More than 2500 submissions have been received on an iwi bid to have National Park Village and its railway station renamed Waimarino.

It is one of the largest number of submissions received by Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa New Zealand Geographic Board.

The three-month public consultation on the two proposals from Uenuku and the iwi collective Te Korowai o Wainuiārua closed last month.

The proposal to change the unofficial recorded place name National Park to the official place name Waimarino received 2088 submissions.

National Park is the village on the western edge of Tongariro National Park in the central North Island.

The proposal to rename National Park Station to Waimarino Railway Station received 489 submissions. The station is on the North Island Main Trunk railway line, behind the village.

The Geographic Board has not yet made public the number of submissions for and against.

It will consider the submissions at its next hui/meeting on April 30.

Board secretary Wendy Shaw says either the Board itself or the Minister for Land Information will make the final decision.

The railway station was opened in 1908 and was named Waimarino Railway Station until 1926 when NZ Railways changed the name to National Park Railway Station. Iwi researchers also claim Waimarino as the original name of the village.

The 180 or so permanent residents of National Park village are divided over the iwi proposal, some saying there is no evidence that Waimarino was the original name of the village.

The iwi collective Te Korowai o Wainuiārua, representing hapū in the area affiliated to the iwi Uenuku, Tamahaki and Tamakana, says Waimarino refers to the ‘calm waters’ pooling on the plains as they come down from the maunga.

A Geographic Board report says the proposers consider their voice has yet to be heard in the last 100 years of debate on the name of the village and railway station.

It says the proposers state they continue to refer to National Park village as ‘Waimarino Pā’ or ‘Waimarino kāinga’.

The Board has declined proposals several times in the 1950s and 1960s to alter one or both names to Waimarino because of local opposition to the proposals, potential for confusion with other Waimarino names used for other areas and the established use of the name National Park.

The proposal includes letters of support for the name change from Ōwhango-National Park Community Board, Ruapehu District Council, Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand, Tongariro-Taupō Conservation Board, KiwiRail, Visit Ruapehu and some locals.

The Board says the proposal material also includes evidence of opposition to the proposals from some local residents and the National Park Business Association.

Shaw says collective submissions are counted separately.

“If we receive a petition or multiple signatories to a submission, each name is counted as a separate submission.

"For example, 10 names would become 10 submissions. It would be noted in the report to the Board that these submissions were made collectively.”

Shaw says final decisions are not based on how many submissions a proposal receives, but rather the reasons provided in submissions, and the Board’s role in upholding its relevant statutory functions and aligning with good place-naming practice.

In 2013, the Board received 2608 submissions on the proposals to make Te Ika-a-Māui and Te Waipounamu official alternative names for the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Shaw says this is the largest number of submissions the Board has received.

In other recent public consultations, the Ngāti Maika proposal to change the name Maxwell to Pākaraka received just more than 500 submissions in 2021 and the Ngāti Kahu-o-Torongare proposal to alter the name of Kamo in Whangārei to Te Kamo received 651 submissions in 2023.

In 2009, the controversial proposal to change the name of Wanganui city to Whanganui, adding the ‘h’ at the request of local iwi, received nearly 850 submissions during the three-month submission period.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.