Waikawa, Southland

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Waikawa is the name of a small settlement in Southland at the southwestern edge of The Catlins.

The township is now a small fishing settlement, but at one time in the late 19th century was a major port, shipping timber from the sawmills of the Catlins north to help build the new town of Dunedin. Originally a small Maori community, the first European settlers to the area set up sawmills in the late 1830s.

Unfortunately for Waikawa, the port facilities were prone to silting, and the nearby township of Fortrose became the more prominent port. It too fell prey to the arrival of the Tokanui Branch railway, and to a lesser extent the Catlins River Branch, in the late 1890s.