page_title: Kaipara Harbour
section_title: European history
hierarchical_section_title: Kaipara Harbour / Human use / European history
caption_attribution_description: Gumdigger statue at Dargaville, Northland, New Zealand. Statue erected by the Dalmatian Pioneer Trust, 1997, as a tribute to the early gumdiggers of the Kaipara District.
context_page_description: Kaipara Harbour is a large enclosed harbour estuary complex on the north western side of the North Island of New Zealand. The northern part of the harbour is administered by the Kaipara District and the southern part is administered by the Auckland Council. The local Māori tribe is Ngāti Whātua.
  By area, the Kaipara Harbour is one of the largest harbours in the world. It covers 947 square kilometres at high tide, with 409 square kilometres exposed as mudflats and sandflats at low tide.
  According to Māori tradition, the name Kaipara had its origins back in the 15th century when the Arawa chief, Kahumatamomoe, travelled to the Kaipara to visit his nephew at Pouto. At a feast, he was so impressed with the cooked root of the para fern, that he gave the name Kai-para to the district. Kaipara comes from the Māori kai meaning "food", and para meaning "king fern".
context_section_description: In 1839, European settlers began arriving in the Kaipara to fell and mill kauri trees and build boats for local requirements. Despite the perilous bar at the harbour entrance, the Kaipara became a busy timber port from the 1860s, shipping thousands of tonnes of kauri timber and gum. The first sailing ship wrecked at the entrance to the harbour was the Aurora in April 1840. The brigantine Sophia Pate was wrecked at South Head in August 1841 with the loss of all 21 on board.
  The Wairoa is the main river feeding the Kaipara from the north. Thirty kilometres upstream, the town of Dargaville was established. The stretch of water to Dargaville is broad and straight and provides an easy to navigate route into what were then kauri forests in the interior. Dargaville flourished and immigrants from Britain and Croatia were attracted to the area. Ships up to 3,000 tons carried timber and logs out along the Wairoa to defy the bar at the harbour entrance before continuing on, usually to another New Zealand port or across the Tasman to Australia.
  The Kaipara River is the principal river feeding Kaipara Harbour from the south. From 1863 Helensville established itself as a timber port on this river, and provided shipping services about the Kaipara. When the timber ran out, Helensville developed sheep and dairy farms, and more recently nut plantations, vineyards and deer farms.
  Further south, Riverhead was an important trading link with the Kaipara and Helensville, and a centre for gum digging. Also set by a river, it milled timber and flour, and made paper. Later it turned to tobacco. From 1929 to 1933, the Riverhead State Forest was developed from 5,000 ha of exhausted gum land.
  As the kauri ran out, the Kaipara became a backwater. After 1920 the gum and timber industries dwindled, and farming, mainly dairying, took over. In particular, there is dairying on the rich Ruāwai flats. These flats are below sea level, and are protected by a stopbank and a drainage system. Coastal sawmill settlements at Tinopai, Arapaoa, Batley, Matakohe, Oneriri, Ōruawharo, Pahi, Paparoa, Tanoa and Whakapirau (history photos on the Whakapirau Community Website) have become quiet backwaters. Pahi has become a launch point for houseboats and fishing. Matakohe has a museum which commemorates the kauri industry and the early Pākehā settlers.
  Today, Dargaville is the principle centre in the Kaipara area. Its population levelled in the 1960s. It is the country's main kūmara (sweet potato) producer.
caption: Dargaville statue commemorating the gumdiggers of early European settlement times.
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