Waterside Karori

Waterside Karori was formed in 1987 when Karori Swifts merged with Waterside. These two clubs had contrasting origins: Swifts were founded in 1894 from a Sunday School, and Waterside were founded in 1921 by dock workers. The current Waterside Karori club is still nicknamed Wharfies.

Waterside were originally based at Kaiwharawhara at Wellington's waterfront, a location still used by Waterside Karori. Waterside was a successful club at a national level in New Zealand in the 1930s and 1940s, winning the Chatham Cup in 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1947. However, the club was damaged by the wider effects of the in 1951 disaster hit the club. The 1951 waterfront strike which lasted 151 days and only five players returned from that industrially ravaged season to play in 1952. It took around 9 years for the industrial problems to recede, and then Wharfies started to rebuild.

In 1965, land was leased from the city council at Kaiwharawhara and clubrooms erected there. The area was top-soiled, drainage laid, and floodlighting installed, at considerable cost, to provide players with facilities approaching the best in Wellington at the time. In 1978 the club changed its name to Columbus Waterside in appreciation of the major sponsorship received from the Columbus Shipping Line.

The Wellington Swifts were formed in 1894. They played in a maroon shirt and dark shorts. The Swifts football club were a nomadic bunch with no roots to any one district, wandering all over Wellington before moving to Karori in the 1950's.

The Swifts were a successful club early on, winning the Venus Shield seven times before the First World War. This was the highest honour for Wellington teams prior to the Chatham Cup being established in 1923.

The Wellington Swifts changed their name to Karori Swifts in the late 1960's, giving them an identity with the suburb. Benburn Park became the senior home ground and there were two junior sized grounds at Karori Park. The closeness to the Karori Cricket Club rooms, and the fact that a group of football players also played for Karori Cricket, started an association between the two clubs and with Karori Park.

By the mid 1980's, Waterside was a wealthy club and was experiencing success in the top men’s leagues. Karori Swifts strength was in its size. Karori had 10 men’s teams, 2 women’s teams and 40 junior teams, but it lacked success at the higher levels. A merger of the two clubs was seen to benefit Swifts by way of status and sponsorship money, whilst Waterside would benefit from expanding its small player base.

The merger took place in 1987, forming Waterside Karori AFC. The question of strip was easily decided. Waterside played in black and white, as did most other sports codes in Karori, so those colours became the club’s new strip..

The club currently has 14 men's teams, 3 women's teams and over 700 junior members.

In 2004 it became one of the founding principal clubs of the Team Wellington franchise in the New Zealand Football Championship.