Awarau River
Template:Short description Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox river The Awarau River, also known as Larry's Creek is located within the South Island of New Zealand.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The river is about Template:Convert long<ref>Template:LINZ</ref> and runs northwest from its headwaters in the Victoria Range to its confluence with the Inangahua River north of Reefton.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> It also drains part of the Brunner Range and there was a track along that range linking to Lyell<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> by 1901,<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> though none existed in 1874.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A track also ran south over Kirwan Hill to the Montgomerie River.<ref name=":1" />
A Template:Convert forestry road runs north of the river from SH69 to Larrys Creek Track, which runs a further Template:Convert to the site of the Caledonian Gold Mine.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The mine operated from 1874 to 1910, with shafts up to Template:Convert deep.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is the most northerly in the Reefton goldfield, in albite-epidote hornfels facies, which are less than 370 million years old.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Remnants of a stamping battery and a Robey portable steam engine are at the mine site.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Colinton was formed in 1874<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as the township for the mine (and the river was sometimes called Colin River). By 1878 it had a population of 44,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but was gone by 1901. Just upstream is a deep, rocky gorge.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The only bridges over the river are the Stillwater–Ngākawau railway and SH69.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Railway bridge 74 was a Template:Convert road-rail bridge of 7 spans, built in 1905 for £2,915.<ref name=":5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A bridge was planned at Colinton in 1880, but never built.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Nothofagus fusca (red beech, or tawhai raunui) forests grow to about the Template:Convert contour, with Nothofagus menziesii (silver beech, tawhai, or tahina) up to the tree line at about Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tūī, Anthornis melanura (korimako, makomako, kōmako, or bellbird), Petroica macrocephala (ngirungiru, or tomtit) and Petroica australis (Kakaruwai, or South Island robin) live in the bush.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>