The Kopuawhara Disaster

Attention has been focussed recently on the neglected state of the memorial at Kopuawhara, which commemorates the disaster on the night of February 18, 1938, when 20 men and a woman lost their lives in a construction camp which was overwhelmed by flood waters.

The camp was established in the Kopuawhara Valley when the East Coast railway was being built, and was situated about 33 miles south of Gisborne, in the difficult hill section between Beach Loop and Kopuawhara. On the night in question, a cloudburst back in the hills turned the river into a raging torrent, which overwhelmed the single men's quarters of the camp. The woman who was drowned was a waitress who slept in a hut behind the cookhouse.

These pictures, taken a few days apart, show the camp (above), and the same scene after the disaster (below). They are supplied by Mr A. J. Howard, Salisbury Road.

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