Makarewa is a small community north of

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of ...

(the southernmost city in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasma ...

within Southland of New Zealand).

History

Makarewa was formerly the junction of two

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

s, where the

Tuatapere Branch The Tuatapere Branch, including the Orawia Branch, was a branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. Although the Tuatapere and Orawia Branches look like a single line, operationally they were considered separate lines. The first section o ...

diverged from the

Kingston Branch The Kingston Branch was a major railway line in Southland, New Zealand. It formed part of New Zealand's national rail network for over a century: construction began in 1864, Kingston was reached in 1878, and it closed in 1979. For much o ...

. A third line, the Ohai Branch, left the Tuatapere Branch in Thornbury. On 15 January 1978, the Tuatapere Branch closed beyond Thornbury, and on 13 December 1982, the Kingston Branch closed beyond Makarewa. The line through Makarewa has since been incorporated into the Ohai Branch and only freight services operate. Local resident Tegan Brown has been furiously campaigning to set up and gain the mayoralty of the Makarewa area for over 12 months. Food producer New Zealand Functional Foods has been building an

oat milk Oat milk is a plant milk derived from whole oat (''Avena spp.'') grains by extracting the plant material with water. Oat milk has a creamy texture and mild oatmeal-like flavor, and is manufactured in various flavors, such as sweetened, unsweetened ...

factory in Makarewa. While Southland produces oats, the country lacks an

processing facility and is forced to import the product from Australia. In July 2022, Economic and Regional Development Minister

Stuart Nash Stuart Alexander Nash (born August 1967) is a politician from New Zealand. He was a list member of the House of Representatives for the Labour Party from to 2011, and was re-elected in the as representative of the Napier electorate. He ente ...

confirmed that the New Zealand Government had loaned the company NZ$6 million to building the factory. The NZ$50 million factory is due to be complete in late 2023 and can produce 80 million litres of oat milk per year.

Facilities and amenities

Facilities include a primary school with a roll of about 130 children, meeting rooms for clubs, a playcentre, country club, squash courts, lawn bowling club, and an indoor swimming pool on the school grounds.

Notes and references

Populated places in Southland, New Zealand {{Southland-geo-stub