Rotowaro was once a small coal mining township approximately 10 km west of Huntly

Huntly, New Zealand

Huntly is a town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is on State Highway 1, 93 kilometres south of Auckland and 35 kilometres north of Hamilton. It is situated on the North Island Main Trunk Railway and straddles the Waikato River.Huntly was called Rahui Pokeka when...

 in the Waikato

Waikato

The Waikato Region is a local government region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato, Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the northern King Country, much of the Taupo District, and parts of Rotorua District...

 region 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 was built especially for miners houses, but was entirely removed in the 1980s to make way for a large opencast mine.

History

Mining began in Rotowaro around 1915 after a Railway to the area, and bridge over the Waikato river were completed. Rotowaro train station was opened on the Huntly-Awaroa railway on 11 February 1918. A hall was built in Rotowaro during the 1920s and opened by Rev H G Gilbert on 28 April 1929. The Royal Antedilluvian Order of Bufffaloes NZ Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England once had a lodge in Rotowaro, as did other Fraternal Orders.

Rotowaro's association football team was one of the strongest clubs in the Waikato Region in the 1920s and 1930s, reaching later rounds of the Chatham Cup

Chatham Cup

The Chatham Cup, currently known as the ASB Chatham Cup for sponsorship purposes, is New Zealand's premier knockout tournament in men's football...

 on several occasions.

See also

• Rotowaro Carbonisation Plant
  Rotowaro Carbonisation Plant
  The Rotowaro Carbonisation Plant, also known as the Waikato Carbonisation Plant, was a coal processing plant in the Rotowaro/Huntly area, New Zealand...
  
  
• The Bush Tramway Club
• Rotowaro
• http://www.archives.presbyterian.org.nz/photodatabases/1929parishimages.htm