The estuary is formed by the Aparima and Pourakino rivers, leading through a narrow outflow channel into Foveaux Strait.

[4] Accessible via State Highway 99 on the Southern Scenic Route, the main part of the town is on flat land (the Southland Plains) and the northern end of Oreti Beach.

South Riverton is built on the hills (the Longwood Range) between the eastern shore of the estuary and Taramea Bay.

[citation needed] Support services such as transport, irrigation, engineering and various farm related contractors now play an important part in the local economy.

The lumber industry developed in Riverton and sawmills processed the harvest; Pankhurst's Mill still supplies timber locally and to wider Southland.

[5] One hundred and forty years later, with the passing of Section 450 Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the town was given the dual names of Riverton / Aparima.

[9] On the grassed plateau above the estuary channel stands a stone memorial to the founder of Riverton, whaler and runholder, Captain John Howell, who, while in the employ of Johnny Jones, was dispatched with three ships to establish a whaling station at Aparima in either 1835 or 1836 to replace the abandoned station at Preservation Inlet.

[10] Jones's purchase of all that land from Colac Bay to the New River, and extending some fifty miles inland from the Ngāi Tahu chief "Bloody Jack" Tūhawaiki was formally acknowledged in October 1838.

By that time whaling along the Southland coasts gave only a precarious living and the settlers of Riverton saw they would either have to take to the land or move to a more favourable locality.

As long as the whalers confined themselves along the Jacobs River estuary, it was not thought worthwhile to challenge their right to the small area they occupied.

Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell arrived at Riverton on 27 December 1851, and began negotiations with the various chiefs of Southland.

Because of the changing nature of the quick-sands at the mouth of the Waimatuku Stream where many lives had been lost, there was jubilation with the advent of the railway to Riverton.

[19] With the construction (1902–1905) of a combination of two Howe truss bridges and a causeway the Tuatapere Branch railway had a crossing of its own over the Jacobs River Estuary.

There are a number of other practising artists and craftspeople such as potters Karen Bickley and sculptor Kere Menzies.

[32] Nearby Colac Bay, home of New Zealand's largest surf statue, has a gnarly beach break that will test even the experienced with both left and right-handers.