‘Domino effect’ of mill closures leaves town in fight for survival

Sunday, 6 July 2025

Hundreds of jobs were lost when Winstone Pulp International closed two mills in Ruapehu District in August.

Many residents of the small town of Raetihi lost their jobs at the mills, and whole families have left town in search of new livelihoods.

Those who have remained say they’re sticking it out because they love the place.

When hundreds of jobs were lost in August with the closure of two mills in the Ruapehu district, the fallout “majorly” hit Angie Robson’s Coach Cafe lunchbar and takeaway shop in Raetihi.

Overnight, business dropped by a third as mill workers cut their spending in the town, she said.

She had to lay off a full-time worker, her husband, who took another job to pay the bills, while on top of that she suffered a stress-related heart attack, she said.

About six large families have shifted to Australia, Taupō, and further afield in search of work, said Robson.

The 2023 Census count said the town had a population of 1119 people. What it was now was unclear.

Locals were still supporting her, but the drop from good wages at the mills to jobs paying slightly more than minimum wage, meant orders had switched from steak meals to scoops of chips, she said.

Meanwhile State Highway 4, the main route to and from Whanganui, has been closed for repairs for weeks, cutting trade by a further 45%, she said.

The road was due to reopen on Friday, but “it’s very, very hard, we’re trucking along and hanging in there,” Robson said.

One of only two female shunter drivers to work at Karioi Pulp Mill, Raewyn Sinclair, left the mill when she had her first child.

It was a “beautiful place to work”, she said. “Everyone looked out for everyone, it created so many jobs.”

Her partner started at Tangiwai Sawmill straight from school, and after a decade there worked at the pulp mill for more than 12 years before it closed.

Sinclair said he still works at the mill as security, and on lower wages. “It is what it is. It’s a job and we’re grateful for it.”

Sinclair started a sign making and printing business in Raetihi in 2022, but when the mill closed business was “very dead”, and like others in town, she went lamb docking to bolster her family’s income.

The “domino effect” of the mill closure reached beyond Raetihi, she said, and impacted workers elsewhere including truck drivers, train engineers and port workers.

“You didn’t realise until it closed how much it did support,” Sinclair said.

Some locals have turned to seasonal work such as shearing, docking, and commercial carrot, parsnip and potato growing, while the town’s forestry workers are driving longer distances for work, she said.

“Our people do what we’ve got to do to get by.”

Sinclair has no desire to move to Australia like others from the town, that would mean giving up her business as it’s picking up, and leaving behind a family farm.

“We love being down on the farm with our babies.

“We’re really blessed to be honest. We’ve got a very on-to-it iwi, they’ve wrapped around us like no tomorrow. They’ve created jobs as much as they can.”

Locals have goals and dreams of people coming for tourism and jobs, she said, but empty mainstreet buildings meant “when you drive through it, you wouldn’t think we are what we are”.

“Ohakune is what everyone sees, but we’ve got cool things here like beautiful cafes, beautiful walkways.”

At her cafe, Robson has no intention of leaving the “laid back” town she fell in love with more than 11 years ago.

“The people are really friendly, it’s the locals that have stopped us moving.”

At farming and general goods store Ruapehu Farm Supplies, owner Daniel Mills said sales of farming goods have ticked along, but when the mills closed, trade in clothing, hardware, alcohol and hunting and fishing supplies went quiet.

And he has seen more people using more cash, which they do when times are tight, because “once it’s gone, it’s gone”, he said.

Real estate agent Kath Campbell sells properties in both Raetihi and nearby Ohakune.

While she can’t say for sure if any of the 12 residential properties that have sold in Raetihi since the beginning of October belonged to mill workers, six or seven of the 42 properties sold in Ohakune in that time had belonged to families that worked at the mills, she said.

“They were devastated to go. One family had just finished building their forever home.”

But Campbell kept in touch with her clients, and things were working out in their new towns, she said.

“It’s nice to hear that there’s silver linings.”