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Colac Bay/Ōraka is 12 km west of Riverton/Aparima. The area has a long history of Māori settlement. European settlers arrived to mill timber in the 1850s, and the settlement boomed after the railway arrived in 1881. By 1900, the township contained some 2,000 inhabitants, and a post office, hall, school, blacksmiths, various shops, three hotels and even a sail maker. Nearby were the Chinese gold diggings at Round Hill.
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Meaning of place name
An English corruption of the Maori name: Ōraka, lit: ō: place of; Raka. Raka was a chief. Ko-oraka, from which Colac is derived, is the same as Oraka with the prefix ko. In the southern dialect 'r' was closer in sound to 'l' than 'r'.
