gravelled Waikawa Valley Road crosses the hills to join the Tahakopa-Wyndham route. Several of the area's coastal settlements have facilities for small boats, but generally only fishing and holiday craft use them; no regular passenger or freight-boat service runs to the Catlins. A railway line, the Catlins River Branch, linked the area with the South Island Main Trunk Line from the late 19th century. Construction of this line began in 1879, but it did not reach Owaka until 1896. Construction progressed slowly due to the difficult terrain, and the final terminus of the line at Tahakopa was not completed until 1915. The economic viability of the line declined with the sawmills that it was built to serve, and the line was eventually closed in 1971. Parts of the line's route are now accessible as walkways, among them a long tunnel ("Tunnel Hill") between Owaka and Glenomaru. Government The Catlins forms part of the Clutha-Southland electorate in the New Zealand Parliament. Between 1996 and 2014, the electorate was represented by Bill English of the National Party, who was Prime Minister of New Zealand and a former Leader of the Opposition. The Catlins area is split between the Clutha and Southland Districts for local government purposes. Most of the Catlins falls in the Clutha District, based in Balclutha, and one of the council's fourteen representatives is elected directly from a Catlins Ward which is roughly coterminous with this area.Catlins Ward Map, 2010 Election , Clutha District Council. Retrieved 28 September 2010. The Clutha District is itself part of the Otago Region, controlled administratively by the Otago Regional Council (ORC) in Dunedin, to the northeast of Balclutha. The Molyneux Constituency of the ORC, which covers roughly the same area as the Clutha District, elects two councillors to the 12-member Regional Council. Approximately the westernmost one-third of the Catlins area lies in the Southland District, based in Invercargill, to the west of Fortrose. One of the council's 12 elected members represents the Toetoes Ward, which contains this part of the Catlins, along with an area around Wyndham and extending along Toetoes Bay towards the Awarua Plain. The Southland District is itself part of the Southland Region, controlled administratively by the Southland Regional Council (SRC; also known as Environment Southland), which is also based in Invercargill. The Southern Constituency of the SRC, which covers the entire Toetoes Ward and extends across the Awarua Plain almost