Matata is a town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 located in the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

 of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. The town is 24 kilometres to the north-west of Whakatane

Whakatane

Whakatane is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region, in the North Island of New Zealand, and is the seat of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Whakatane is 90 km east of Tauranga and 89 km north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatane River.The town has a population of , with...

. The population of Matata in the 2001 Census

New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings

The New Zealand government department Statistics New Zealand conducts a census of population and dwellings every five years. The census scheduled for 2011 was cancelled due to circumstances surrounding the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, however, and legislation introduced to hold the next...

 was 666.

In 2005 the town was inundated by two debris flow

Debris flow

A debris flow is a fast moving, liquefied landslide of unconsolidated, saturated debris that looks like flowing concrete. It is differentiated from a mudflow in terms of the viscosity and textural properties of the flow. Flows can carry material ranging in size from clay to boulders, and may...

s sourced in the Awatarariki and Waitepuru Streams. Although the disaster devastated a number of buildings, there were no human casualties. The cause of the debris flows was a band of intense rain (>2 mm/min) that fell into the catchments southwest of Matata, dislodging a huge build-up of debris in a temporary dam that had formed over time.

Matata School is a decile 5 state primary school with a roll of 77 students. St Joseph's Catholic School is a decile 2 integrated primary school with a roll of 28 students. Both schools are coeducational and cater for years 1-8.

Since January 2005 the area has been subject to hundreds of shallow, low intensity earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

s, with the most intense swarms occurring in 2005 and 2007, but continuing as of February 2009. The largest event was of magnitude

Richter magnitude scale

The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....

4.2 in May 2007.

External links

• 2001 Census information