Hakataramea

Location map
New Zealand
label=Hakataramea
lat_dir=S | lat_deg=44 | lat_min=44
lon_dir=E | lon_deg=170 | lon_min=29
position=right
width= 150
float=right
caption=

Hakataramea, spelt Hakateramea in some older sources, is a rural village located in the southern Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It is in the Waitaki District and sits on the north bank of the Waitaki River at its confluence with the Hakataramea River.

History

The area in and around Hakataramea was leased by the New Zealand and Australia Land Company in the 1860s and freehold settlement began in 1878. [Beautiful Waitaki, [http://www.beautiful-waitaki.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=8&Itemid=23 "Hakataramea"] , accessed 21 October 2007.] On 7 November 1881, a combined road/rail bridge from Kurow to Hakataramea across the Waitaki River was opened. The bridge carried the Kurow Branch railway into Hakataramea, and this branch line provided an economically valuable connection to the Main South Line, from which it diverged in Pukeuri, north of Oamaru. [David Leitch and Brian Scott, "Exploring New Zealand's Ghost Railways", revised edition (Wellington: Grantham House, 1998 [1995] ), 83.] Plans existed to extend the line beyond Hakataramea up the Hakataramea River valley to a proposed town that would have been home to 10,000 people, but neither town nor railway extension were ever built. [North Otago Museum, "Duntroon Railway Station", "High Country Herald", 17 October 2007.] Railway services consisted of mixed trains hauled by steam locomotives. Due to low traffic and the closeness of the more significant Kurow railway station, the 1.76 km of trackage between Kurow and Hakataramea closed on 14 July 1930. [Geoffrey B. Churchman and Tony Hurst, "The Railways Of New Zealand: A Journey Through History" (Auckland: HarperCollins, 1991), 205.] The road/rail bridge into Hakataramea is now road only and carries State Highway 82.

In World War I, eight soldiers from Hakataramea were killed. A small square obelisk now stands in Hakataramea as a memorial. [New Zealand History Online, [http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/hakataramea-war-memorial "Hakataramea War Memorial"] , accessed 21 October 2007.]

External links