Warkworth (Māori: Puhinui) is a town on the Northland Peninsula in the upper North Island of New Zealand. It is in the northern part of the Auckland Region. It is located on State Highway 1, 64 km (40 mi) north of Auckland and 98 km (61 mi) south of Whangārei, and is at the head of Mahurangi Harbour.The Mahurangi Harbour and surrounding area has been settled by Māori since at least the 13th century. As Warkworth is the upper most navigable point on the Mahurangi River, it was a crossroads between overland traffic and waka, and gained the name Puhinui, referring to the waterfalls found at the river. The people of the Mahurangi Harbour area would move seasonally between different kāinga based on available resources, and came to the dense kauri forests at Puhinui to utilise resources such as berries, eels and felling trees to construct waka.
By the 17th century, the warrior Maki unified many of the Tāmaki Māori peoples in the west and northern areas of the Auckland Region, and new Te Kawerau hapū were created as his children settled different regions. Of these hapū, Ngāti Rongo, Ngāti Raupō and Ngāti Manuhiri focused time in the Warkworth area. The different hapū began developing strong ties with neighbouring tribes, including Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara, Ngātiwai and Te Tai Tokerau Māori. In the late 18th century, Kawerau hapū had conflict with Marutūāhu tribes of the Hauraki Gulf who wanted to secure shark fishing rights. The area was depopulated during the Musket Wars of the 1820s, with Te Kawerau hapū taking shelter with differing tribes in the north. Ngāti Rongo returned to the area in 1836, followed by Ngāti Manuhiri in the early 1840s.
European settler John Anderson Brown first settled at Warkworth in 1843, establishing a timber mill on the banks of the Mahurangi River. The town was officially established in 1853, and became a hub for the timber and ship building industries. The town became a hub for the Wilsons Cement Works, the first producers of portland cement in the Southern Hemisphere, in 1884, and by the 1930s as roads improved transitioned into becoming a commercial and service hub for the wider rural area.
Warkworth and the surrounding areas was home to over 40 United States Army camps during World War II, and in 1971 the Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory was established near the town. Since the mid-2000s, the town has seen significant population growth.
Continue reading on Wikipedia 
