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- Name game
The name Mangawhai comes from early Maori who referenced the area for its “stream of the stingray”. The ray emblem can be seen in local art works, on wine labels and most recently, the stunning design of the Mangawhai Museum. - River highway
River trade made the Mangawhai district important to the north with cargo of kauri gum and logs being shipped from the estuary to Auckland. Shipbuilding began in the 1830s and continued until the 1900s. The river was a busy highway until the rail reached Kaiwaka around 1913. - Mining
Sand mining began at the Mangawhai Harbour entrance prior to 1940. In 1978, the collapse of sand dunes, believed to be caused by sand mining, closed the harbour for five-and-a-half years. From 1993 to 2004, sand was commercially suction-dredged from the sandbars of Mangawhai Heads. In 2004, the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society won an Environment Court decision to stop the issue of new licences. The companies such as McCallum Brothers, re-applied to the Auckland Regional Council for resource consent but the application was turned down in 2005.
Sources, Te Ara Encyclopedia of NZ
