[3] The current open cast working and the much smaller O'Reilly's, Puke Coal and Maramarua are the only remaining mines in the Waikato coalfield.[4] It opened in 1958 and produces about 700,000 tonnes a year[5] to make steel at Glenbrook and for limeworks, meat works, timber processing, light industry and horticulture.[7] The Rotowaro Class A train station was opened on the Huntly-Awaroa railway on 11 February 1918[8] (or 7 January) and closed to passengers on 26 June 1972 and to goods on 12 August 1997.In the late 1960s local legend Floyd Cox set up a pioneer Private Radio Station in Rotowaro, broadcasting out to surrounding areas.Rotowaro's association football team was one of the strongest clubs in the Waikato Region in the 1920s and 1930s, reaching later rounds of the Chatham Cup on several occasions.
The newly built village in 1920, now replaced by an opencast mine
