Inangahua is a small settlement in the northwest of New Zealand's South Island. It consists of three settled areas: Inangahua Junction at the confluence of the Inangahua and Buller Rivers, north of Reefton and southeast of Westport; Inangahua Landing, 10 km further up the Inangahua River; and Inangahua township, 2 km east of the Junction. Murchison is further east. After the 1968 Inangahua Earthquake, most of the inhabitants left the area or shifted to the township, which is now the population centre and known simply as Inangahua.
Inangahua's main industries include forestry, coal, farming and sawmilling. There is a small primary school, shops, fire station and earthquake museum.
Name
The name of the town refers to inanga, the Māori word for whitebait (Galaxias spp.) and hua, the act of drying and preserving them in sealed containers; the river was known for its abundance of fish. Inangahua Junction was formerly known as Christies Junction.
Inangahua Landing
Before the construction of the Buller Gorge road, the only way to travel inland from Westport was by river. At the beginning of the West Coast gold rush, mining equipment and quartz-crushing machinery was ferried up the Buller River to its confluence with the Inangahua, then about 10 km up the Inangahua as far as "The Landing", from which it was transported overland south to Reefton. At the height of the gold rush over 1000 prospectors were working in tributaries of the Inangahua.
Earthquake
The town was substantially affected by an earthquake on Friday, 24 May 1968. At 5:24 am, the earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck the town, and many landslides and aftershocks followed. The entire population of around 100 was temporarily evacuated. There were no fatalities in the town, but a woman and her visiting mother were killed when the house they were in, along the Inangahua Junction to Westport road, was crushed by a landslide on the cliffs above their house, while a man died near Greymouth when his car hit a section of road on that suddenly subsided on the run-up to a bridge. Another three died days later when a helicopter surveying downed telephone lines crashed.
Demographics
Inangahua Junction is in an SA1 statistical area which covers . The SA1 area is part of the larger Inangahua statistical area.