Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Trust Background
The Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Trust – consists of a 10 acre Rail Heritage and Railway Theme Park, it runs adjacent to the State Highway 36 in the centre of Ngongotaha township, which is 5 kms north of Rotorua.
The Trust was established on the 24th July 1998 and over the years has accumulated just over $500,000 worth of assets which including buildings, heritage rail and rolling stock, restoration locos, rail and equipment. The Trust have rescued many historical steam and diesel Loco’s and wagons which are all in different degrees of restoration, most of which are located on site. Due to the high time and cost of restoration, many are on a lengthy restoration roster.
In November 2007 we gained our Rail License allowing us to operate rolling stock on the railway lines throughout New Zealand and on the 22nd December 2009 the Trust secured a thirty (30) year lease for the rail line between Rotorua and Putaruru from NZ Railways Corp (Ontrack) which replaced the current lease which only had 7 years to go. Both the lease and license have taken several years to achieve and have opened up the opportunity to expand the Trust operations to also look at excursions, tourism and commuter ventures.
Currently we have just over 85 local, national and international Friends of the Trust and Volunteers who have contributed thousands of volunteer hours assisting in the administration and restoration of our local and national heritage seven days per week. We also have local iwi, community groups, businesses and schools, volunteering large number of hours helping to develop and maintain the grounds. We have over 3000 locals and visitors per annum visiting our park.
Prior to June 2008 the Trust held Charitable Status with the Inland Revenue and on 30 June 2008 gained Charities Commission registration at the same time updating our Constitution to reflect the changing role we have assumed over the preceding years.
In November 2006 the Trust employed a local person to assist with project fundraising then following the AGM in 2008 they were also employed as Trust Secretary. This started to bring a bit more structure to the Trust.
In 2009 the Trust were gifted monies to offer an annual Scholarship of $1000 to a local student entering into an engineering career. This has seen very positive results for the Trust.
The Rail Theme Park is open weekends and Public Holidays and through the week by appointment. The Park offers train rides, bouncy loco’s, mini golf, Museum displays, operational model railway displays, crafts and an opportunity shop, all of which are enjoyed by young and old alike. We also offer to host birthday parties and other special events by appointment. Patronage of the park is growing which has allowed the Trust to keep the activity charges at a minimal rate. We currently have around 2500 to 3000 visitors to the park per year.
To the north end of the property the Trust in conjunction with the local community are developing a small lake and wetland area. The lake is undergoing major renovation to reduce water seepage and has already had numerous native sedges; flaxes and trees planted around it which will help recover and beautify what was waste and swampy land back into an attractive area for wildlife and also for families and groups of people to enjoy. When required the water level in the manmade lake can be assisted by a bore which was drilled and capped 2 ½ years ago.
Funding is an ongoing issue for the Trust although it has several income streams all profits are sunk back into the cost of running the activities and overheads of such a large complex, the small surplus’s are allocated to the numerous high cost restoration projects. Understandably the restoration projects are heavily reliant on funding, grant applications, sponsorships and donations.
Up and Coming major funding Projects:
Restoration of the rail line between Putaruru and Rotorua $500,000 +
Price 110E Locomotive Restoration (Rotorua Heritage Loco) $228,000
Hudswell Clark Steam Locomotive Restoration $120,000
Park and Lake Development and Planting $ 50,000
Our email contacts are:
admin@rotoruarail.co.nz
info@rotoruarail.co.nz
bookings@rotoruamail.co.nz
models@rotoruamail.co.nz
sales@rotoruamail.co.nz
Restoration of the Rail Line between Rotorua and Mamakau
The last screwpike was tightened down very recently to complete the reinstatement of the rail line between Rotorua and Mamakau. There is still much work to be done with a massive amount of weed control required but we are on a roll and look forward to seeing this section of the line fully operational .
Watch for updates on what is happening on this line.
UPDATE:
The latest news on this is that for the great efforts of beautification of a portion of this line done using a lot of hard graft but with a great CommunitySpirit, we have been awarded by Trustpower and the RDC an award under the Heritage and Environment heading.The following are the words of application that we put forward about our work on this line within the Community,
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Over the last 2 years the Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Trust have been focused on clearing and re-instating the rail corridor between Rotorua and Mamaku which has seen 1000s of volunteer hours working to achieve this. Having been closed over 8 years ago the rail corridor has suffered from the effects of major weed growth and rail infrastructure theft. The rail line is now fully reinstated between Ngongotaha and Mamaku.
In December we secured the 30 year lease over the rail corridor between Rotorua and Putaruru a major feat, as it is a first for a charitable trust or any other similar group to be given the opportunity to have ownership of any part of the working rail infrastructure.
As part of this project the Trust place big emphasis on restoring and beautifying the landscape that runs alongside the rail corridor. One such project was the clearing and replanting at the Tarukenga Roadside rest area. What once was an over grown mass of blackberry, broom, gorse, weeds and rubbish this area has been transformed into an asset to be proud of, with over 800 flaxes and trees being plan ted. An asset that now forms the back drop for the beautiful sculptures at the Northern Entranceway to Rotorua. Completing the first of many beautification projects to come.
The trust are very passionate about bringing rail activity back to the region the flow on effects of this will attract tourist and freight activity on the track, bring flow on economic benefit to the whole Rotorua district, providing not only income for businesses but employment and also possible reduction of vehicles on our roads.
Our volunteers get a sense of accomplishment and take pride in what they have done especially when they see the effects and outcomes that they have helped to achieve.
We have helped to clean up and beautify an eye sore, hopefully people will think twice about illegal dumping of rubbish.
Our environment starts to improve with irradiation of weeds and the planting of natives followed by the attraction of more bird life. The flow on effect within our community is amazing:
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We thank everyone who helped in this ,and we are progressing towards our goals of rail back in the Rotorua area. If you share in this passion come join us at Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Park Contact email is:admin@rotoruarail.co.nz.
We are a progressive Community Trust and we have now (March 2011) gained more awards for beautifcation at our grounds.
