Eureka is a rural settlement in the Waikato District and Waikato region of New Zealand'sNorth Island. It is located on State Highway 26, and is surrounded by dairy farmland on a flat plain. There are various explanations for the name. One story suggests William Steele rode out with a syndicate looking for a headquarters, and exclaimed "Eureka I have found it" when he reached the hilltop. Another story suggests "Eureka" is an abbreviation of the first names of the women in the syndicate. The settlement has a war memorial, listing local men who died in World War I and World War II.
History
Eureka is on the former Piako Swamp, described in 1876 as deep. Following the invasion of the Waikato, it was part of the area confiscated from Ngāti Hauā in 1864. Captain William Steele, who brought militia-settlers from Sydney to Hamilton in 1864, persuaded Thomas Russell and Frederick Whitaker to form a company to buy land and drain it. In 1874 the government sold the Eureka Estate, extending from Te Hoe to Tauwhare, Tamahere, Gordonton and the confiscation line, to New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Limited. The sale required of road to be built over the swamp. Drains were dug up to wide and deep. The expense of drainage contributed to bankruptcy and the sale of small parcels in 1902. The population then increased, so that a school was built in May 1904, a dairy factory in 1905, a hall in 1914, a post office opened in 1915, a store in 1925 and a garage in 1928. However, by 1981 all the early buildings had gone.
Demographics
The 2001-13 censuses counted a Eureka area of. In 2018 Eureka lost the area on the Hamilton border to a new area, Hamilton Park, and was grouped in the Eureka Tauwhare area, which covers. These areas had the statistics in the table below, which show people are wealthier and slightly older than the 37.4 years of the national average. In 2013 Eureka village was covered by meshblocks 0955900 and 0955400, with a population totalling 462 in 165 houses. In 2018 the main ethnic groups of the area were 89.4% European, 9.5% Māori and 5.3% Asian.
