Wattle Drive in the suburb of New Brighton / Red Zone, Christchurch

Wattle Drive in New Brighton / Red Zone – Named after the Australian wattle tree. This was the favourite tree of William Nicholas Ryan (1885-1950), a contractor. Named by his wife, Mary Catherine Ryan (1892- 1978). First appears in street directories in 1960. Information supplied in 2008 by Ryan’s son, Jack Ryan, in a letter to Margaret Harper. A small amount of information from the library website and nothing that I can add about the name of the street. Half of this street is in the red zone and the other half still has houses. The New Brighton Road end which is closer to the river is in the red zone and the Travis Rd end still has houses. Most houses seem to be from 1950s with a few from 1960. Quite a few from 2000 which seem to be practically identical. There was one house from 1990 that was a different style to the rest of the houses but it would need painting frequently to stop it from looking tired.