Motumaoho

A 1963 study found much of the vegetation on Motumaoho swamp, to the north of the railway, remained as it had when it built up the peat bogs over about 13,000 years, the two dominant species being giant wire rush and wire rush.[16] However, since then, additional drains have been put in and, by 1998, Valentine Rd had been extended across the area.[17] The study also looked at Moanatuatua swamp, which became a scientific reserve in 1980.[18] Floods still occur.[19]

The centre of the village is dominated by the former cheese factory. A New Zealand Dairy Association dairy was built in 1910.[20] The cheese factory was described as new in 1912, saying the Waikato Dairy Association's offer to build and run it was accepted.[21] However, in 1929 the cheese factory had on its wall - Norfolk Coop Dairy Co estd. 1916.[22] The Norfolk Co-operative Dairy Company was formed in 1915,[23] with 22 suppliers.[24] Electric power was connected in 1923, when a new factory was approved.[15] It was working by 1924.[25] Norfolk Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited merged into Morrinsville Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited in 1946.[26] The factory closed in 1983.[27] The derelict building remains and, between 2010[28] and 2014, a rusting Bedford OB bus was parked beside it.[29]

In 1926 Palmerston North-based flax miller, Fred Seifert,[30] formed a company to develop[31] 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of former dairy and scrubland north of Motumaoho. He hoped to build a mill in 1929,[32] but an old flax mill was demolished in 1928[8] and a shareholders tour in 1929[33] failed to raise capital, so no more was heard of the prothe eastect.[34]

In 1921 soap was being made from tallow.[35]

The only other significant remaining occupation is quarrying. At the end of Harbottle Road, on the slopes of the Pakaroa Range, about 4 km (2.5 mi) south of Motumaoho,[46] Winstone Aggregates supplies road stone.[47] The quarry contains the index fossil, minotis, dating from the middle Jurassic, Norian age.[48] The quarry was first developed for road stone by Piako County Council in 1924[49] on land they leased.[50]

October 1884 opening timetable of Morrinsville Railway

SH26 through the village was sealed in about 1929.[51] Traffic volumes have increased from 4,397 in 2008 to 4,812 in 2015.[52]

Motumaoho railway station was a flag station on the East Coast Main Trunk line, about 3 km (1.9 mi) north of the village.[53] It opened on 1 October 1884 and closed to passengers on 31 July 1967 and to goods on 27 May 1973.[54] It had a goods shed and cattle yard,[55] the latter built after 1936.[56] The line is on a rising gradient from Morrinsville.[57]

On 6 August 1959 Leslie George Kelly,[58] an engine driver and Māori author, was killed in a head-on collision at Motumaoho.[59]

Local buses run to Morrinsville, Hamilton and, once a day to Paeroa via Te Aroha.[60]

A First Gas pumping station[61] on Kurunui Rd is at the junction of pipelines[6] linking the Māui pipeline at Te Kowhai with Cambridge and Waitoa.[62]