Dargaville

Dargaville
Victoria Street in Dargaville (2015)
Motto: Heart of the Kauri Coast
Dargaville
Coordinates: 35°56′18″S 173°52′18″E / 35.93833°S 173.87167°E / -35.93833; 173.87167
Country	New Zealand
Region	Northland Region
District	Kaipara District
Population (June 2016)
• Total	4,920
Postcode(s)	0310

Dargaville (Māori: Takiwira) is a town in the North Island of New Zealand. It is situated on the bank of the Northern Wairoa River in the Northland region. The town is located 55 kilometres southwest of Whangarei.

The population was 4,251 at the 2013 Census, a decrease of 204 since 2006 and 282 from 2001.

It is noted for the high proportion of residents of Croatian descent. The area around it is one of the chief regions in the country for cultivating kumara (sweet potato) and so Dargaville is known by many locals as the Kumara Capital of New Zealand.

The town takes its name after timber merchant and politician Joseph Dargaville (1837–1896). Founded during the 19th-century kauri gum and timber trade, it briefly had New Zealand's largest population.

The area became known for a thriving industry that included gum digging and kauri logging, which was based mainly at Te Kopuru, several kilometres south of Dargaville on the banks of the Northern Wairoa river. The river was used to transport the huge logs downstream to shipbuilders and as a primary means of transport to Auckland.

Dargaville also has the longest unbroken stretches of sand beach in New Zealand, and is largely drivable from one end to the other. This beach is home of the famous local shellfish delicacy called the toheroa, which was over-harvested in the 1950s and 1960s causing the population of the shellfish to decline enough that public gathering of the shellfish is now prohibited.

Dargaville is also the gateway to the Waipoua Forest, a protected national park and home of the biggest specimens of Kauri tree in New Zealand, Tane Mahuta (Māori, meaning "Lord of the Forest") being chief amongst them.