Hakataramea, spelt Hakateramea in some older sources, is a rural village located in the southern

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

region of New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It is in the

Waimate District Waimate District is a Districts of New Zealand, territorial authority district located in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand. The main town is Waimate, while there are many smaller rural communities dispersed throughout the ...

and sits on the north bank of the

Waitaki River The Waitaki River is a large braided river that drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs some south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It starts at the confluence of the � ...

at its confluence with the

Hakataramea River The Hakataramea River flows generally south through the Hakataramea Valley, which is separated from the more inland Mackenzie Basin by the Kirkliston Range in Canterbury, New Zealand. A major tributary of the Waitaki River, it flows for before j ...

. Several small communities are located in the Waihaorunga rural area, to the north of Hakataramea. The community of Douglas, settled in 1911, has a population of about 20 people. Waihao Downs, on State Highway 82, was the terminus on Waimate Rail Branch, from 4 April 1884 until 11 December 1953.

History

The area in and around Hakataramea was leased by the New Zealand and Australia Land Company in the 1860s and freehold settlement began in 1878. On 7 November 1881, a combined road/rail bridge from Kurow to Hakataramea across the Waitaki River was opened. The bridge carried the

Kurow Branch The Kurow Branch (also known as the Hakataramea Branch) was part of New Zealand's national rail network. In the North Otago region of the South Island, it was built in the 1870s to open up the land behind Oamaru for development, and closed in ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

into Hakataramea, and this

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

provided an economically valuable connection to the

Main South Line The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Inverca ...

, from which it diverged in

Pukeuri Pukeuri is a settlement to the north of Oamaru in the North Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. It is located near the coast in the Waitaki District that straddles the border of Otago and Canterbury. The settlement's major employer i ...

, north of

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

. Plans existed to extend the line beyond Hakataramea up the Hakataramea River valley to a proposed town that would have been home to 10,000 people, but neither town nor railway extension were ever built. Railway services consisted of

mixed train A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, servic ...

s hauled by

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s. Due to low traffic and the closeness of the more significant Kurow railway station, the 1.76 km of trackage between Kurow and Hakataramea closed on 14 July 1930. The road/rail bridge into Hakataramea is now road only and carries State Highway 82. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, eight soldiers from Hakataramea were killed. A small square obelisk now stands in Hakataramea as a memorial.New Zealand History Online
"Hakataramea War Memorial"
accessed 21 October 2007.

Demographics

The Hakataramea statistical area covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Hakataramea had a population of 831 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 75 people (9.9%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 99 people (13.5%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 327 households. There were 426 males and 405 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.05 males per female. The median age was 42.1 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 174 people (20.9%) aged under 15 years, 102 (12.3%) aged 15 to 29, 420 (50.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 135 (16.2%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 93.5% European/Pākehā, 4.0% Māori, 1.1% Pacific peoples, 3.2% Asian, and 1.8% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 12.6%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 50.5% had no religion, 39.0% were Christian, 0.7% were Buddhist and 0.4% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 87 (13.2%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 123 (18.7%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $32,200, compared with $31,800 nationally. 84 people (12.8%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 381 (58.0%) people were employed full-time, 114 (17.4%) were part-time, and 9 (1.4%) were unemployed.

References

{{Waimate District, New Zealand Waimate District Populated places in Canterbury, New Zealand