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Kōrero: West Coast places

Ōtira township

Ōtira township

Although there had long been a hotel at Ōtira, the township expanded when the Ōtira railway tunnel was being built, from 1907 to 1923. Accommodation for construction workers made up most of the settlement: huts for the single men and bungalows for families. Although the population declined after the tunnel was opened, Ōtira remained a base for railway maintenance until 1999, when the remaining houses were sold.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

West Coast Historical Museum

Reference: #3837

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Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Simon Nathan, West Coast places – Taramakau valley, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/21013/otira-township (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Simon Nathan, i tāngia i te 3 March 2009.

Comments

Lianne Williams
28 April 2025
My great grandparents had the boarding house at Otira during the construction of the tunnel, my great grandfather was a carpenter (amongst other things) and my grandfather came over from England and was living in the boarding house when he met my grandmother, Elizabeth Lucy Morgan, at Otira (and later married).