Powerhouse Road (Pātea)

Powerhouse Road celebrates the determination and foresight of the Pātea Borough Council to provide electric lighting to their town before any other local authority in New Zealand. While a handful of privately-owned and state-funded power plants had already been built, Pātea Power Station, constructed in 1901-02, was the first to be run from the beginning by a local authority.

The original building was made out of timber and located just northwest of the town, on a ledge near a seaside cliff. A dam was built above the plant and water supplied from the Kaikura Stream. Initially the station supplied only enough power for lighting, but later it was run on Monday and Tuesday afternoons “to enable housewives to do ironing”. If there was an evening event, such as a dance, the plant remained operating longer, with the attendant paid an overtime rate of 2/6 (25 cents) per hour.

Disaster was narrowly avoided in 1920 when the dam burst and, while the power station was undamaged, two staff and their hut were swept away to the beach below – luckily both men survived. Despite the station being undamaged a decision was made to build a new concrete and brick station further down the cliff, designed by the Hāwera engineers Climie and Fairhall. 

As demand for electricity increased, it was necessary to seek alternative energy sources and in 1931 a bulk supply was taken from the South Taranaki Electric Power Board, meaning the hydro plant was only required as a standby. In the early 1950s the hydro generator burned out and the council engineer recommended that no repairs be undertaken. In 1958 the plant was sold to the South Taranaki Electric Power Board, stripped of any useful equipment then abandoned.

Powerhouse Road is a short street located a few kilometres northwest of Pātea that goes nowhere. All you will find at the end of it is a gate and farmland, however it remains a lasting tribute to an important part of South Taranaki’s industrial heritage.  

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related items:

Pātea Borough Council Electricity Supply (Patea Mail 9 September 1981)

Live wire entrepreneur's Pātea generating dream (Taranaki Herald 4 July 1987)

The day the lights went on, and off, in Pātea, David Bruce (Daily News 19 July 2003)

Pātea Powerstation (Pātea Heritage Inventory, South Taranaki District Council, 2003)

Taranaki DP1763 Sheet 1 (1901), ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)