Rotowaro

Rotowaro was once a small coal mining township approximately 10 km west of Huntly in the Waikato region of New Zealand. The town was built especially for miners houses, but was entirely removed in the 1980s to make way for a large opencast mine.

History

Mining began in Rotowaro around 1915 after a Railway to the area, and bridge over the Waikato river were completed. Rotowaro train station was opened on the Huntly-Awaroa railway on 11 February 1918. A hall was built in Rotowaro during the 1920s and opened by Rev H G Gilbert on 28 April 1929. The Royal Antedilluvian Order of Bufffaloes NZ Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England once had a lodge in Rotowaro, as did other Fraternal Orders.

Rotowaro's association football team was one of the strongest clubs in the Waikato Region in the 1920s and 1930s, reaching later rounds of the Chatham Cup on several occasions.

See also

• Rotowaro Carbonisation Plant
• The Bush Tramway Club
• Rotowaro
• http://www.archives.presbyterian.org.nz/photodatabases/1929parishimages.htm