The Waihemo / Shag River is located in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. It rises in the

Kakanui Range The Kakanui Range is a range of high hills located inland from Oamaru in the South Island of New Zealand. The range forms a boundary between the valley of the Waitaki River to the north and the high plateau known as the Maniototo and the upper w ...

, flowing southeast for , or before reaching the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

on the south side of Shag Point / Matakaea, east of

Palmerston Palmerston may refer to: People * Christie Palmerston (c. 1851–1897), Australian explorer * Several prominent people have borne the title of Viscount Palmerston ** Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c. 1673–1757), Irish nobleman an ...

. The Dunback Branch

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 ...

that operated from the 1880s to 1989 largely followed the route of the river from its junction with 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 ...

near Shag Point township to its terminus in

Dunback Dunback, formerly Waihemo, is a small town in the Otago region of New Zealand. It is located between Palmerston and Ranfurly on Highway 85. It has a population of about 200 people. Most of these people live in the rural areas near the town. ...

. The small- to medium-sized river has been adversely affected over the past decades by farming practices in the area. Much of its length is overgrown with

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

s, and during the summer its flow can become significantly reduced. In 1985, the name of the river was gazetted as Shag River (Waihemo). In August 2021, the name was officially amended to Waihemo / Shag River. Waihemo means a ‘river that has gone away’ or ‘dwindled’. Early whalers named the river after the common seabird. Shag Point

References

Rivers of Otago Rivers of New Zealand {{Otago-river-stub