Karamea Lobata

Karamea is a town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the northernmost settlement of any real size on the West Coast, and is located northeast by road from Westport. Apart from a narrow coastal strip, the town of Karamea and its local area are completely surrounded to the south, east and north by Kahurangi National Park.

The town is located on the coastal plain adjacent to the Karamea River and the Ōtūmahana Estuary. There are two small settlements, Market Cross and Karamea, located about apart.

Karamea is a gateway to the Kahurangi National Park, and a base for visitors coming to see popular local attractions such as the Ōpārara Basin, Ōpārara Arches, the Fenian Track and caves, the Big Rimu Walk and the coastal scenery north of Kōhaihai on the Heaphy Track.

Toponymy

The name ''Karamea'' is Māori – despite local jokes suggesting it was named by an Italian for his love – and is thought to either mean "red ochre" or be a corruption of ''Kakara taramea'', "the smell of speargrass leaves." The name is used for the township and also for the surrounding area.

History

Large shell middens have been found in the area. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these middens are associated with occupation in the period AD 1400 to AD 1600. The evidence suggests that the site was used by Māori as a temporary stopping place on the route down the coast to collect pounamu.

The mouth of the Heaphy River is the site of an early Māori encampment dating back to perhaps 1380 AD, and there is evidence it was one of the few sites in the northwest South Island occupied by people for extended periods of time. There is significant evidence of stoneworking, including local pounamu as well as argillite, obsidian, and chert imported from elsewhere in Aotearoa. The significance of the site to Ngāi Tahu led to it being excluded from Kahurangi National Park.

The first Europeans and Chinese would have been early gold-miners in the 1860s.

Special Settlement Area

In the early 1870s, the Nelson Provincial Government investigated the use of Special Settlement Areas as a way of developing remote parts of the province, and attracting immigrants. The conditions to be offered to immigrants included the offer of land on deferred payment terms, and the opportunity of partial employment by the Provincial Government for the first year after the immigrants arrived. The allotments of land would be between forty and two hundred acres to each head of family, and be open to those already in the Colony, as well as new immigrants. The Nelson Special Settlements Act was passed on 25 October 1872, to allow the scheme to proceed, but there were disputes with central government about allowing the scheme to extend to those already resident.

Prior to 1874, the Nelson Province had not been significantly involved in the immigration schemes organised by the Colonial Government, but in October of that year, around 250 adults arrived in Nelson seeking work, and another shipload of immigrants was on the way. There was insufficient work available to employ all these immigrants, and the province turned again to Special Settlement Areas as a solution. Karamea was chosen as a site for a Special Settlement Area partly because the area was already known from a gold rush 7 years earlier, but also that it had a harbour, and there were steamers passing regularly along the coast. By November 1874, a block of land of had been reserved on the south side of the Karamea River, and in April 1875 a further was reserved on the north side of the Karamea River . The planning of the settlement was placed under the control of Eugene O'Conor, Provincial Secretary, and member of the New Zealand House of Representatives.

The settlers at Karamea were mostly immigrants from four ships that arrived at Nelson between August 1874 and February 1875. The first settlers to arrive in Karamea were landed from the steamer ''Charles Edward'', on 27 November 1874. Most of the 20 men who were landed had no experience of breaking in new land. They were initially allocated small sections of pakihi – flat boggy land with infertile, waterlogged soil high up on a terrace to the south of the Karamea River. Better land was found on the Karamea River flats below the terrace, but there were delays before this land was allocated. Women and children arrived in January 1875.

In October 1875, using labour from the settlers, work began on creating an inland track over the hills between Little Wanganui and Mohikinui to bypass the difficult and dangerous coastal track. The road to Karamea over the hilly section (known as the Karamea bluffs) north of Mokihinui, was not opened until 1916.

Murchison earthquake

The Murchison earthquake on 17 June 1929 caused severe damage in the Karamea area, with all roads in the district closed and nearly all bridges damaged. Houses were badly damaged, with no chimneys left standing, and some houses burnt down. The wharf and wharf sheds were also badly damaged. The road from Westport to Karamea was severely damaged by large landslides, and telephone lines were broken completely isolating the town. A party travelled on foot from Karamea to Westport to report the damage. The earthquake disrupted efforts underway at the time to control an outbreak of diphtheria in the settlement, and it was necessary for serum to be delivered by air. The earthquake caused the silting up of the harbour and cut the community's road link for about two years. The reconstruction of the road over the hilly section between Mokihinui and Little Wanganui required a workforce up to 400 men at times. Small coastal vessels were used to transport people and supplies between Westport and the Karamea harbour while the road was rebuilt.

Dairy farming

Dairy farming in the area began with the opening of the first Karamea Co-operative Dairy Company in 1893. This company struggled with payouts to farmers less than expectations and the venture was wound up in March 1897. There was no further progress until 1906, when J Curtin & Co opened a butter factory near the site of the 1893 plant. A newly formed Karamea Co-operative Dairy Company was established in 1911, to purchase the Curtin's factory. The new company received its first cream for processing on 20 September 1911. Approximately 40 tonnes was produced in the first year. There was no road out of Karamea at the time, so all the production had to be shipped on vessels that were capable of crossing the Karamea bar.

In 1935, the Karamea dairy factory was manufacturing 300 tonnes of butter annually. The industry slowly expanded, and milk powder was manufactured locally from the 1970s. Local processing eventually ceased, and milk is now transported by road tanker to Hokitika.

Geography

Setting

Karamea is north of Westport on State Highway 76. There is no other connecting road to the town – the road north ends at the Kohaihai River some from Karamea, at the southwestern end of the Heaphy Track.

The town is situated on a coastal plain adjacent to the mouth of the Karamea River and the Ōtūmahana Estuary in Karamea Bight, a large bay formed by the curve of coastline for north from Cape Foulwind, to the Heaphy River. Apart from a narrow coastal strip, the town of Karamea and its local area are completely surrounded to the south, east and north by Kahurangi National Park.

There are two main areas of residential accommodation and businesses on the north side of the Karamea River. These are Market Cross and the settlement of Karamea itself. These two locations are around apart. On the south side of the river, and inland, is the small settlement of Arapito.

Little Wanganui, is a small dairy farming village located south of Karamea. It has a surfing beach and a river popular for whitebaiting and fishing.

Rivers and estuary

There is a large estuary known as Ōtūmahana, at the mouth of the Karamea River. This estuary is also the mouth of Baker Creek and Granite Creek. The combined river mouths have formed a shallow mudflat and salt marsh estuary with an area of approximately . This type of environment is vulnerable and is nationally uncommon. The estuary is an important feeding and breeding area for birds and fish.

The estuary is the third largest tidal estuary on the West Coast, after Ōkārito Lagoon and Saltwater Lagoon. It has been classified as a Significant Wetland by the West Coast Regional Council in its Regional Land and Water Plan. A small specially protected area of wetland known as Ōtūmahana Reserve was established at the south-east corner of the estuary in 1983.

A life-size bronze statue of the extinct Haast's eagle

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