On a Saturday afternoon on 16 December 1922, the Auckland Zoological Gardens was opened to the residents of Auckland.
OPENING OF THE ZOO.
The Auckland Zoo at Western Springs will be officially opened by the Governor- General, Lord Jellicoe, at three o'clock this afternoon. The gates will be opened at 2 p.m. On Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays the entrances to the Zoo will be on Old Mill Road and Lower Road. On other days only the Old Mill Road entrance will be open.NZ Herald 16 December 1922
The plaque (photographed above) set in place around 1924 originally over the old zoo gates, commemorates that opening day with one exception. At some point along the way within the old Auckland City Council, someone had got the date wrong and thus for nearly 90 years that has been the recorded date. The zoo had its beginnings in the remains of what had been a substantial zoological collection owned by one John James Boyd. It was Boyd that brought the city of Auckland its first zoo and who was the cause of the modern Biosecurity laws that govern New Zealand zoos to this day. Boyd could almost be dismissed as just another eccentric who liked animals, however, without the determination of this man Auckland Zoo would never have existed. Boyd's trials and tribulations are well covered in "The Zoo War" (2008) by Lisa Truttman. After reading the text, I hope some will come to the same conclusion as I had that John James Boyd was not only a brilliant man, but also the father of New Zealand zoos. Without Boyd building his zoos in Wanganui and Auckland (and also Wainoni in Christchurch), New Zealanders would have only ever seen or heard the animals read of in story books, only in the travelling menageries and circuses that visited the country from time to time.
This blog is dedicated to all who have known and loved the Auckland Zoological Gardens from childhood and into adulthood. It is also dedicated to the memory of John James Boyd who without his zoological collection Auckland Zoo would not exist.
