Rotowaro

The fate of New Zealand's towns and villages often depends on the associated industry, and many mining and milling towns experience slow decline after the industry has run it's course. There are a few settlements which have suffered a different fate, instant decimation to make way for progress, and Rotowaro was one of these.

Originally a mining town, Rotowaro was 'put' here in 1920, not far west of Huntly, to accommodate those working in the nearby Taupiri mine and their families. While other Waikato towns were into rugby, football was strong here, the local team holding the Chatham Cup several times during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1931 the country's first carbonisation plant was opened, to much fanfare, making briquettes from slack waste for domestic heating. While the depression raged, Rotowaro grew in size and strength.

They had a bowling club and a town hall, home to the Glen Afton Country Music Club, which held regular dances.

But in 1988 the healthy little community came to an abrupt and rude conclusion when the mine itself wanted to expand to directly underneath the town, soon becoming New Zealand's largest (Australian owned) opencast Coal Mine. Soon after, the rail line which had served the area was also shut down as it was no longer needed, the remains of this heritage railway is the Glen Afton Line Heritage Railway.

A similar fate befell the rural people of the Cromwell Gorge in Central Otago, when the creation of Lake Dunstan for the Clyde Dam flooded their home valley in the 1980s.

Rotowaro is, by nature, one of NZPlaces 'virtual attractions' as there is nothing there to be seen. Except a coal mine. The carbonistion plant, which was cutting edge in 1931, is now the centre of a large and complex conservation stoush. Effectively without an owner, the Public Trust, various local bodies and groups are all at odds as to how to deal with the toxic mess and structures left behind, the issue further complicated by the fact that the plant holds Category One Heritage Status. Heritage New Zealand explains that despite their condition, the 26 structures of the Rotowaro Carbonisation Plant are the only ones of their type left in the world, all others having been demolished.

The plant was one of New Zealand's first large scale recycling plants, but it left a mess, which threatens nearby waterways and eventually the Waikato River.

For the displaced people of Rotowaro, there is a facebook page for those who used to live there, and recordings of interviews of the former residents made in the 1990s, held at the National Library.

Image Credit: Google Maps, Auckland Weekly News, and NZHerald, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections.

The destruction of this community is the subject of Lake of Coal, a 20 year photo-documentary project by New Zealand photographer David Cook. Originally initiated by the Waikato Museum of Art and History this groundbreaking book is a complex weave of photographs and text, a multi-layered work of social history that tells the story of Rotowaro from the point of view of the tangata whenua, the workers, their families, management and the photographer himself. Lake of Coal puts a human face on the economic realities of the late twentieth century and asks the questions: What does coal mining mean on a local level? What happens when a community loses the ground beneath its feet? TO PURCHASE LAKE OF COAL, CLICK ON THE BOOK COVER.