TO BE LAKE BED

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21188, 10 August 1940, Page 6

TO BE LAKE BED

SITE OF NEW VILLAGE COMMUNITY AT CROW’S NEST 90 NOW ON POWER PROJECT PLANS FOR ABOUT 500 MEN Where a little shanty village is rising today on the terraced banks of the Waikato River at the Crow’s Nest, Karapiro, three or four years hence will be the bed of a huge manmade lake. As a buried township it will then become forgotten, but for the duration of its short life it will be a hive of activity, for living there are the men who are building the important new hydro-electric power station about four miles upstream from Cambridge.

Homes for these Public Works employees are being built on one of the lower river terraces handy to the site of the main constructional work in connection with the power scheme. Slightly downstream will be constructed the huge dam behind which 20 miles or more of water will become impounded. Thus the site of the new village will become completely inundated. In the future —but it will be about four years yet —ithe new level of the water will be seme 60 feet above the shanty town. Contrast With Arapuni It is a contrast indeed between the shanty village at the Crow’s Nest, and the “tin town” which arose in mushroom growth at Arapuni some 16 years ago. At Karapiro all the huts are constructed of timber, whereas the Arapuni huts were nearly all made of corrugated iron, gleaming in the sunlight like a daylight beacon which became a landmark visible for miles from any points on the Horahora and Hinuera plateau lands. About 90 men are employed on the Crow’s Nest project and the number is expected to swell considerably in the course of the next few weeks. Eventually some 400 to 500 men will probably be working on the scheme. Nearly all the men reside on the job, although a score or so make a daily trip to Cambridge, where they have established homes in preference to iliviing art the riverside village. Fourteen of the men at the works have brought their families and have settled in a portion of the village reserved for married men. In another area, which was formerly pasture land, on a river ter - race has been established the single men’s quarters. About 75 huts are already erected in this area, al-* though all of them are not yet occupied. A start is being made with the provision of lot) huts for married men and 250 single men’s quarters. Roading in Village Administrative offices of a temporary nature have been erected on an area nearer the river which has been levelled with bulldozers and metalled. No siren horn has been installed yet to sound the start and ending of working shifts, but an iron gong has been improvised and the strike resounds throughout the works warning the men that the time has come to “down tools.”

Roading has been done throughout the yards and the village in rapid time by bulldozers. It is fortunate that excellent road metal is available in abundance from the rocky nature of the terrain. Sand is also available in unlimited quantities, for the inundations and hillocks of the whole area are sand dune deposits left probably hundreds of years ago when once the Waikato flowed over a course nearly a mile wide in that spot. Although little time has yet been available to devote to social activities, the community has plans for erecting a social hall which will become the centre of the social life of the workmen and their families. Below the area on which the married men’s quarters are located there is an ideal swimming pool, complete with shaded sand beach of considerable area, and a safe pool formed by a backwash in one of the bends of the river. In the summer time this beach is likely to become extremely popular. Plans for Permanent Town When the little village has gone and the lake has been formed there will still be need for accommodation, because the running of the power station will require a permanent staff of engineers. A permanent village will therefore become necessary. This will be built on high ground or. the Karapiro side of the river adjacent to the end of the dam. A main permanent store has already been commenced and is well under way. It is being erected of wood. It is from this area that a new access road is being constructed to meet the main Cambridge-Rotorua highway. This road will be used to carry all the heavy machinery and stores that will arrive at the project. It is probable that a small shop will be opened at the works in the near future to provide for some of the essential needs of the workmen and their families. Nearly all the children of school age attend the Karapiro primary school, which is only a short distance from the (’row’s Nest.