Ongarue

Ongarue valley

Ongarue (Māori: Ōngarue) is a rural community in the Ruapehu District and Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located south of Te Kūiti and Waimiha, and north of Taumarunui. It is in meshblock 1041902, which had a population of 54 in 2013.[1]

The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "place of shaking" (i.e. an earthquake) for Ōngarue.[2]

Ongarue is on the North Island Main Trunk Railway. The Ongarue railway station operated from 1901 to 1975.[3] On 6 July 1923, south of the township, an express train hit a landslide; the resulting Ongarue railway disaster killed 17 people, at the time the worst loss of life on New Zealand's railway. It remains the country's third-worst railway disaster.[4]

The village formerly had an Ellis and Burnand sawmill. From 1922 to 1958, the Ellis and Burnand Tramway, an extensive bush tramway, served this mill and connected with the Main Trunk railway.[5] Much of the tramway's alignment is now the Timber Trail cycleway; Ongarue is at the lower end of the route.

  1. ^ "2013 Census map – QuickStats about a place". archive.stats.govt.nz. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  2. ^ "1000 Māori place names". New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 6 August 2019.
  3. ^ Juliet Scoble, "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations in New Zealand, 1863 to 2010" (Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand), p.64.
  4. ^ Geoff Conly and Graham Stewart, New Zealand Tragedy on the Track: Tangiwai and Other Railway Accidents, rev. ed. (Wellington: Grantham House, 1991 [1986]).
  5. ^ John Yonge (ed.), New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas, 4th ed. (Exeter: Quail Map Company, 1993 [1965]), map 8b.