of Mercury and named this bay." European settlement The original European settlement was situated on the opposite side of the river from approximately 1836 to 1881. HMS Buffalo is a wreck in Mercury Bay; this ship was the first ship to settle the people of the Adelaide company who established the city of Adelaide in South Australia. Industry Historically, Whitianga was a centre for boat building, kauri milling, flax milling, gold mining and gum digging. For many years, it was a leading timber port, with sailing ships from Norway, Sweden, France, Italy and Great Britain coming to load timber. Overseas vessels of 2000 tons with a draught of 18" and carrying with their decks loads over a million feet of timber worked the harbour entrance. The larger ships were towed into the port from near Centre Island. Over a period of sixty years, it is estimated over 500 million feet of kauri was exported from the Whitianga district. The first kauri gum was exported in 1844. It reached its peak in 1899 when over 11,000 long tons of gum was exported at an average of $120 per ton. Today Whitianga serves as a small regional centre for the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula and Mercury Bay area. It is a focal point for local fishing, farming and tourism industry, such as the nearby Te Whanganui-A-Hei (Cathedral Cove) marine reserve and associated famous beach and cave. Cathedral Cove was used in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The area surrounding Whitianga (222 square km) is currently under a mineral prospecting license granted by the Crown to mining company Waihi Gold (a subsidiary of Newmont Corporation Colorado, USA). Social 74.8% of Whitianga residents are New Zealand born, 85.1% identify as European, and 17% are of Maori descent. Whitianga has a relatively large number of older residents. 32.3% of residents are aged 60 years and over (the New Zealand average for this age group is 19.8%). It also has a large number of baches or holiday homes. 39.1% of the private dwellings in Whitianga were unoccupied on Census night, 2013. (By contrast, the average number of unoccupied dwellings in New Zealand was 11.1%). In 2013 Whitianga had an unemployment level of 6.2%, lower than the national average of 7.1. 36.2% of households with income were in the lowest quartile, earning under $33,000 (versus 25% of people nationwide), 33.5% in the