BOPDHB History Whakatāne Hospital History Book | Page 10

William Colenso arrived at Pupuaruhe Pā on the west bank of the Whakatāne River in 1843. He
reported that at that time some 1,200 people were living at the Pā under the leadership of Ngāti Awa
Chief Tautari5. However Bishop Pompallier6 reported that Chief Tautari was Ngāti Pūkeko and this has
been confirmed by Ngāti Pūkeko Kaumātua Joe Mason7. Most of the original site is now occupied
by the Whakatāne Board Mills but right beside the entrance to the mill and still standing to this day
(2011), is St Andrews Church, a small dilapidated Anglican Church, built in 1913 and deconsecrated
on 25 June 1977, with its accompanying cemetery. Much earlier, in 1844, a Mission Station with a
small church ‘constructed of reeds’ was established in Whakatāne by Rev. Father Lampila and, nine
years after that, James Preece established a Mission Station at Toki-o-Kiwa (White Pine Bush). Later,
in 1892, St George’s Anglican Church was built in Domain Road on land given by Mr Geo. Simpkins8.

In the Whakatāne County in the late 1890s the
nearest doctor was 30 miles away at Ōpōtiki, and
the roads and tracks used to travel to Ōpōtiki
from Whakatāne (the coastal route) or Tāneatua,
Ruatoki and Waimana (the inland route) could
only be described as ‘primitive’. For example,
Rev. Kihoro Hetaraka Te Puawhe9 recalls that the
(16-17 mile) trip from Waimana to Whakatāne
transporting sacks of maize to the port ‘took two
or three days’. By 1907 there was a coach service
from Ōpōtiki to Rotorua (via Rerewhakaaitu)
which was a 16 hour trip10. The nearest Hospital
by road was 200 miles away. Urgent medical
and surgical cases were being sent by boat to
Auckland and depending on the tides and the
weather, it was often an experience only those
who were seriously ill were prepared to endure.

Aerial photograph of Whakatāne River ‘loop’ taken in the
early 1950s showing the Ōtamakaukau area as it was in
pre-European times. Photo: Whakatāne District Museum
& Gallery (1209)

JA Wilson, Missionary life and work in New Zealand, 1833 to 1862, (Auckland, H Brett at the Star
Office, 1889)
6
Anon, (Media clippings scrapbook “Church History” , Whakatāne District Museum & Gallery)
7
J Mason, Pers. comm.,2011
8
CR Coates, The Church Missionary Society in Whakatāne and Eastern Bay of Plenty District, 1828-1903,
Historical Review, (Whakatāne & District Historical Society, 1953) Vol. 1, pp 1-13
9
Rev. Kihoro Hetaraka Te Puawhe, Waimana’s Early Days, Historical Review, (Whakatāne & District

Historical Society, 1983) vol.31, No.2, November 1983, pp 120-123
10
Ken Moore, Roads and Bridges in the Bay of Plenty, (Unpublished Research Notes, 2009)
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