Tokoroa

Tokoroa is the fourth-largest town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand and largest settlement in the South Waikato District. Located 30 km southwest of Rotorua and 20 km south of Putāruru, close to the foot of the Mamaku Ranges, it is midway between Taupō and Hamilton on State Highway 1.

History and culture

Early history

Tokoroa was the name of a chief of the Ngāti Kahupungapunga, who was slain by Raukawa during the siege of Pōhaturoa, a volcanic plug adjacent to Ātiamuri, 27 km south of Tokoroa. This battle took place around 1600 as the Ngāti Raukawa moved into the southern Waikato. The name Tokoroa first appeared on the early maps of the 1860s, although this was for an area 50 km north east of today's Tokoroa.

Foundations, growth and decline

Tokoroa is one of the most recent towns in New Zealand. The township was established 1917 by the Matarawa Land Company as a potential farming area; a few families had already settled in the area after 1910, and a school with 9 pupils was founded in 1915. The land was found to be too poor for raising cattle or sheep due to its predominant pumice soils. However, agricultural science showed the land could actually be made to successfully support dairy cattle. The soil had serious deficiencies causing livestock to suffer from what became known as "bush sickness". In the 1930s, the deficiency was addressed, and subsequently, cattle farming became profitable.
Between 1925 and 1935 Pinus radiata was first introduced to the district as a commercial tree crop – the trees were found not to be adversely affected by the local soil deficiencies. As the initial crops matured, Tokoroa was then developed as a residential satellite for Kinleith Mill workers, approximately 8 km south of the township. In 1948, Tokoroa had a population of 1,100. By the early 1970s, however, Tokoroa reached, for a time, a population of over 20,000 – the number necessary to be officially deemed a city. In the 1980s years NZFP began to downscale and restructure operations at Kinleith. Since the late 1980s this ongoing downscaling at Kinleith – and closing of other local industries – resulted in a marked drop in population. Census figures put the 2018 population at approximately 14,300.
In late June 2025, Oji Fibre Solutions ceased paper production operations at its Kinleith Mill, affecting 130 jobs. In late September 2025, Carter Holt Harvey confirmed that it would close its Tokoroa plywood plant, affecting 149 jobs. The double impact from these two major job losses, which affected 249 people, was described by both RNZ and The Conversation as a "blow to a dying forestry town."

Marae

Tokoroa has two marae connected to local iwi and hapū:

Ngātira Marae and Te Tikanga a Tāwhiao meeting house are associated with the Ngāti Raukawa hapū of Ngāti Ahuru and the Waikato Tainui hapū of Ngāti Korokī and Ngāti Raukawa ki Panehākua.
Ōngāroto Marae and Whaita meeting house are affiliated with the Ngāti Raukawa hapū of Ngāti Whaita.

In October 2020, the Government committed $1,259,392 from the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade Ngātira Marae and 7 other Ngāti Raukawa marae, creating 18 jobs.

Geography

Location

Surrounding the township are many dairy farms and plantation forests. There are many scenic reserves around the town – the artificial Lake Moananui lies within a recreational park.
Tokoroa lies in the centre of a triangle made up of the tourism destinations of Rotorua, Waitomo and Taupō. There are also about 45 recreational lakes within less than an hour's drive of Tokoroa.

Township

As well as the central business district, the township is made up of many subdivisions, each built in different stages of the Kinleith complex's development. These subdivisions are:

Parkdale
Paraonui
Papanui
Matarawa
Aotea
Strathmore
Amisfield

Many of the street names of the town were named by the first managing director of N.Z. Forest Products Ltd., Sir David Henry, after places near his hometown of Edinburgh, in Scotland. David Henry Primary School is a key example of him and his namesaking.

Climate

Demographics

Stats NZ describes Tokoroa as a medium urban area which covers. It had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km².
Tokoroa had a population of 14,001 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 429 people since the 2018 census, and an increase of 1,665 people since the 2013 census. There were 6,918 males, 7,056 females, and 30 people of other genders in 4,917 dwellings. 2.3% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 36.1 years. There were 3,195 people aged under 15 years, 2,682 aged 15 to 29, 5,802 aged 30 to 64, and 2,319 aged 65 or older.
People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 59.9% European ; 46.6% Māori; 21.5% Pasifika; 4.9% Asian; 0.3% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders ; and 1.9% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 96.5%, Māori by 10.2%, Samoan by 1.6%, and other languages by 6.6%. No language could be spoken by 2.4%. New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.7%. The percentage of people born overseas was 13.2, compared with 28.8% nationally.
Religious affiliations were 30.4% Christian, 0.5% Hindu, 0.2% Islam, 3.4% Māori religious beliefs, 0.5% Buddhist, 0.5% New Age, and 1.2% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 54.7%, and 9.1% of people did not answer the census question.
Of those at least 15 years old, 993 people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 6,237 had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 3,576 people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $31,600, compared with $41,500 nationally. 600 people earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was 4,647 full-time, 1,149 part-time, and 765 unemployed.

Name	Area	Population	Density	Dwellings	Median age	Median income
Paraonui	2.36	1,866	791	720	40.0 years	$36,600
Parkdale	2.54	888	350	315	40.2 years	$32,000
Matarawa	1.96	2,328	1,188	825	36.4 years	$28,700
Stanley Park	1.15	2,316	2,014	804	35.2 years	$29,600
Strathmore	1.25	2,505	2,004	825	33.9 years	$28,500
Tokoroa Central	4.70	1,032	220	396	40.1 years	$31,100
Moananui	1.68	3,066	1,825	1,029	34.3 years	$36,600
New Zealand					38.1 years	$41,500

Rural surrounds

Kinleith statistical area, which surrounds but does not include Tokoroa, covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km².
Kinleith had a population of 1,518 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 72 people since the 2018 census, and an increase of 54 people since the 2013 census. There were 819 males, 687 females, and 9 people of other genders in 579 dwellings. 1.6% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 34.8 years. There were 357 people aged under 15 years, 270 aged 15 to 29, 696 aged 30 to 64, and 192 aged 65 or older.
People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 79.4% European ; 23.7% Māori; 5.9% Pasifika; 9.5% Asian; 0.6% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders ; and 1.6% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 96.2%, Māori by 4.0%, Samoan by 0.2%, and other languages by 8.5%. No language could be spoken by 2.4%. New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.2%. The percentage of people born overseas was 17.2, compared with 28.8% nationally.
Religious affiliations were 31.8% Christian, 0.4% Hindu, 0.6% Islam, 1.2% Māori religious beliefs, 0.2% Buddhist, 0.4% New Age, and 3.2% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 56.9%, and 5.7% of people did not answer the census question.
Of those at least 15 years old, 159 people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 687 had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 306 people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $52,200, compared with $41,500 nationally. 153 people earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was 693 full-time, 177 part-time, and 15 unemployed.

Economy

The economic lifeblood of Tokoroa is forestry, centred at the nearby Kinleith Mill; and dairy farming. In 1995, Fonterra built the southern hemisphere's largest cheese factory in Lichfield, some 5 km north of the town. Due to increases in relative rates of return, large amounts of previously forested land were converted to farmland in the 2000s and 2010s.
The main agricultural activities of the district are sheep and dairy farming. Forestry is still, however, the primary and most important industry to the district. Timber is milled and processed at Kinleith. Over recent years, the sharp decline in timber processing has seen the majority of raw logs shipped offshore. Most of the Kinleith workers live in Tokoroa, with a small number commuting from other South Waikato towns. Tokoroa is a marketing and servicing centre for agriculture, inline with other associated industries. These other industries include : the manufacture of cheese, specialised wooden boxing, timber joinery, saw milling, general engineering, and the quarrying of building stone.
Although Tokoroa's economy primarily tends to revolve around timber and farming, many large retail companies have continued investing in the town – Foodstuffs recently constructed and opened a New World on Tokoroa's main street. Also, Woolworths also recently built New Zealand's first Countdown featuring bilingual signage.