harbour entrance, but mostly cycles out again and then continues moving northwards along the west coast. The southern sandbanks at the entrance are constantly accumulating and releasing this sand. These treacherous sandbanks shift and change position, and are known locally as the graveyard. The graveyard is responsible for more shipwrecks than any other place in New Zealand, and has claimed at least 43 vessels—some say as many as 110. European history In 1839, European settlers began arriving in the Kaipara to fell and mill kauri trees and build boats for local requirements. Despite the perilous bar at the harbour entrance, the Kaipara became a busy timber port from the 1860s, shipping thousands of tonnes of kauri timber and gum. The first sailing ship wrecked at the entrance to the harbour was the Aurora in April 1840. The brigantine Sophia Pate was wrecked at South Head in August 1841 with the loss of all 21 on board. The Wairoa is the main river feeding the Kaipara from the north. Thirty kilometres upstream, the town of Dargaville was established. The stretch of water to Dargaville is broad and straight and provides an easy to navigate route into what were then kauri forests in the interior. Dargaville flourished and immigrants from Britain and Croatia were attracted to the area. Ships up to 3,000 tons carried timber and logs out along the Wairoa to defy the bar at the harbour entrance before continuing on, usually to another New Zealand port or across the Tasman to Australia. The Kaipara River is the principal river feeding Kaipara Harbour from the south. From 1863 Helensville established itself as a timber port on this river, and provided shipping services about the Kaipara. When the timber ran out, Helensville developed sheep and dairy farms, and more recently nut plantations, vineyards and deer farms. Further south, Riverhead was an important trading link with the Kaipara and Helensville, and a centre for gum digging. Also set by a river, it milled timber and flour, and made paper. Later it turned to tobacco. From 1929 to 1933, the Riverhead State Forest was developed from 5,000 ha of exhausted gum land. As the kauri ran out, the Kaipara became a backwater. After 1920 the gum and timber industries dwindled, and farming, mainly dairying, took over. In particular, there is dairying on the rich Ruāwai flats. These flats are below sea level, and are