Glen Afton and Pukemiro are twin settlements in the

Waikato District Waikato District is a territorial authority of New Zealand, in the northern part of Waikato region, North Island. Waikato District is administered by the Waikato District Council, with headquarters in Ngāruawāhia. The district is centred to t ...

, in northern Waikato region of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. The nearest town is

Huntly Huntly ( gd, Srath Bhalgaidh or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlemen ...

, some 14 km (15 minutes' drive) away. The settlements were previously an important coal-mining centre, but only one large and one small open-cast coal mine still operate in the area. There was a mining disaster at Glen Afton on 24 September 1939: 11 men were asphyxiated by carbon monoxide. The Bush Railway runs the Pukemito Line Heritage Railway, which was formerly the

Glen Afton Branch The Glen Afton Branch was a branch railway line of 7.9 km (originally 14.1 km) in the Waikato in New Zealand, built to serve coal mines in the Awaroa district west of Huntly, New Zealand, Huntly at Rotowaro, Pukemiro and Glen Afton. R ...

until 1977. The Country Music Club meets at the Bush Tramway Club club rooms.

Puke Coal

Puke Coal operates near the Bush Tramway and has consent to produce up to 180,000 tonnes of coal a year, though actual production was described as "relatively modest" in 2014. The mine is

open cast Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

, recovering coal left by previous mining. The coal is privately owned, so there are no permits and no public record of production. The company was formed in 2011 and employs 25 staff in its mining and landfill work.

Education

Pukemiro School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 8 students, with a roll of as of .

References

{{coord, 37, 37, S, 175, 02, E, display=title, region:NZ_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Populated places in Waikato Waikato District