Opua railway station was a station on the

Opua Branch The Opua Branch or Otiria-Opua Industrial Line, partially still operational as the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway, is a former section of the North Auckland Line in the Northland Region of New Zealand, between Otiria and the Bay of Islands towns ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, serving the port of

Opua Opua is a locality in the Bay of Islands, in the sub-tropical Northland Region of New Zealand. It is notable as the first port for overseas yachts arriving in the country after crossing the Pacific Ocean. In the original 1870s plans for the ...

. It had a 5th class station, passenger platform, crane, stationmaster's house, urinals, a x goods shed and an engine shed. In 1940 the

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

was lengthened to . There was a Post Office at the station from 1884 until 1968. There were railway lines on the wharf from at least 1895 until 11 April 1978, when sleepers were placed to prevent access to wharf as it was unsafe. On 13 February 1981 the station closed to all but private siding traffic. When the North Auckland Line was fully opened in 1925, the

Opua Express The ''Northland Express'', also known as the ''Opua Express'', was an express passenger train operated by the New Zealand Railways Department between 1925 and 1956. It ran from Auckland via Whangarei to Opua railway station, Opua in the Bay of Is ...

passenger train operated thrice weekly from

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

to Opua. From November 1956 Opua was served only by

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 between Whangarei and Opua, the last running on 18 June 1976. The station, and a large part of the cliff behind it, was demolished between 1966 and 1973 and a new station built in 1968. Moerewa Dairy Factory and Affco Meat Works used the railway for export via Opua until 1985. The line was leased to the

Bay of Islands Vintage Railway The Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust (BOIVRT) is a heritage railway in Kawakawa, in Northland, New Zealand. The railway operates on part of the former Opua Branch railway. History The railway was formed as the Bay of Islands Scenic Railwa ...

from 1989 until 2001, when the

Land Transport Safety Authority Land Transport New Zealand was a Crown entity in New Zealand, tasked with promoting safe and functional transport by land, and includes responsibilities such as driver and vehicle licensing. It was created on 1 December 2004 by the Land Transpor ...

withdrew the line's operating licence.

References

External links

1911 plan of Opua wharf
Photos

* ttp://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/Gov09_02Rail-fig-Gov09_02Rail023a.html 1934 train at Opua wharf
1952 train at Opua station1960
an
1962 aerial view

1970s Opua station
Defunct railway stations in New Zealand {{NewZealand-railstation-stub