Tokanui is a community in the eastern portion of
Southland District Council
Southland District Council () is the territorial authority for the Southland District of New Zealand.
The council is led by the mayor of Southland, who is currently . There are also 12 ward councillors.
Composition
Councillors
* Mayor:
* Ma ...
, located on the
Southern Scenic Route
The Southern Scenic Route is a scenic route, tourist highway in New Zealand linking Queenstown, New Zealand, Queenstown, Fiordland, Te Anau and the iconic Milford Road to Dunedin via Riverton, New Zealand, Riverton, Invercargill and The Catli ...
about east of
Invercargill
Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...
and southwest of
Balclutha,
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
. The
Tokanui River runs just to the north of the village and occasionally floods the lower parts,
as it did when the railway yard flooded in 1935.
Tokanui has a fire station, public halls, school, store, garage, pub, recycling area and a Rugby Club.
A
mobile library
A bookmobile, or mobile library, is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Boo ...
visits once a month.
History
There have been several archaeological finds on the coast south of Tokanui and a couple further up the valley, including an
adze
An adze () or adz is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing or carving wood in ha ...
(
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
: toki) at Quarry Hills. The area was part of the 1853
Murihiku
Murihiku is a region of the South Island in New Zealand, as used by the Māori people. Traditionally it was used to describe the portion of the South Island below the Waitaki River, but now is mostly used to describe the province of Southland. ...
purchases ( bought by the government for £2,600),
the injustices of which have since been partly redressed by the 1998
Ngāi Tahu Settlement. Peter Dalrymple (1813-1901) started a
sheep station
A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...
in 1857, which he sold in 1878. Around 1880 work started on draining what had been a wetland area and, in 1883, a road was built linking
Fortrose
Fortrose is a town and former royal burgh on the Black Isle in the Highland (council area), Highland council area of Scotland, about northeast of Inverness. The town is known for its ruined 13th-century Fortrose Cathedral, cathedral, and as ...
and
Waikawa, thus facilitating government sales of land to
settlers
A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...
. However, the road was still very muddy in 1885. A post office opened in 1887 and a
dairy factory on 29 November 1897, which closed in 1945. A cemetery, opened in about 1891, where 22 graves are listed. There were
flaxmills in the area from at least 1899 to 1930. A police station opened in 1918. In 1926 the first petrol pump was put in by Tokanui Motor Company. Tokanui Medical Centre was formerly Golden Memorial Maternity Hospital, named after Thomas Golden, a Southland Hospital Board member, and opened about 1956.
Sawmills
There were several sawmills, milling trees such as
rimu
''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a species of tree in the family Podocarpaceae. It is a dioecious evergreen conifer, reaching heights of up to , and can have a stout trunk (botany), trunk up to in diameter. It is endemis ...
. Bauchop's mill burnt down in 1912 and narrowly escaped another fire in 1917. There were 3 timber mills in 1921. Some of the sawmills were linked to their
bush by
tramways, between at least 1902 and 1925. One extended from the railway station towards Waikawa.
A
woodchip
Woodchip may refer to:
* Woodchips, a medium-sized solid material
** Woodchipper
A tree chipper or woodchipper is a machine used for reducing wood (generally tree limbs or trunks) into smaller woodchips. They are often portable, being moun ...
mill started in the 1980s, using
kāmahi
''Pterophylla racemosa'', commonly known as the kāmahi, is an evergreen tree endemic to New Zealand. It is a member of the Cunoniaceae family of plants, and it is often referred to by its former botanical name ''Weinmannia racemosa.''
Most me ...
and
beech
Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...
and, from 1985, replaced the native trees as its feedstock, with locally grown
eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...
.
Halls
Tokanui was allocated £41 13s 4d towards the building of a x
Coronation
A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special v ...
Hall, which opened on 13 October 1911. It was burnt down in 1949. The first replacement
Memorial Hall
A memorial hall is a hall built to commemorate an individual or group; most commonly those who have died in war. Most are intended for public use and are sometimes described as ''utilitarian memorials''.
History of the Memorial Hall
In the aft ...
was built in 1954, however, it was also burnt down by an arsonist in 1965. The replacement was rather larger x , built on a different site. and opened in 1967. There is also a
Lions Club
Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization, currently headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. , it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members (including the youth wing Leo clubs, Leo) in more than 200 ge ...
, which was started in 1979.
Railway station

Tokanui was a
flag station
In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a bus stop, stop or train station, 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 drop ...
at the eastern terminus of the
Tokanui Branch
The Tokanui Branch, also known as the Seaward Bush Branch, was a branch line railway located in Southland, New Zealand. It diverged from the Bluff Branch south of the main railway station in Invercargill and ran for 54 kilometres in a southea ...
railway line, operating from
Invercargill
Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...
, away.''
'' The line was extended and with
gradients as steep as 1 in 50, from
Waimahaka
Waimahaka is a locality in the Southland, New Zealand, Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated in a rural area, inland from Toetoes Bay. Nearby settlements include Pine Bush, New Zealand, Pine Bush and Titiroa to the nor ...
to Tokanui, the official opening being on Wednesday 20 September 1911, initially with trains on Saturdays and Tuesdays. From time to time trains ran daily, but mainly ran only a few days a week. Trains were speeded up in 1924, cutting the journey time to Invercargill to 2h 25m.
A request for a stationmaster was rejected in 1920, so that Waimahaka remained the only station on the line with a stationmaster and all records of traffic on the line show only that station.
A 1910 contract for the station buildings at
Te Peka and Tokonui was won by P A Lyders of Dunedin for £1827. They were finished by August 1911, when Tokanui had a station building, platform, x goods shed, loading bank, cattle yards, coal shed, 5 sidings, an engine shed and, in 1912, also a
turntable
A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...
. The engine shed closed on 1 January 1960. There was a Post Office at the station from 6 February 1953 to 31 March 1966.
Although electric power reached Tokanui in 1926, it wasn't until 1932 that it lit the stockyards, 1936 when it was noted a
railway house had electricity and 1946 for station lighting. There were 3 railway houses in 1912 and another was added in 1919. On Sunday, 31 July 1966 the station closed to all traffic.''
'' Apart from a large flat area, nothing remains of the station, except part of the platform.
Geology
Most of the rocks in the area are of the early
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...
Ferndale Group, a part of the
Murihiku Terrane
Murihiku is a region of the South Island in New Zealand, as used by the Māori people. Traditionally it was used to describe the portion of the South Island below the Waitaki River, but now is mostly used to describe the province of Southland. ...
, mainly
sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
deposited in shallow water, with
mudstone
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...
and
conglomerate. The river valleys are formed of recent
alluvium
Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...
.
Etymology
Tokanui is a name made up of the
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
words for rock (toka) and large, or many (nui). It is used for 6 locations in
North Island
The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...
(Te Ika-a-Māui), including
Tokanui,
Waikato
The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...
, though there the name is thought to be a corruption of tāiko nui, a large
petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the phylogenetic order Procellariiformes.
Description
Petrels are a monophyletic group of marine seabirds, sharing a characteristic of a nostril arrangement that results in the name "tubenoses". Petrels enco ...
. On 3 February 1912 a proposal was made to change the name of the railway station from Tokonui to Tokanui.''
'' However, for over 30 years the names were often used interchangeably.
Demographics
By 1911 Tokanui had a population of 119, but in 2013 the population of
meshblock
Mesh blocks or meshblocks are a small geographic unit used in the census of several countries.
New Zealand
New Zealand's countrywide meshblock framework was first set up in 1976, although the term dates back to at least the 1916 census. The m ...
3096200 was 66 and 3096900 was 45. The 1944 map and 1956 aerial photos show settlement around the railway station and dairy factory. Since then buildings have been enlarged and altered and driveways added, but the pattern of development remains similar.
Sewage
A sewage treatment plant, built in 1972, to the west of Tokanui, beside the river puts up to /day of treated waste into the river. The effect on river quality is claimed to be minimal.
Education
Tokanui School opened about 1885, a temporary teacher was appointed in 1886 and Tokanui School was built in 1887. When it opened it had with a roll of 14 students.
The school was enlarged in 1993, when Fortrose, Ōtara and Quarry Hills schools closed. It is now a co-educational contributing primary school for years 1 to 8 with a roll of students as of The 2018
Education Review Office
The Education Review Office (ERO; ) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with reviewing and publicly reporting on the quality of education and care of students in all New Zealand schools and early childhood services.
Leader ...
report said there were then 110 pupils. Children are brought to the school on 4 bus routes, serving the south coast from Fortrose to Waikawa and north to
Fortification
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...
. A 2009 proposal to move Fortrose students to
Waimahaka
Waimahaka is a locality in the Southland, New Zealand, Southland region of New Zealand's South Island. It is situated in a rural area, inland from Toetoes Bay. Nearby settlements include Pine Bush, New Zealand, Pine Bush and Titiroa to the nor ...
School was opposed by parents and Tokanui School. Waimahaka School closed in 2012.
Quarry Hills
Quarry Hills is a scattered settlement, east of Tokanui. In 2013 meshblock 309671, which covers a large area, to the edge of Tokanui, had a population of 69 and meshhblock 3096800, to the south of the main road, had 18.
In 1891 a post office opened. Waikawa Valley school opened in 1891 and was renamed Quarry Hills in 1893. A cemetery opened in about 1895 and a public hall in 1928. The hall closed between 1968 and 1976 and the school closed in 1993 and is now a house. A
war memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
Symbolism
Historical usage
It has ...
was erected in 1920. Quarrying ended about 1920 and had restarted by 1970, but the quarry is now closed.
References
{{Southland District
External links
1960 photo at railway station
The Catlins
Populated places in the Southland Region
Southland District