Warkworth, New Zealand

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, 64 km (40 mi) north of Auckland and 98 km (61 mi) south of Whangārei, at the head of Mahurangi Harbour. State Highway 1 runs past it.

Mahurangi Harbour and surrounding area has been settled by Māori since at least the 13th century. As Warkworth is the uppermost navigable point on the Mahurangi River, it was a crossroads between overland traffic and waka, and gained the name Puhinui, referring to the waterfalls on the river. Māori people of the Mahurangi Harbour area moved seasonally between different kāinga based on available resources, and came to the dense kauri forests at Puhinui for food resources such as berries and eels, and to fell trees to build waka.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Ngāti Rongo, Ngāti Raupō and Ngāti Manuhiri were active in the Warkworth area. 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 timber and shipbuilding industries. The town became a hub for the Wilsons Cement Works in 1884. By the 1930s, as roads improved, it transitioned into a commercial and service hub for the surrounding rural area.

Warkworth and the surrounding areas was home to over 40 United States Army camps during World War II. In 1971 the Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory was established near the town. The town's population has grown significantly since the mid-2000s.