The original settlement of Kaipara Flats was on Old Kaipara Road at the intersection with Clements Hill. The original Church has now gone, but the cemetery and many of the early graves can be found overlooking the fields and Airfield to the North.
As the large Kauri forests were cleared and milled, the land was opened up for farming which continues to this day. This also cleared the way for the Northern Railway, which opened in 1905.
During the 2nd World War, 25 military camps sp[rung up around the Warkworth region and the railway provided vital transport for the armed forces. Following the War improved roads and transport heralded a decline in the popularity of the passenger train services and over the following 30 years many of the elements that helped form Kaipara Flats were lost. The Cattle Yards came to an end, the Kaipara Flats Railway Station closed and the Post Office was decommissioned in the cuts of the 1980s.
This prompted the settlement of Kaipara Flats as we know it – which at the time was a major portal for Warkworth, which relied upon the Mahurangi River for most of it’s transport up until the Highway to Auckland became established with the popularity of the ‘Motor Car’
There was a regular train service for passengers and freight between Auckland, Kaipara Flats and Whangarei and the North. There was a thriving livestock yards near the railway line, on the corner of Kaipara Flats Road and Old Woodcocks Road, where Sheep and Cattle were herded and traded – then to be transported up and down the country.
Kaipara Flats today continues to have an active farming community with Cattle and Sheep still outnumbering the human inhabitants. Fonterra dairy tankers and Cattle Road-trains race along our gravel roads and smaller lifestyle blocks nestle side-by-side with the great paddocks of the large farms. With continual improvement of roads into the City of Auckland and it’s growing satellites – and the advent of the internet – the 21st Century has seen a huge resurgence in the number of local businesses in Kaipara Flats.
Professionals, creative businesses and manufacturers of all kinds work in the Kaipara Valley these days. You can see many of these represented in our Local Business listings.
Many of the families in the area have been part of Kaipara Flats since the beginning, since joined by many others who continue to live, work and play on the hills, pathways and original buildings that still endure.
Including the old Kaipara Butchery, which is about to gain a new lease of life with a Community renovation.. as our history continues to move into the future.
