"Waikino" basically translates to ‘Bad Water’.
It was once a town with a
population of approximately 2000
With the Martha Gold Mining Company’s battery and the mines at Owharoa, it was quite a thriving community but, like most towns, it had its moments of drama...tragedy ...glory.
The large Victoria Battery across the Ohinemuri River which crushed and treated 800 tons of ore daily from the Martha Mine, employed 200 men.
The noise caused by the crushing could he heard for miles and the tailings from the battery poured into the Ohinemuri River discolouring it badly.
There was no life in the river below the battery on account of the cyanide in the tailings.
The battery is now silent and has been dismantled but the foundations are still visible.
In 1981 the big flash flood which occurred completely demolished the old remaining business buildings along the bank of the river and they were all washed away in the flood waters.
The site of the buildings was later cleaned up and there is now no sign of there having been a once thriving business area.
The Ohinemuri County Council have decreed that there is to be no more buildings to be built in that area.