Railway Station

“All seats please for the Waimate Branch”

On 19th March 1877, local contractor, George Pratt, laid a four-mile-40-chain track – Studolme - Waimate for £4,831. Within two years the line was extended 8 miles to Waihao Downs. The railway gave the district zest and prosperity. The station glowed with efficiency. Mercantile stores, coal etc. loaded in, timber, farm produce railed out. Unique to the area were the punnets and buckets of strawberries and raspberries. “To inhale the perfume of that railway yard of a summer evening was a ecstasy” (Roads of NZ, Gordon Troup)