page_title: Makerua Swamp
section_title: Transportation
hierarchical_section_title: Makerua Swamp / Transportation
caption_attribution_description: English: 3ft gauge tramway with a small five ton steam locomotive delivered by Bagnall and Co in England in 1907. This File has been scanned by Palmerston North City Libraries.
context_page_description: The Makerua Swamp or Opiki Plains in the Opiki District of the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand were around 1910 the location of the flax mills that once operated on the banks of the Manawatu River. Flax fibre, often known as New Zealand hemp, New Zealand flax or harekeke, but more correctly known as phormium tenax, was an important produce of New Zealand.
context_section_description: The Miranui flax mill was the only mill that operated a 3 ¹⁄₂ miles (5.6 km) long 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge tramway from the mill to the fields in the swamp. It purchased in 1907 a 5-ton steam locomotive from Bagnall and Co in England to haul the bespoke flax wagons. However, even this lightweight engine proved too heavy for the flimsy tracks across the swamps and it was sold to work later on the Piha Tramway on the West Coast near Auckland and near Raetihi in the central North Island. Horse-drawn narrow gauge railways on temporary tracks for harvesting the hemp on the fields were used from 1910 onwards.
  As Makerua railway station was nearby, it was possible to transport the bales of flax via the North Island Main Trunk railway to seaports, from where they could be exported overseas.
caption: Miranui Flaxmill locomotive crossing the Tokomaru Stream near Shannon, (1908)
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