][37] In the 1850s, the first European settlers in Glenfield developed orchards and dairy farms,[9] including the Mackay and McFetridge families.

[39] Windy Ridge was one of the first areas of inland Glenfield by European settlers, when Terence and Elizabeth Crook purchased 569 acres (230 ha) north of Coronation Road, known as Gooches Corner.

Fruit and farm produce would be carried along tracks and horse carriages to Northcote and Birkenhead, then on to Auckland markets by ferry.

[42] By 1889, 24 cottages were built in the area surrounding Cut Hill,[42] and a kauri gum store was established at the junction of Sunset and Glenfield roads in the 1890s.

[44] In 1890, the New Zealand Hydropathic and Fruit Hospital was established at Glenfield, as a facility that treated conditions such as rheumatic gout, hysteria, dropsy, diabetes and constipation through treatments such as vegan diets and therapeutic baths.

[53][54] The hall hosted major social events, including elaborate coronation balls.

[57] With a rapidly increasingly population, the Waitemata County Council decided to establish a rubbish dump on reclaimed land in the Oruamo or Hellyers Creek foreshore in 1969.

Commencing operation in 1868, the district administered projects including roads from Birkenhead north to the Ōkura River.