Old timber heritage houses litter the Dragaville landscape. Photo / 123rf
Old timber heritage houses litter the Dragaville landscape. Photo / 123rf
In this series Peter Dragicevich searches out the best places to break up the journey on a classic Kiwi road trip. In Dargaville, he stops for kai and stocks up on kūmara.
Tucked away on the west coast of Te Tai Tokerau, Dargaville isn't exactly en route to anywhere substantial. Unless, of course, you're embarking on the classic greatest-hits-of-Northland holiday loop: beach hopping along the east coast to the Bay of Islands, Doubtless Bay and Cape Reinga before returning via the Hokianga Harbour and Waipoua Forest. It's then that this sleepy riverside town becomes the big smoke of SH12, conveniently positioned about an hour's drive from the giant trees, Whangārei and the Auckland border.
Positioned at the point where the Kaihū River empties into the broad brown Wairoa River, Dargaville is an agricultural hub with a population of around 4800 people of which well over a third are Māori. It's known as New Zealand's kūmara capital, and farm-gate honesty boxes provide plenty of opportunities to stock up on the iconic root vegetable in whatever hue best matches your outfit: purple, orange, red or 'Tokatoka gold', named after a distinctive mountain peak located 16km to the south.
The kūmara really is worth stopping for in Dargaville. Photo / Getty
The town got its start in 1872 when timber merchant Joseph Dargaville purchased 171 acres from the local iwi, Ngāti-Whātua-affiliated Te Roroa. Dargaville was a burly Irishman from County Cork of Huguenot (French Protestant) extraction, with a bald head and a prodigious beard, who had made his money as a banker in Australia. He was also a Freemason and a member of the Orange Order, and would go on to become the grandmaster of the Orange Lodge of New Zealand.
However, in the 1870s his main focus was on exploiting Kaipara's natural resources in the form of its mighty kauri forests. In the newly fledged town (named after himself, naturally) he set about building a large timber store, gum shed, wharves and tramways. A set of enigmatically decrepit boat-building sheds, lining the riverbank on the spit of land wedged between the Kaihū and Wairoa Rivers, dates from this time. Dargaville also donated land to build the Gothic-Revival Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Hokianga Rd, which was completed in 1878. Ironically the architect who designed it was Edward Mahoney, an Irish Catholic also from County Cork.
Kaipara's natural resources include its mighty kauri forests. Photo / Getty
The boatsheds and church are just two of a surprising 23 heritage-listed buildings in the town centre. These include three substantial two-storey wooden hotels – the Commercial (built in 1895), Central (1901) and Northern Wairoa (1924) – which remain some of Dargaville's most prominent landmarks to this day. However, the only building to have a category-one listing is the former Post Office at the corner of Normanby St and Hokianga Rd, built in 1914 in the Imperial-Baroque style complete with columns and a squat clocktower. In 1919 it gained the distinction of being the first post office in New Zealand to receive domestic airmail, courtesy of a seaplane from Auckland landing on the nearby river.
After the forests were obliterated, a secondary industry arose in the sale of kauri gum, which was used as a varnish and in the production of linoleum. From the late 19th-century onwards the backbreaking work of digging through the mud for the golden gum was taken up by immigrants from the Dalmatia region of present-day Croatia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Today Dargaville is one of the three places (along with Kaitaia and West Auckland) most closely identified with New Zealand's Croatian community, and the Dargaville Dalmatian Club continues to keep their traditions alive. Prominent Kiwi Croats to have emerged from Dargaville have included acclaimed artist Milan Mrkusich and novelist Amelia Batistich.
You can learn more about all of Kaipara's communities and industries, and view a collection of polished kauri gum at the wonderful Dargaville Museum/Te Whare Taonga o Tunatahi. Positioned on a hill overlooking town, it incorporates a reconstructed gum diggers camp and a gorgeous wooden neoclassical library building relocated from Aratapu, dating from 1874. Mounted beside a pā site nearby are the masts of the ill-fated yet legendary Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior.
Back on the flat, there are some decent places to fill your belly. Blah, Blah, Blah… on the main Victoria St strip has been the town's go-to big city-style café/bar for many years now. A few doors down is Matich's Fish Shop, and you'll also find Indian and Thai restaurants nearby. Vegetarians and vegans may like to check out the Providence wholefood store and café, just before the bridge on Normanby Rd.
While Dargaville itself may not offer a lot to detain travellers for long, it's an interesting refuelling stop and the gateway to fascinating places such as remote Pouto Point, 107km-long Ripiro Beach and the Kai Iwi Lakes. And the kūmara really is worth stopping for.
For more things to see and do in the region, go to northlandnz.com
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