Waro Limestone Scenic Reserve

Cathedral Rock, 1923

The Waro Limestone Scenic Reserve is a limestone landscape reserve near Waro , a district of Hikurangi , 16 km north of Whangarei on the North Island of New Zealand .

history

Limestone cliffs, 1918

In pre-European times, the Maori of the Ngati Hau, Ngati Kahu O Torongare and Ngatiwai tribes used the rocks for cultic purposes and call them waahi tapu today . Since the late 19th century, the rocks have been a magnet for settlers and tourists. The privet plants, daffodils and peppermint that grow in the area today probably date from this period .

Coal mining and narrow-gauge railways

There were up to 60 or 70 coal mines in the area, which mined a total of about 4.2 million tons. The largest were the Hikurangi Coal Company, the Wilson Colliery Company, and the Northern Coal Mine Company. The coal was discovered in the 1860s. However, the first coal mine was not opened until 1889. The coal was transported on several narrow-gauge railways .

Waro Horse Tramline

The Waro Horse Tramline was a horse tram . It was probably built between 1894 and 1905. The earliest known evidence of its existence is a survey plan from 1905. From the coal mine called (A) Kerr & Wyatt's mine , the (B) eastern light railway led to the lime kilns at the (C) siding on the state railway line from Hikurangi Kamo, built in 1894, as well as one (D) older, at that time already disused field railway, as can be seen on a map from 1907.

Waro Horse Tramline
Route, 1907

Hikurangi Coal Company

The Hikurangi Coal Company operated a coal mine below the limestone rocks from 1913. It was closed during the First World War and reopened in 1921 by the Wilson Collieries to produce fuel for the cement works in nearby Portland . The colliery was finally closed in 1933 due to water ingress.

Northern Colliery Company

In September 1904, the Northern Colliery Company procured a steam locomotive built by Orenstein & Koppel in Berlin with the works number 1411. The locomotive had a track width of 560 mm (22 inches ) and an output of 20 hp. It was resold in the 1910s to New Zeeland Cement Co. on Limestone Island and from there in 1918 to Wilson's Portland Cement Co. in Portland , where it was operated as "BERTHA". It later came to the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland and is still preserved there today. A garden railway model of the steam locomotive was manufactured and sold by LGB .