Rotowaro: Lake of coal

Abstract

Rotowaro: Lake of Coal - Wall text from exhibition Hidden away in the hills just west of Huntly is Rotowaro, the North Island’s most productive coal mine. Today Solid Energy’s around-the-clock operation supplies coal to the Huntly Power Station, the steel mill at Glenbrook and the domestic market. When I first visited Rotowaro in 1984, commissioned by the Waikato Museum to photograph regional mining activities, I encountered a village of 400 mine workers and their families. The residents knew that the vast reserve of coal underlying their streets was earmarked for a new opencast mining operation. Over the next three years the village was evacuated and every building removed. I documented this period of upheaval and continued to photograph the expanding “Rotowaro Township Mine” up until 2004. The documentary project has produced a number of outcomes; several exhibitions, an archive of photographs and the book, Lake of Coal: the Disappearance of a Mining Township. Project supported by: The people of Rotowaro Solid Energy Wintec Waikato Museum Lotteries Heritage Board Trust Waikato