Rotowaro

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Rotowaro
Geographical location
Rotowaro (New Zealand)
Rotowaro
Coordinates 37 ° 36 ′  S , 175 ° 5 ′  E Coordinates: 37 ° 36 ′  S , 175 ° 5 ′  E
Region ISO NZ-WKO
Country New ZealandNew Zealand New Zealand
region Waikato
District Waikato District
Ward Huntly Ward
Local foundation 1916
Residents few
height 30 m
Post Code 3771
Telephone code +64 (0) 7
Remarks
In 1987 all residents of the settlement were relocated and the settlement was dissolved
Entrance to the coal mine in the Pukemiro coal field (1917)

Rotowaro was a small mining settlement in the Waikato District of the Waikato regionon the North Island of New Zealand .

geography

The settlement was located around 9 km southwest of Huntly , where the Rotowaro Mine is today. The settlement could be reached via Rotowaro Road , which begins on the western bank of the Waikato River at the end of the Tainui Bridge in Huntly .

history

Coal mining southwest of Huntly began in 1915, but no later than December 20, 1915, when the railway line from Huntly to the coal field at Pukemiro was completed.

In 1916 the Taupiri Mining Company bought swampy land where the open pit is now, started mining coal in a coal mine called Mahon's Mine , and built the Rotowaro settlement for the miners and their families . More land was added and the underground mining gradually expanded until the tunnels reached below the settlement.

In 1918 Rotowaro received a train station that opened on February 11, 1918. In 1924 a school followed and in 1929 a separate community hall was completed, which was inaugurated on April 28, 1929 by Revered HG Gilbert . A New Zealand branch of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes , a grand lodge of England, owned Rotowaro Lodge No. 106 a lodge in Rotowaro with its own house. The lodge moved to Ngāruawāhia in the 1980s, but later ceased operations. The Oddfellows were also active in Rotowaro . The settlement consisted of around 100 houses, twelve of which were privately owned.

In 1931, Waikato Carbonization Limited established the Rotowaro Carbonization Plant near the settlement and processed the coal extracted from the local pits into coal grit , coke , coal tar and coal tar oil . After an explosion in the plant, the factory was closed in 1987, the contaminated sites were cleared from 1991 to 1996.

In 1958, the coal mine began near the settlement and in 1985 the Mahon's mine was closed because the mining of the coal using the Bord and Pillar method was not efficient enough and 80% of the coal remained in the mine. State Coal , which now owned the mine, decided to expand the open pit to be able to exploit the rest of the remaining coal. In 1979 the miners' families were informed that their settlement would have to be sacrificed to open-cast mining. 24  Māori families were also asked to leave their land and property. In 1987 the relocation of the families was completed and the settlement dissolved.

All that remains of the settlement is a photo book containing photos by the photographer David Cook , who captured the settlement and life in the settlement in his photos in 1984.

Attractions

The Rotowaro Carbonization Plant was listed as a Historic Monument in August 1991 and has since been listed as a Category 1 Historic Site on the New Zealand Heritage List under registration number 7013.

and display information about the image
Rotowaro Carbonization Plant

media

In the late 1960s, Floyd Cox founded what was then a new type of private radio station in Rotowaro , which could be received in the surrounding area.

Sports

The Rotowaro football team was one of the strongest in the Waikato area in the 1920s and 1930s. She made it to the finals of the Chatham Cup several times .

literature

  • David Stokes : Educational Resource Teacher's Unit . Waikato Coalfields Museum , Huntly 2012 (English, online [PDF; 2.8 MB ; accessed on November 2, 2017]).
  • David B. Cook : Rotowaro : the Last Days of a Waikato Coal-Mining Township . A photographic project . Ed .: Waikato Museum of Art and History . Hamilton 1985, ISBN 978-0-908750-00-9 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Topo250 maps . Land Information New Zealand , accessed November 2, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Distances and locations determined using Google Earth, Version 7.3.0.3823.
  3. ^ History - The Glen Afton Line . The Glen Afton Line Heritage Railway , accessed November 2, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Stokes : Educational Resource Teacher's Unit . 2012, Rotowaro : the Town and the Mine , p.  29 .
  5. ↑ a b Stokes : Educational Resource Teacher's Unit . 2012, Rotowaro : the Town and the Mine , p.  31 .
  6. ↑ Rotowaro carbonization plans . Waikato Regional Council , accessed November 2, 2017 .
  7. ^ Alan Sherwood, Jock Phillips : Bord and pillar mining . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , September 7, 2016, accessed November 2, 2017 .
  8. ^ Nancy Swarbrick : Waikato Places - Huntly . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , June 11, 2015, accessed November 2, 2017 .
  9. ^ Cook : Rotowaro : the Last Days of a Waikato Coal-Mining Township . 1985 (English).
  10. ^ Rotowaro Carbonization Works . Heritage New Zealand , accessed November 2, 2017 .