Rawene

 town  Add category

Township on a narrow peninsula in the middle of Hokianga Harbour, linked by car ferry to Kohukohu on the harbour’s northern shore.

At first it was a timber centre, and in the early 1800s a mill and shipyards were established. In 1826 there was an unsuccessful settlement organised by the New Zealand Company.

Historic buildings include the last house of James Reddy Clendon, who was US consul at the Bay of Islands in the 1830s. He was a witness to the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, a member of the first Legislative Council from 1841–44, and a magistrate from 1850.

George McCall Smith, an archetypal backblocks doctor, developed Hokianga’s unique health service, centred on Rāwene Hospital which he headed from 1914 to 1948. Hokianga was designated a special health area in 1941, and special provision for health services continues.