Oratia Stream, Brook in West Auckland, New Zealand

Oratia Stream is a brook that flows through West Auckland from the Waitakere Ranges down to the Waitemata Harbour. The waterway winds through residential areas and creates a green corridor linking suburbs and natural spaces.

The area developed in the 1800s around timber milling, when operators used the stream to move felled logs. Over time, industrial use gave way to recreational development as the community grew around it.

The name Oratia comes from a pā that stood on the stream's western banks near Holdens Road, in what is now Oratia and Sunnyvale. The upper catchment was called Waihorotiu because of the landslips there, and the mouth at Te Kōpua, today Falls Park and Tui Glen Reserve, was a Te Kawerau ā Maki pā at the point where canoes could go no further up Henderson Creek.

The stream can be followed on foot from Parrs Park in Glen Eden north through Sunnyvale to Falls Park / Tui Glen Reserve in Henderson, where it becomes Te Wai-o-Pareira / Henderson Creek. The shared path runs beside the channel past the WestCity Waitakere shopping centre, so walking and cycling can be combined with a stop there.

The stream is fed by six smaller waterways, some flowing down from the forested hills of Titirangi. These tributaries gradually combine to feed the main channel with water from higher ground.