River Systems
Geologists have shown that a very long time ago the Waikato river came through the Hinurea valley and filled the Hauraki Basin with pumice, mud, drift wood and gravel to a depth of over 1200 ft. You can still see evidence of sea beaches between Shelly Beach and Maukoro.
Before the arrival of the European settlers the Hauraki Plains was 400 km² of peat and swamp land which acted as a big ponding area, through which ran two main rivers - the Waihou and Piako.
Māori used the rivers for hundreds of years to get to the rich food resources in the swamp. When the Europeans came they also used the rivers for transport. Because the Hauraki Plains were swamp land and there were no roads the easiest way to transport people, supplies, food and produce was by boat.
Gold brought many ships up the Waihou and Ohinimuri rivers with heavy machinery and miners aboard. There was even a special hard wharf built at Paeroa for fear of a conventional one collapsing while the machines were unloaded.
Bagnells’ mill at Turua was established to mill the tall kahikatea trees growing there. Huge barques (sailing ships) came up the river on flood tides to collect the wood, some of which would be taken to Australia and be made in to butter boxes.
After the scrub and kahikatea had been cleared farming was taken up and the farmers needed everything from food to animals and boats and the rivers carried it all in.
In pioneer days the rivers were the lifelines of the Hauraki Plains, but as roads improved and bridges were built the need for river transport diminished. Today it has all died away except the ferry that goes up the Waihou to Paeroa from Auckland, and the metal barge that comes into Kopu to pick up a load.
Read more about this topic: Hauraki Plains, River Transport
Famous quotes containing the words river and/or systems:
“The murmurs of many a famous river on the other side of the globe reach even to us here, as to more distant dwellers on its banks; many a poet’s stream, floating the helms and shields of heroes on its bosom.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air- conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)