Oporo is the name of a tablet-signal and flag-station on the Invercargill-Orepuki line of railway. It is eleven miles distant from Invercargill. The district is part of the Wallacetown riding of the county of Southland, and is in the electorate of Awarua. Stock raising, agriculture and flaxmilling are its principal industries. The fertile district of New River Flat is about two miles from the Oporo railway station, by a good road.

The Oporo Tablet Signal Station is situated on the Invercargill Orepuki line, and was established in 1903. For many years previously it had been a flag station.

Mr. James Elliott , Officer in charge of the Tablet Signal Station, was born at Blueskin, in June, 1877, and was educated in Southland. He joined the railway service at Riverton in 1893, as a platelayer, and has since been stationed successively at Mosgiel, Ranfurly, Waipahi, and Invercargill. He was placed in charge of the tablet signal station at Oporo in September, 1903. Mr Elliott was married, in 1900, to a daughter of the late Mr William Morrison, of Invercargill, and has two daughters.