Whangaroa Harbour

[3] The harbour was formed when rising sea levels drowned a river valley about 6,000 years ago.

[4] There are extensive mangrove swamps at the head of the harbour,[5] and some of the oldest fossils in the North Island, dating to the Early Permian about 270 million years ago, are in the Whangaroa area.

[10] Hongi Hika attacked local Māori to gain control of millable kauri on 10 January 1827.

The harbour was a centre for timber milling and gum digging after the arrival of the immigrant ship Lancashire Witch in 1865.

[9] Thomas Major Lane and William Brown started a yard at Kaeo in 1870 and moved it to Totara North in 1872.

[9] After the Mangamuka Gorge road was sealed in 1961 it became the main route from Whangarei to the Far North, bypassing Whangaroa.