An Anglican Church trust is taking its claim over the ownership of a Pt Chevalier sports ground to the High Court, amid community fears the land could be carved up for housing.
The Anglican Trust for Women and Children (ATWC) has filed a statement of claim in the High Court at Auckland, arguing it is the rightful owner of the 1.7ha site that has housed the Hallyburton Johnstone Sports Club since 1928.
The ATWC is citing a 100-year-old trust deed to claim ownership of the long-standing home of bowling, croquet and tennis in Auckland’s Pt Chevalier.
The dispute centres on whether a trust created nearly a century ago was ever legally valid.
The club has filed a statement of defence, which argues that the property belongs to the Hallyburton Johnstone Sports Club.
The club is home to the Pt Chevalier Bowls Club, Pt Chevalier Croquet and the Pt Chevalier Tennis Club.
Pt Chevalier Bowls Club president Simon Munro said the land is not only home to about 1200 bowls, croquet and tennis members, but serves as a wider community facility for the inner‑city suburbs.
This includes local RSA members whose clubrooms closed several years ago, and a community garden run by volunteers and used by local schools.
The club is concerned that the ATWC plans to carve up some or all of the land for housing.
Several hundred people attended a public meeting at the club yesterday, including local MP Helen White, Auckland councillors, Albert-Eden Local Board members, rugby league great and local resident Stacey Jones, and Yvonne McCardell – whose great-great uncle was Hallyburton Johnstone.
Croquet club secretary Julie Derrick said “it would break our hearts to see this beautiful lawn filled with townhouses”.
Tennis club president Lloyd Berryman was worried about losing the facility just short of the club’s 100th anniversary.
Jones told the Herald the club was a great place for the community, saying he had grown up in Pt Chevalier, where he still lives.
“I don’t play bowls. I come here for the kitchen, the kids come here, watch sport, and I have a quiet beer with mates. We want it [the club] to stay the same for everyone,” he said.
White said keeping the club was a complete no-brainer.
“It is absolutely crazy that the Anglican Church would do this to the community, and, quite frankly, shame on them,” she said.
A public relations spokeswoman for ATWC, Adelle Keely, told the Herald the trust was seeking legal clarification over the ownership of the Pt Chevalier land, saying that after extensive engagement, it had become clear that the only way to provide certainty for all parties was through a legal process.
“We understand this is a matter people feel strongly about. Our intention is simply to resolve the issue responsibly and allow the appropriate legal processes to determine the next steps. Our day-to-day focus remains on supporting the families who rely on us,” Keely said.
“The ATWC will await the outcome before providing any further comments.”
Tim Boyle, who attended the meeting with 8-year-old daughter Maisy Boyle, who held a sign that read “This is a Magic Place”, said the club was the heart of the inner-city suburb.
“The community is going to stand up and fight. We are not going to let this go easily at all. The Anglican trust, while they may do some good work in the community, this is not a community I think they want to take on,” Boyle said.
The case centres on the 1928 trust deed between farmer Hallyburton Johnstone and the Hallyburton Johnstone Bowling, Croquet, Tennis and Sports Club Incorporated, which includes an old imperial land measurement of “four acres, one rood and eight decimal seven perches” at Dignan St, Pt Chevalier.
The ATWC’s statement of claim argues the sports club trust was invalid from the outset because it failed to meet the legal requirements for a charitable trust and instead served as a private club. It also said the deed lacked an end date, which was a legal requirement at the time.
It said that when Johnstone died in 1949, he left the land in his will to the Henry Brett Memorial Home Trust Board, and therefore, the land belongs to the ATWC.
After Johnstone’s death, his executors transferred the land to a trustee and later to the Public Trustee to hold under the 1928 Trust Deed. The ATWC argues that because the trust was invalid, the Public Trust must now transfer the legal title to ATWC.
Munro said the sports club disagreed and believed the 1928 document created a valid charitable trust.
“The purpose of giving us this land was to provide sports and recreation to the community,” he said.
Munro said if the trust did not have an end date, modern law would set it at 125 years, meaning it would expire in 2053, when the land should pass to the club.
The statement of defence has also argued that the ATWC had brought its claim far too late, noting that the original trust deed was known by the 1940s and certainly by the 1960s, yet proceedings were not filed until December 2025.
McCardell said Hallyburton Johnstone donated land throughout his life for the community and especially for sports, including the Pt Chevalier site, where he even moved out of his own home so it could be used as the clubrooms.
She said she believed it was his intention for the land to be used for sport and to continue in perpetuity.
“Just don’t give in, don’t give in, like he never did,” McCardell told the meeting.
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