Fortification, New Zealand#Tramway
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{{Use New Zealand English|date=June 2015}}
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Fortification is a locality in the western part of the Catlins region of Southland in New Zealand's South Island.{{LINZ|6660|Fortification|16 November 2007}} Nearby settlements include Quarry Hills and Waikawa to the southeast, Tokanui to the southwest, and Waimahaka to the west. It is over 50 km east of Southland's main centre, Invercargill.
The area was logged by timber companies which included Fortification Timber Co 1875{{cite news|url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19390204.2.29|title=COMMERCE AND FINANCE (Otago Daily Times, 1939-02-04)|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=2018-06-24}} and Fortification Timber Co Ltd.{{cite news|url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19330715.2.63.2|title=LONDON WOOL SALES (Evening Star, 1933-07-15)|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=2018-06-24}} Subdivisions were created in 1914{{cite news|url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19140122.2.63.5|title=Page 6 Advertisements Column 5 (Southland Times, 1914-01-22)|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=2018-06-24}} under the Lands for Settlement Act{{cite news|url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MIC19140206.2.4|title=LAND HUNGER. (Mount Ida Chronicle, 1914-02-06)|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=2018-06-24}} and the road to Te Peka improved after 1919.{{cite news|url= https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST19190614.2.62|title=GOVERNMENT GRANTS (Southland Times, 1919-06-14)|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|language=en|access-date=2018-06-24}}
Tramway
To serve forestry interests in the Fortification area, a bush tramway was built in the mid-1920s. It ran from Te Peka railway station on the Tokanui Branch eastwards to a sawmill in Fortification, and then divided into a number of branches to logging sites. The tramway's date of closure is unknown, but it occurred prior to the closure of the Tokanui Branch on 31 March 1966.New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas, fourth edition, edited by John Yonge (Essex: Quail Map Company, 1993), 30. Tramways to a sawmill east of Fortification Hill were shown on 1944 one inch map S183.{{Cite web|url=http://www.mapspast.org.nz/?zoom=13&x=1289429&y=4840579&layerid=NZMS1%201959|title=Sheet S.183 Tokanui|website=www.mapspast.org.nz|access-date=2018-06-24}}
References
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{{coord|46.51|S|169.00|E|region:NZ_type:city|display=title}}
{{Southland District, New Zealand}}
Category:Populated places in the Southland Region
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