MATAURA
Mataura is a satellite suburb of Gore
being just 12 k’s south. And yet this town has experienced in the
absolute of the boom bust that a community can experience.
Mataura was a heavy industrial paper
town; that included manufacture production and sales of the raw then
retail product. Mataura paper was a NZ wide favoured brand. With the
massive changes that incurred from a technological perspective, influx
of imports and mass marketing Mataura Paper was not structured to
compete.
A shell of a town that was exists
today. This is interesting given the town is an ‘old’ town in terms of
its earlier history.
Mataura is the birth place of Cardigan Bay, the famous New Zealand
pacer. Cardigan Bay was the first standard bred to win $1,000,000.
The Mataura River flows south through
Mataura, and is a source of brown trout.
Mataura still has a meat processing
plant and is a key employment factor for the town and region.
Mataura is also the setting for
Dunedin crime fiction author Vanda Symon debut novel, Overkill.
Mataura has a War Memorial located near the RSA.
The churches in Mataura are of the classic deign of
the 40's era, and yet this historic house is over one hundred years
old.  
The Mataura Hotel is of a modern era and has a high
profile position in Mataura.
Travelers will pass through Mataura on their way to
other Dunedin or Invercargill. The vast mill structures and legacy
alone will beckon a few minute stopover at a minimum.
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