waka between the Manukau and Waitemata harbours. This portage is traditionally associated as the place where the Tainui waka was hauled between the Tamaki River and Manukau Harbour. In the early 1800s, the portage was used by Ngāpuhi during the Musket Wars, to attack Tainui tribes in the Waikato. The suburb was established in 1847 as a fencible settlement, where soldiers were given land with the implied understanding that in wartime, they would be raised as units to defend it (however, the eventual fighting a decade later used professional soldiers instead). Most early features from this time have disappeared, however, such as a stone bridge built by the fencibles that had to make way to a widening of Great South Road. By the 1870s, Ōtāhuhu became the largest agricultural town in the Auckland Province, facilitated by the trade of wheat and other agricultural products to the city of Auckland, trading along the Tāmaki River. In December 1873 the Southern Line opened, connecting the township of Auckland to Penrose. A year and a half later on 20 May 1875, the line was extended south and the Ōtāhuhu railway station was opened. The first supermarket in the country was opened in Ōtāhuhu on 18 June 1958, when the first Foodtown was opened by Tom Ah Chee, who pooled his resources with two other Auckland produce shop owners, Norman Kent and John Brown. Many famous personalities went to Otahuhu College, including heavyweight boxing champion David Tua, former prime minister David Lange, and ex-Manukau City Mayor, Sir Barry Curtis. Local government Otahuhu had a local government just like other suburbs of Auckland at that time. The local government was called Otahuhu Borough Council, which started in 1912 and merged into Auckland City Council in 1985, eventually amalgamated into Auckland Council in November 2010. Mayors during Otahuhu Borough Council Alfred Sturges, 1912–1915 James Atkinson, 1915–1917 Alfred MacDonald, 1917–1921 Robert Black Todd, 1921–1929 Hubert Thomas Clements, 1929–1935 Charles Robert Petrie, 1935–1944 Albert Murdoch, 1944–1950 James Deas, 1950–1954 John "Jack" David Murdoch, 1954–1962 Robert G. Ashby, 1962–1965 Aubray Thayer Bedingfield, 1965–1970 Claude H. D. Handisides, 1970–1977 Niall Frederick Burgess, 1977–1985 Education Otahuhu College is a secondary school (years 9–13) with a roll of . Otahuhu Intermediate is an intermediate school (years 7–8) with a roll of . Otahuhu School and Fairburn School are contributing primary schools (years 1–6) with rolls of and students, respectively. McAuley High School