Ohai

Ohаi is a town in the Southland Region of New Zealand's South Island, 65 kilometres northwest of Invercargill and 25 kilometres west of Winton. The 2001 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings gave its population as 399, a decline of 22.2% or 114 people since the 1996 census.

The literal meaning of Ohаi is unclear, but a mural in the town centre reads "OHAI" and then curved underneath "Place of the Stone". The name Ohai was recorded by James Herries Beattie as in use for the area before 1840. Up until as late as 1958 Morley stream near the town was officially called Ohai Stream in the Wairio District Survey maps. It is likely that the area was originally named in relation to an historic Maori stone quarry that is nearby as described in New Zealand Archaeological Association Schedule & Maps of Recorded Archaeological Sites, Map 7, Page 271

Ohai township was founded in 1917 following the discovery of large amounts of high quality coal in the area. However, the early days of mining were restricted by poor roads. Coal production boomed in the area in 1925, when the Ohai Railway Board opened a new line linking Wairio to the Ohai Railway District. This line also carried workers between Wairio and Ohai on a passenger steam train called the ‘Piecart’.

In order to provide convenient transport of the coal to markets beyond the local area, a privately owned railway extension from the New Zealand Railways Department's Wairio Branch was opened by the Ohai Railway Board in January 1925. In 1934, this line was further extended beyond Ohai to Birchwood, but the terminus had reverted to Ohai by the time the line was incorporated into the national rail network in 1990. The line is now called the Ohai Line and is one of the very few survivors of a formerly extensive rural branch line network. The Ohai Railway Board Heritage Trust, which had no connection with the Ohai Railway Board, was involved in the restoration of steam locomotives including members of the P and V classes and a railway museum was established, but the trust has been dissolved.

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