Mangarakau Area Tramways

INTRODUCTION

Mangarakau was a remote and difficult area to settle, yet significant industries were established here and thrived for a number of years, including farming, flax milling, logging, and coal mining. As it was that only road access to communities even further south, it also boasted a Post and Telegraph office.

Mangarakau Flax Mill

Flax milling was one of the earlier industries to be established here but all as small operations that relied on adequate export prices to enable them to survive. Transport was always the big obstacle with little to no formed roads in the early days and plenty of swamp. A large flax mill was established once a tramway was provided to carry the sawn timber from the sawmill at Patarau, that ran past Mangarakau to Pah Point where product could be loaded onto coastal traders. There is no indication that tramways were used in harvesting the flax, but there was a formal arrangement for shared use of the tramway from Mangarakau to Pah Point, a distance of some 7km, much of it just running on the mud flats. The flaxmill machinery was transferred to Mangarakau in 1913 from Patarau where it had been in use since 1903, having been the first mill there. It was powered by as 25HP Brittania steam engine that had be brought to site from Levin and used local coal.