ohura

Township 50 kilometres north-west of Taumarunui. Ōhura is located in the valley of the Waitewhena Stream, a tributary of the Ōhura River. In the 1860s Māori built two flour mills in the area. The first European settlers arrived in the district in 1900. More farmers took up land after the first and second world wars. Coal mines were worked in the district from the 1930s, and mining underpinned Ōhura’s economy for the next 40 years. However, its reliance on one industry made it vulnerable – after the state-owned mines closed in the early 1970s many businesses and community services in the township closed too.