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Story: Taranaki places

Tāwhiti Museum

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Tāwhiti Museum

Nigel and Teresa Ogle bought the Tāwhiti dairy factory near Hāwera in 1975, and created a spectacular museum with life-sized and scale-model dioramas depicting Taranaki Māori and Pākehā history. The complex also includes a replica bush railway, a café and a pottery. This diorama depicts trader Dicky Barrett bartering firearms for curios with a local Māori in the 1830s at his base, a cavern on Moturoa Island at Ngāmotu (New Plymouth).

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Tawhiti Museum

by Nigel Ogle

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How to cite this page

Ron Lambert, Taranaki places – Hāwera, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/25915/tawhiti-museum (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Ron Lambert, published 23 February 2010, updated 1 September 2016.