The stretch of coastline which lies between the two townships of Fortrose and Waikawa, on the south eastern coast, was used by the Maori for food gathering is evident by the number of artefacts later found in the area.  At Fortrose the Ruapuke Maori knew the bar well and at Waikawa also, Maori was known to have frequented the harbour.

A whaling station was later developed at each place during the 1830-40 period but was of short duration.

The sea and coastline were very important to the early European settlers, who gradually developed small townships along the coast.  Because the hinterland was heavily timbered, access was by sea and so coastal traders played an important part in the lives of these people.  However, the coastline was not always kind, gales blew up from the south-west, the sea became wild and wicked and many mishaps occurred.

The major shipwreck was the SS Tararua, which occurred in 1881 with the loss of 131 lives making it the worst civilian sea disaster in New Zealand's history. The Tararua struck the reef at Waipapa Point and although a passenger did manage to swim ashore help was still a long way off, with a young workman from a nearby station having to ride to Wyndham, many miles away with the message, but it was already too late.

The tragedy brought the call for a lighthouse on the Point. Waipapa had earlier claimed a wreck when in 1876 the William Ackers hit the reef and became a total wreck, with the loss of eight lives.

It was three years after the Tararua disaster that the lighthouse was built. The first light shone out on January 1884. A large number of small trading vessels plied between the two ports to Dunedin and Invercargill taking away wool and timber and bringing in stores for settlers. Many got into difficulties in heavy seas or sometimes crossing the bars, but in spite of these many near and sometimes total disasters, shipping continued being the main means of transport right up to about 1910, when the railway development arrived, and brought the beginning of another era.