Gracefield is an industrial suburb of Lower Hutt City, located at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand.

Up until the 1980s, Gracefield and neighbouring Petone were home to woollen mills, railway workshops, car assembly and meat processing plants.

The camp was built by the government, and in the 1950s housed 200 mostly immigrant men who were working on the electrification of the Hutt railway line.

By the mid-1930s a flock mill operated by John Grant and Company, a subsidiary of Felt and Textiles of Australia (Feltex), was established in Gracefield Road.

[24] In 1940 Feltex expanded the business with a new 50,000 sq ft factory nearby, intending to manufacture carpet and all types of felt for slippers, millinery, saddle linings, floor coverings and engineering purposes.

[27] Feltex was bought by Geoffrey Hirst Pty in 2006,[28] and as of 2024 the Bell Road factory in Gracefield still operates under this brand name.Griffin's Food Company built a new factory on a five and a half acre site at the northern end of Gracefield in 1938, with the first biscuits being produced in January 1939.

[32] In 1939, two thirds of the approximately 90 staff were women: this "bevy of skilful girls in neat smocks" could process 20 tons of biscuits per week.

[38] The now defunct Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) bought 16 acres of land at Gracefield in June 1942 and moved its Physical Testing Laboratory into a new building there in December that year.

[40] The DSIR was disbanded in 1992 and its various departments formed into Crown Research Institutes, many of which (or their successors) still have a presence in Gracefield.

Construction started in 1932 but was halted several years later when only partly completed due to a lack of funds brought about by economic depression.

The tunnel was never opened to road traffic, and other than a brief stint of military service during World War II, remained unused until sold in 1975.

Greater Wellington Regional Council is responsible for the tunnel, and also maintains the water supply pipe that runs through it.

The Waiwhetū Stream is a small watercourse that flows through Gracefield and drains the eastern side of the Hutt Valley.

Development and urbanisation of the Hutt Valley since the arrival of settlers led to increasing pollution and degradation of the stream environment.

[47] Pressure from the community beginning around 2003 helped to trigger a major project to clean up the lower reaches.