Waitahuna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Waitahuna is a small rural village in the Otago region of New Zealand's South Island. In the 19th century, the town thrived after the discovery of gold. The Waitahuna Gully Miner's Monument commemorates this discovery and the miners who lived in the area. Another notable man-made feature is the Waitahuna River Suspension Bridge, built around 1905-6. The town possesses a primary school that caters for local students in years 1-6 and has achieved high academic standards.

The town was briefly a railway terminus, when a branch line from a junction in Clarksville with the Main South Line was opened to the town on 22 January 1877. A little over two months later, the line was opened beyond Waitahuna to Lawrence and it went on to become the Roxburgh Branch. Passenger trains served Waitahuna until 4 September 1936; from that date until the line's closure on 1 June 1968, the line was freight-only. Despite the line's closure, Waitahuna's goods shed, station building, and even men's toilets still stand at the site of the former railway yard.