60 Gillies Street, Kawakawa, Far North
In its heyday Kawakawa produced what was recognised as the country’s best steam coal. It was discovered in 1864 and a horsedrawn wooden tramway was built to Taumarere, from where it was shipped down-river to Opua to be loaded aboard ships.
The government took over the line in 1877 and extended it to Opua, then known as Newport. A small flax industry was also developed in Kawakawa and, later, a kauri gum-digging industry. Kawakawa today is well-known as Train Town - the railway line runs down the middle of the main street. In place of the Opua-Auckland Express and freight trains to and from the port of Opua, a small steam train now runs scenic tourist trips from Kawakawa to Opua and return. In 1975 the internationally regarded Austrian painter, philosopher, architect and ecologist Friedrich Hundertwasser settled near Kawakawa.
In 1997 he was commissioned to design and build the town’s public toilet block. Its ceramic columns, garden roof and curving, colourful exuberance have became a favourite comfort-stop – and a great camera subject - on the international tourist route. Hundertwasser encouraged the use of local labour and talent. Tiles for the project were made by Kawakawa school pupils, bricks were recycled from local buildings and blocks were built from old bottles from around the district. In 2000, Creative New Zealand awarded the structure the Premier Award in Urban and Landscape Design.
The building thus joined other notable Hundertwasser projects around the world, everything from postage stamps to major architectural projects, including the Hundertwasser Haus apartment complex in Vienna, the redesign of a Danube cruise ship, a winery in Napa (California) and a ceramic mural in Lisbon. in 2002 the town gained a new eastern entrance featuring a design prepared by Hundertwasser before his death in February 2000.
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