Hillcrest, Hamilton: Suburb Guide to Community with Schools in Hamilton East

Hillcrest sits on rising ground east of the Waikato River. The suburb is closely tied to the University of Waikato, whose main campus opened here in 1964 and remains the base for most of its students. That mix of students, staff and families gives Hillcrest a younger, more varied community than many Hamilton suburbs.

Most housing dates from the 1950s and 1960s, with flats and newer infill closer to the university. Many homes near the campus are rented to students, while the streets further from it are quieter and more settled.

The suburb is well placed for the east side of the city. Cambridge Road carries traffic towards Hamilton East and the city centre, and the Hamilton Town Belt parks give residents green space and walking links on the western edge of the suburb.

Hillcrest was originally Waikato-Tainui land, taken after the confiscations that followed the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s. The area was later known as Steele’s Hill, after Captain W. Steele, and in the early 1900s much of it was covered in orchards.

The Waikato County Council named it Hillcrest in the 1940s, as the area began developing as a suburb, and it became part of Hamilton in 1949 with the city’s fifth boundary extension. Most of today’s housing was built during the 1950s and 1960s.

The Station on Hillcrest Road is Hamilton’s former main railway station. The building was moved from Victoria Street to Hillcrest in the 1960s, when the underground Hamilton Central station was built, and it is one of the few surviving stations from the era of Julius Vogel’s Public Works Department.

Hillcrest Normal School (opened 1923) and Knighton Normal School (opened 1957) are state primary schools for Years 1 to 6. As “normal” schools, both help with the training of teachers. Berkley Normal Middle School, St John’s College, a Catholic boys’ secondary school, and the kura kaupapa Māori TKKM o Toku Mapihi Maurea are also within the suburb.

Despite its name, Hillcrest High School is in nearby Silverdale rather than Hillcrest itself.

The University of Waikato campus is the suburb’s largest landmark. Its Academy of Performing Arts, opened in 2001, is one of Hamilton’s main venues for classical music and theatre, and many university events are open to the public.