page_title: Waikino
section_title: 1981 flood
hierarchical_section_title: Waikino / History / 1981 flood
caption_attribution_description: English: ALL USERS OF THIS IMAGE ARE REQUIRED TO ATTRIBUTE THIS WORK TO PETER TERRY.
context_page_description: Waikino is a small town at the southern end of a gorge in the North Island of New Zealand alongside the Ohinemuri River, between Waihi and the Karangahake Gorge. The Waikino district lies at the base of the ecologically sensitive Coromandel Peninsula with its subtropical rainforests, steep ravines and fast moving rivers and streams. The cascades f the Owharoa Falls lie just to the north of the settlement.
  The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "harmful waters" for Waikino.
  The population of Waikino was 213 people in 90 households in the 2013 New Zealand census.
context_section_description: The main highway shops came to a devastating end in the great Ohinemuri river floods of 1981. A huge torrent of water literally picked up the Waikino business district and many homes, and washed them downstream through the Karangahake Gorge. All that was salvageable was the Waikino Hotel and the local community hall, both of which remain operational today.
  A new post office was later built on higher ground with funds raised by the community. Initially the National Government deemed a new community post office uneconomical, and so decided not to replace one of the town's focal community services which was depended on by the large aged population to cash their weekly pension cheques. This unwelcome decision raised an uproar among the locals, many of whom became overnight activists. This heralded the establishment of the "Waikino Action committee", which lobbied Government and the wider community to have a new community post office constructed. After a bitter campaign the Government agreed to build a post office, conditional on the community footing much of the bill – which it did. After the postal services were privatised under Rogernomics in the 1990s this postal service was terminated permanently.
  Waikino also has its own primary school which caters for children from as far as Waihi with a daily bus service. The school provides for Year 1 to 6 students, and boasts one computer per two students.
  Tourism and cottage industries are Waikino's primary revenue sources today. Numerous organised tours and walks around the old mining facilities and old rail tunnels, and around beautiful native bush which surround waterfalls and scenic valleys, are available. There is also a community sponsored heritage railway from the Waikino station café to Waihi, the Goldfields Railway. This line used to be part of the East Coast Main Trunk Railway and opened in November 1905, but in 1978, a deviation to the south opened and made it redundant. The Goldfields Railway successfully saved the 6 km of track between Waihi and Waikino and is now a popular tourist attraction, running trains daily with preserved steam locomotives and diesel locomotives providing motive power.
caption: 1981 Waikino flood aftermath
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