Early Paeroa Settlers

Captain Cook, in November, 1769, sailed up the Waihou River to Netherton, 7kms north of Paeroa, and reported huge kaihikitea trees along the banks. He named the river The Thames, as it resembled the River Thames in his homeland.

In 1820 Rev Samual Marsden used the route, staying at the Raupo pa for some four days, and conducting the first Christian service in the district on Sunday, November 20. Bishop Selwyn travelled the same route in 1843 and Sir George Grey, was another notable to traveller along this well-worn track in 1849-50.
The first white settler to arrive in the district was Joshua Thorp, in 1842. He, with his family, came from Colville seeking fertile farming land. He purchased an area from the Ngati Tamatera Paramount Chief Tararia, and established his home close to where the Historic Maritime Park is today, 3kms north of Paeroa on SH2.

With the goldfields developing at a fast rate so did Paeroa into a bustling river port to service a demanding industry. Through the 1880s the town expanded steadily from its early business centre between Willoughby Street and the Ohinemuri River and Victoria and Arney Streets. As the town developed in the 1880s a small hill through what is now the centre of Paeroa, was excavated to enable the main street to be extended on almost the same level.


All the mining companies’ requirements such as heavy machinery, coal, provisions for increasing staff numbers, were hauled by horses and wagons to Karangahake, Waitekauri and Waihi. Teams of 20 horses each were regularly used to pulling 20-ton loads while over a 100 tons of coal per day were hauled by eight and ten horse-teams and wagons to the processing batteries. On any one day there could be an estimated 400 horses on the road between Paeroa and Waihi. All this traffic went along Paeroa’s main street.

Wharves were first at Arney Street and Wharf Street, but as the river filled with mining debris, the main wharf was established at The Junction (Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers), 3kms west of Paeroa and connected to the town centre by tramway along Junction Road. By the early 1900s, this wharf could not reached by the steamers and they stopped at The Puke wharf (Historic Maritime Park). Finally with the continued silting and river stopbank works, in 1914, the Ngahina Wharf was built on the Waihou River, below the present SH2 bridge.

With the main trunk railway line (Auckland-Wellington) being pushed ahead in the 1880-90s, a railway route was surveyed from Hamilton to Thames. By 1895 this link was completed between Hamilton and Paeroa. Although the Thames-Paeroa section was started almost 20 years previously, politics and local Maori opposition did not allow the link with Paeroa to be achieved until 1897.

By 1905 the railway line had been constructed through the Karangahake Gorge to Waihi and this spelt the end to horse-drawn traffic and also had an effect on river shipping. The coming of the motor vehicle from around 1914 and particularly after the First World War (1914-18) saw the boat traffic gradually decline, ceasing in the late 1930s.

Road transport continued to develop with one the very early (c 1880) horse transport firms, Brenan and Co, changing with the times and by the 1950s turned Paeroa into a large road transport centre with a fleet of around 150 vehicles. The railway station, by now, had become one of the largest junctions in New Zealand.

Economic trends saw the railway closed in 1970s with the opening of the Kaimai tunnel and road transport diminished after a series of company amalgamations around 1990.

As the mining enterprises wound down, the slowly developing farming industry gathered pace. The first creamery was built in Thames Road in 1899, then came a butter factory in 1901 (where Agrisea and Buchanan Joinery are today), with other butter and cheese factories in the district at Netherton and Hikutaia.
Paeroa met the new challenge: A service centre to meet the demands of a flourishing farming industry.

By the 1960s Paeroa had its butter factory and a modern milk-powder producing factory, and at Kerepehi 13kms away, was one of the largest milk-powder factories in the Southern Hemisphere. These were working at capacity to process the milk production from some of richest dairying farms in New Zealand. But again through the 1980s with changing economic times and company mergers within the industry taking place all these factories were closed.

On the local government scene, Paeroa’s infancy was spent under the wing of the Thames County Council. In 1885 pressure from the developing Paeroa and Waihi districts saw the Ohinemuri County Council established and take control of the area, which then included Netherton, Kerepehi, Kaihere and Waitoa. These areas were taken over by the Hauraki Plains and Piako Counties when they came into being just after the First World War.

While the Waihi Borough Council came into being in 1902, the Paeroa Borough Council was finally approved in 1915. From that point the borough council took positive steps to develop the town with the main focus being on roads, water and sewerage, along with finishing off the flood protection scheme. In 1989, the two boroughs, Paeroa and Waihi joined the counties of Ohinemuri and Hauraki Plains to constitute the Hauraki District Council.

One of greatest assets of the town is the Domain, one block from the main street. Set aside as a reserve in 1892, the Domain, which includes Tuikairangi or Primrose Hill, has been developed from 1904. Lawn bowling, tennis, croquet, rugby and hockey were the early sports to use the domain. Some of the early planted trees are still growing and are a rarity in New Zealand. The domain now provides recreation facilities for several sports, cultural and community events.