Tirohia is a rural community in the

Hauraki District Hauraki District is a territorial authority within the Hauraki region of New Zealand. The seat of the council is at Paeroa. The area covered by the district extends from the southwest coast of the Firth of Thames southeast towards Te Aroha, alt ...

and

Waikato Waikato () is a Regions of New Zealand, local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipa District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton City ...

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 ...

. It was one of the main areas used by

Ngāti Hako Ngāti Hako is a Māori iwi of New Zealand. The people of Ngati Hako are acknowledged as the earliest settlers in the Hauraki region. Although Ngati Hako endured long periods of conflict with the Marutūāhu peoples, they were never completely o ...

, including Te Rae o te Papa pā. A bridge was built over the

Waihou River The Waihou River is located in the northern North Island of New Zealand. Its former name, Thames River, was bestowed by Captain James Cook in November 1769, when he explored of the river from the mouth. An older Māori name was "Wai Kahou Roun ...

in 1919.

Education

Tirohia School is a co-educational state primary school, with a roll of as of The school was built for 45 pupils in 1921 and opened in 1922.

Quarry and landfill

Andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

aggregate from Tirohia was barged from Kopu to

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 ...

. The quarry began in 1912, when the Tirohia Quarry Company laid a private siding giving access to their horse drawn 2ft 10inch-gauge tramway, via a loading bank into rail wagons. The quarry has been used for landfill since 2001, though a proposed extension was rejected in 2021. Gas from the landfill is used to generate electricity.

Railway station

The

Thames Branch The Thames Branch railway line connected Thames, New Zealand, with Hamilton and was originally part of the East Coast Main Trunk railway. Part of the line between Morrinsville and Waitoa remains open and is in use as the Waitoa Branch line, ...

Te Aroha to Paeroa section opened through Tirohia on 20 December 1895. A

flag station In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...

opened for passengers on 1 November 1899. In the months prior to opening the names Te Rae-o-te Papa and Okahukura had also been used. Initially there was only an earth platform, but, in November 1902, a shelter shed was added for £17 12s 7d. In 1904 and 1913 there were requests to move the station north to Cadman Road. As the station was used by quarry workers it wasn't moved. In 1915 a train was derailed by cattle at Cadman Road, but no passengers were injured. From November 1926 Tirohia handled general goods traffic, with a 32-wagon siding, loading bank, privy and urinal. In July 1930 a x goods shed was moved from

Pukekohe Pukekohe is a town in the Auckland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Located at the southern edge of the Auckland Region, it is in South Auckland, between the southern shore of the Manukau Harbour and the mouth of the Waikato River. ...

. In May 1975 the public siding was removed and in December 1977 the goods shed was sold. By 1948 the quarry tramway had been replaced by a road, so when in 1955 railway ballast was to be loaded from the quarry, a new loading bank was needed on the platform and the station closed to passengers, though another source says it closed to passengers on 11 September 1967. In March 1956 a new 83 wagon siding and loading bank were ready. On 27 April 1980 Tirohia closed to public traffic but the siding was retained for ballast. When the Thames branch closed on 29 March 1995 Tirohia had only overgrown main and ballast lines. The line is now used by the

Hauraki Rail Trail The Hauraki Rail Trail is one of the Great Rides of the New Zealand Cycle Trail system, using parts of the abandoned ECMT and Thames Branch railways in the Hauraki Gulf plains and the Coromandel Peninsula. The trail officially starts from K ...

. From 15 November 1942 to 28 February 1968 Associated Motorists Petrol Co Ltd (later

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europe * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Cliff ...

) carried petrol from Auckland to Tirohia, using a pipe near the goods shed.

References

Hauraki District Populated places in Waikato {{Waikato-geo-stub