Waiuta in the upper Grey Valley contains the evocative remains of the last and longest-lived of the gold mining towns established on the West Coast, built around what became one of New Zealand’s most successful quartz mines that operated between 1906 and 1951. It comprises the remains of both the gold mining operations and town for what was, at that time, the South Island's largest gold mine, Blackwater Mines Limited, exploiting one of the world’s most regular and persistent gold reefs. In its heyday, the town had a highly social population of over 600 people, with shops, school, two churches, police station, post office, hospital, hotel and sports facilities. Mining activities and daily life were captured in a series of extraordinary photographs by resident miner-photographer, Joseph (Jos.) Divis. What survives today is a tantalising reminder of Waiuta’s thriving past lives and livelihoods, including: the remains of the town, the Blackwater Mines South Shaft and associated features; impressive industrial remains of the Snowy River Battery site to the south; and the later developed Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) Shaft and associated gold extracting ball mill to the north of the town. Waiuta has high aesthetic, archaeological, cultural, historical, social and technological significance. Waiuta grew from 1906 after a gold-bearing quartz reef was discovered a year earlier. After changing hands in quick succession, in 1907 Blackwater Mines Limited, a subsidiary of London-based Consolidated Goldfields, was formed to run the claim. Although the company had planned a township some distance from the mine, people preferred to live close to their work, so the town sprang up around the new shaft. A few settled in the Snowy River valley some 900 metres to the south where the stamper battery and processing plant was built in 1907-8 to process the ore brought out from the mine to recover the gold. From 1909, a separate existing claim to the north – the Prohibition lease – was progressed with vision but limited success, initially and controversially operating separately from Consolidated Goldfields. Waiuta is a vast area located on a flat valley of a tributary of Snowy River, inland from Ikamatua, accessed by a 17 kilometre winding road east from State Highway 7. There are three main parts to Waiuta. At the centre is the site of the old town which contains roads and tracks, six standing buildings and numerous building remains dotted about the place, as well as the original Blackwater Mine Shaft and associated features. The second main area, to the south of the former town site (accessed down a steep path and steps), is the Snowy River Battery site with its impressive stepped concrete foundations and rusted tanks. To the north of the town is the third main area, Prohibition Hill, with the concrete foundation remains of the last developed of Waiuta’s mining operations. The mine was successful in producing a lot of gold and the town grew rapidly. By 1909 it had between 300 to 400 people, and by 1936 it had grown to around 600, most of whom worked at the mine. Mining operations were modified and extended over time. The Prohibition lease and its plant on the hill above the township was purchased by Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand in the 1920s. By 1938, the Prohibition shaft became Waiuta’s main shaft and, for its time, New Zealand’s deepest mine shaft. The Snowy River Battery processing operations were superseded by a state-of-the-art ball mill at the Prohibition site but, critically, the original South Shaft remained in operation for pumping and ventilation. However, in July 1951 the South Shaft collapsed, instantly shutting down all mining operations. The company closed the mine and within a few weeks almost everyone had left the town and most of the buildings had been removed by the end of that year. Only a handful of residents remained living at Waiuta but the place was not forgotten. By the late 1970s and early 1980s interested individuals were recording information, including numerous oral and social histories, and it became a place of early ‘heritage recreation’ and conservation efforts by the New Zealand Forest Service. Waiuta is now managed by the Department of Conservation and is a popular visitor site. A highly engaged and organised volunteer group, Friends of Waiuta, also helps to maintain the place and keep its history alive.
Location
List Entry Information
Overview
Detailed List Entry
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Able to Visit
List Number
9835
Date Entered
7th July 2021
Date of Effect
7th July 2021
City/District Council
Buller District
Region
West Coast Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Crown Land (under action) Town of Waiuta (RTs NL1D/354, NL1D/255 and NL1D/265), Secs 2 and 4 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 6-7 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (RT NL9A/489), Sec 8 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 2A,2-33 Town of Waiuta, Sec 34 Town of Waiuta (RT NL6A/166), Secs 35-41 Town of Waiuta, Sec 42 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1979, p. 1397), Sec 43 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 44 and Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta (RT NL1D/354), Pt Sec 44 Town of Waiuta, Sec 45 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta, Sec 47 Town of Waiuta, Sec 48 Town of Waiuta (RT NL2D/809), Secs 49-51 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1984, p. 560), Lot 1 DP 18537 (RT NL73/88), Nelson Land District, and part of the land described as Sec 5 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (NZ Gazette 1981, p.1420) and Pt Crown Forest Land Blk IV Mawheraiti SD (NZ Gazette 2020, 4720), Sec 1 SO 14989 (NZ Gazette 2002, p. 602), Legal Road and Legal River, Nelson Land District, and the buildings and structures, including remains of below-ground mine shafts and drives, associated with Waiuta thereon, and the ‘class of chattels’ comprising all objects associated with the Waiuta era of mining within the boundary.Within the boundary of this historic place there are structures that do not contribute to the values of the place and are therefore excluded. These include interpretation and wayfinder signs, barrier fences and public toilets. (Refer to Map of Extent in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Crown Land (under action) Town of Waiuta (RTs NL1D/354, NL1D/255 and NL1D/265), Secs 2 and 4 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 6-7 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (RT NL9A/489), Sec 8 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 2A,2-33 Town of Waiuta, Sec 34 Town of Waiuta (RT NL6A/166), Secs 35-41 Town of Waiuta, Sec 42 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1979, p. 1397), Sec 43 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 44 and Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta (RT NL1D/354), Pt Sec 44 Town of Waiuta, Sec 45 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 46 Crown Land (under action) Town of Waiuta (RTs NL1D/354, NL1D/255 and NL1D/265), Secs 2 and 4 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 6-7 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (RT NL9A/489), Sec 8 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 2A,2-33 Town of Waiuta, Sec 34 Town of Waiuta (RT NL6A/166), Secs 35-41 Town of Waiuta, Sec 42 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1979, p. 1397), Sec 43 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 44 and Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta (RT NL1D/354), Pt Sec 44 Town of Waiuta, Sec 45 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta, Sec 47 Town of Waiuta, Sec 48 Town of Waiuta (RT NL2D/809), Secs 49-51 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1984, p. 560), Lot 1 DP 18537 (RT NL73/88), Sec 5 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (NZ Gazette 1981, p. 1420) and Pt Crown Forest Land Blk IV Mawheraiti SD (NZ Gazette 2020, 4720), Sec 1 SO 14989 (NZ Gazette 2002, p. 602), Legal Road and Legal River, Nelson Land District.
Location Description
Town and Blackwater Mines (South) Shaft Police Station (Former) - GPS E1503060, N5316958 (±5m) (NZTM)] Post Office Foundation (Visitor interpretation site) - GPS E1503130, N5316974 (±4m) Rimu Cottage – GPS E1503092, N5316721 (±5m – recorded at gate) Cottage/Barbershop – GPS E1503079, N5316721 (±5m) Joseph Divis Cottage – GPS E1502667, N5316780 (±5m) Gill’s Cottage – GPS E1502437, N5316944 Concrete cellar - E1502450, N5317134 (±5m) Blackwater Mines South Shaft – E1503032, N5316851 Snowy River Battery Site GPS information (NZTM): E2413013, N5877613 Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) Shaft GPS information (NZTM) – E2413328, N587915611 GPS information (NZTM) – E2413328, N587915611
Status
Listed
List Entry Status
Historic Place Category 1
Access
Able to Visit
List Number
9835
Date Entered
7th July 2021
Date of Effect
7th July 2021
City/District Council
Buller District
Region
West Coast Region
Extent of List Entry
Extent includes the land described as Crown Land (under action) Town of Waiuta (RTs NL1D/354, NL1D/255 and NL1D/265), Secs 2 and 4 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 6-7 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (RT NL9A/489), Sec 8 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 2A,2-33 Town of Waiuta, Sec 34 Town of Waiuta (RT NL6A/166), Secs 35-41 Town of Waiuta, Sec 42 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1979, p. 1397), Sec 43 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 44 and Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta (RT NL1D/354), Pt Sec 44 Town of Waiuta, Sec 45 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta, Sec 47 Town of Waiuta, Sec 48 Town of Waiuta (RT NL2D/809), Secs 49-51 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1984, p. 560), Lot 1 DP 18537 (RT NL73/88), Nelson Land District, and part of the land described as Sec 5 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (NZ Gazette 1981, p.1420) and Pt Crown Forest Land Blk IV Mawheraiti SD (NZ Gazette 2020, 4720), Sec 1 SO 14989 (NZ Gazette 2002, p. 602), Legal Road and Legal River, Nelson Land District, and the buildings and structures, including remains of below-ground mine shafts and drives, associated with Waiuta thereon, and the ‘class of chattels’ comprising all objects associated with the Waiuta era of mining within the boundary.Within the boundary of this historic place there are structures that do not contribute to the values of the place and are therefore excluded. These include interpretation and wayfinder signs, barrier fences and public toilets. (Refer to Map of Extent in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information).
Legal description
Crown Land (under action) Town of Waiuta (RTs NL1D/354, NL1D/255 and NL1D/265), Secs 2 and 4 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 6-7 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (RT NL9A/489), Sec 8 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 2A,2-33 Town of Waiuta, Sec 34 Town of Waiuta (RT NL6A/166), Secs 35-41 Town of Waiuta, Sec 42 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1979, p. 1397), Sec 43 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 44 and Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta (RT NL1D/354), Pt Sec 44 Town of Waiuta, Sec 45 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 46 Crown Land (under action) Town of Waiuta (RTs NL1D/354, NL1D/255 and NL1D/265), Secs 2 and 4 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 6-7 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (RT NL9A/489), Sec 8 Blk XIII Waitahu SD, Secs 2A,2-33 Town of Waiuta, Sec 34 Town of Waiuta (RT NL6A/166), Secs 35-41 Town of Waiuta, Sec 42 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1979, p. 1397), Sec 43 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 44 and Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta (RT NL1D/354), Pt Sec 44 Town of Waiuta, Sec 45 Town of Waiuta, Pt Sec 46 Town of Waiuta, Sec 47 Town of Waiuta, Sec 48 Town of Waiuta (RT NL2D/809), Secs 49-51 Town of Waiuta (NZ Gazette 1984, p. 560), Lot 1 DP 18537 (RT NL73/88), Sec 5 Blk XIII Waitahu SD (NZ Gazette 1981, p. 1420) and Pt Crown Forest Land Blk IV Mawheraiti SD (NZ Gazette 2020, 4720), Sec 1 SO 14989 (NZ Gazette 2002, p. 602), Legal Road and Legal River, Nelson Land District.
Location Description
Town and Blackwater Mines (South) Shaft Police Station (Former) - GPS E1503060, N5316958 (±5m) (NZTM)] Post Office Foundation (Visitor interpretation site) - GPS E1503130, N5316974 (±4m) Rimu Cottage – GPS E1503092, N5316721 (±5m – recorded at gate) Cottage/Barbershop – GPS E1503079, N5316721 (±5m) Joseph Divis Cottage – GPS E1502667, N5316780 (±5m) Gill’s Cottage – GPS E1502437, N5316944 Concrete cellar - E1502450, N5317134 (±5m) Blackwater Mines South Shaft – E1503032, N5316851 Snowy River Battery Site GPS information (NZTM): E2413013, N5877613 Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) Shaft GPS information (NZTM) – E2413328, N587915611 GPS information (NZTM) – E2413328, N587915611
Cultural Significance
Cultural Significance or Value Waiuta has cultural significance as it reflects important aspects of mining culture, including the nuances of status and community within the single resource town. Despite being a small inland town on the West Coast, Waiuta’s gold mine had London-based owners and comprised a skilled workforce of miners from around the world. Inhabitants came from a range of places, including England, Dalmatia and Bohemia, making it somewhat cosmopolitan despite its small size. Waiuta’s population had clear gender roles, with a male-dominated mining workforce and females in supporting domestic duties, which is a reflection of both its time and especially of semi-self-sufficient mining-type communities. At Waiuta it was a particularly proud and busy community, and all roles revolved, in one way or another, around the common purpose of the thriving quartz mining operation. The traditional hierarchies between the company staff and the workers, such as different siting and standards of housing and separation for some of the sporting facilities, was in part a reflection of the owners’ English class system but likely also typical of management culture for the time. Nevertheless, Waiuta was also a place where both staff and workers and their families would have all interacted together, especially in modes of recreation and religious observance. Such was the enthusiasm and commitment to sport and recreation that, on their days off, miners laboured to flatten a mullock heap to create a large playing field for use by all. As well as a strong culture of sport, the Waiuta community had flourishing cultural clubs, including a debating society, public library, photographers and movie makers. Waiuta was renowned in the district for its large social gatherings for dances, dramatic productions and celebrations, often held in the Miners’ Hall. This culture of energetic community involvement and mining activity at Waiuta was recorded through a series of exceptional photographs by Joseph Divis. Social Significance or Value Waiuta has social significance as it matters to communities now due to the bonds it created in the past and present. For nearly 45 years, in the first half of the twentieth century, Waiuta was a thriving independently functioning township with a cohesive socially connected community. Those who lived there had a huge sense of pride in the place, with a common sense of purpose around the quartz mining. The abrupt closure of the mine in 1951 meant most left, but a few stayed on for a couple more decades, and the place remained in the consciousness of former residents and miners. In the late 1970s and 1980s, efforts by the New Zealand Forest Service encouraged ‘heritage recreation’ tourism through early inventory work, interpretation on site, and conservation. An extensive programme of oral history recording was carried out. Even though no-one lives in Waiuta anymore, former residents and their descendants have a strong connectedness to the place, and it has become a heritage destination in its own right. Friends of Waiuta was formed in 1985 and ever since have been pivotal in working with others to publish books, documentaries and other information about the place, and assist with conservation work on the site.
Historic Significance
Historical Significance or Value Waiuta has historical significance. Unlike some other quartz mines in the district, Waiuta’s rich and persistent reef gave residents confidence in the continuity of the place, making it worthy of investing their time to provide community sporting and cultural facilities and hold regular popular social events. Employment levels were consistently high. In the heyday of the mine it was a thriving community and, for its time, it was the largest gold mine in the South Island (and the third largest producer of gold in New Zealand, after Waihi’s Martha Mine and at Karangahake). The mining itself required coordinated team effort through the company and workers. Efforts of the Waiuta branch as part of the Inangahua Miners’ Union helped to bring about a change in work practices that greatly reduced the incidence of miner’s phthisis as well as, eventually, allowance for the families of those who died from the disease. Waiuta is unique in the remarkable sudden departure of the population following the unexpected collapse of the South Shaft that was serving as the mine’s return airway, with most people leaving and taking their buildings (or parts of them) over the ensuing weeks. Building materials were hard to come by in the early 1950s and so were able to be relocated or recycled, meaning Waiuta went from being a thriving community to a kind of ‘ghost town’ in a very short space of time. A few residents stayed on and their homes make up most of the standing buildings that have survived.
Physical Significance
Aesthetic Significance or Value Waiuta includes aesthetic qualities that vary over the large extent. Some aspects are especially pleasing, such as small remnants of house sites and other structures appearing here and there amongst native and exotic vegetation. Many of the former building sites are being taken over by nature to a greater or lesser degree, with what would have formerly been small maintained shrubberies and gardens so that now roses ramble, berry plants abound and shrubs can be the size of trees. The ubiquitous fireplace remains and the occasional chimney poking out of the vegetation are evocative tell-tale signs of previous lives and livelihoods. The sheer scale of the remains of the industrial sites, particularly at Snowy River and Prohibition Hill, are stark reminders of what would have been noisy, smelly and dangerous mining activities. The awe-inspiring vast concrete foundations stepping back up the steep hillside at the Snowy River Battery site present something like a ‘lost world’ discovery. At the time when Waiuta was a thriving town and mine, its aesthetic qualities were captured in a series of inspiring photographs by resident photographer-miner, Joseph (Jos.) Divis. These were published at the time and have become widely celebrated for the unique and evocative record they provide of Waiuta. Reproductions of some of the Divis photographs are included in modern-day interpretation on site at Waiuta, allowing the visitor to visualise how the place was in its heyday and compare it with the expansive peaceful setting that it is today. In the 1950s and 1960s, well-known New Zealand artist Mountford Tosswill (Toss) Woollaston created a number of expressive colourful paintings of post-industrial Waiuta, at least two of which are held in art gallery collections. Waiuta’s strong sense of place was articulated in a 2020 documentary entitled ‘Whispers of Gold’, where many former residents spoke of the enduring pull and emotional response they have when they visit the place. Visitors sometimes describe the place as having an eerie quality. Many would likely feel a real sense of loss if Waiuta’s aesthetic qualities were no longer there. Archaeological Significance or Value Waiuta has archaeological value as it is likely to provide physical evidence of human activity that archaeological methods could locate or identify. The mine and town of Waiuta was a substantial development in the early twentieth century that left not only a large cleared footprint within the native forest but both above and below ground remnants of over four decades of intense activity and occupation. Archaeological methods can be used to record and understand the extensive quartz mine workings and former settlement and the New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme has recorded at least 21 sites at Waiuta. Technological Significance or Value Waiuta has technological significance or value. Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) Shaft was the second deepest mine shaft ever sunk in New Zealand. The mining and milling technology on the surface was some of the most advanced for the time, notably the state-of-the-art gold extraction processes such as the ball mill and the Edwards roaster. Waiuta also had technology that was representative of earlier times, notably the stamper battery process. As such, it includes physical evidence of methods that were both widely adopted and those which were technologically advanced, the remains of which are still discernible in places. In addition, some of the original 1906 prospecting trenches can still be seen, providing evidence of the massive effort undertaken by Consolidated Goldfields to prove the reef during the six month option to purchase agreement. Also of note is the unusual practice implemented due to the richness of the ore, whereby rather than leaving horizontal safety pillars between the mine levels, all the ore was mined out utilising a unique timbering solution to support and avoid collapse of the upper levels. Elements of this will exist, albeit in a crushed state, underground.
Detail Of Assessed Criteria
(a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand history Waiuta is of special significance in its reflection of quartz mining history in New Zealand. Gold mining, as a basic extractive industry, was responsible for the initial prosperity of a number of regions in New Zealand. The West Coast relied heavily on the wealth generated by gold mining and other extractive industries. By virtue of its sheer longevity, Waiuta remained a potent force in the West Coast economy for most of the first half of the twentieth century. Its cosmopolitan workforce represented a trend in immigration, whereby miners came not only from the United Kingdom but elsewhere. Although a small and somewhat isolated town, Waiuta’s history reflects aspects of social interaction that sits within New Zealand’s strong culture of sport and recreation. Waiuta had a range of sporting and arts facilities and had a reputation for being a highly social community, a drawcard for out-of-towners. Furthermore, some 30 years after the mine closed abruptly in 1951 and the town was barely recognisable with only a handful of residents, in the late 1970s and 1980s Waiuta became a place of early heritage conservation and recreation efforts by New Zealand Forest Service staff. This revitalised interest in the place and led to early interpretation at the site and repair and reinstatement of some buildings. In a wider context, this paved the way for the Department of Conservation, formed in 1987, to continue conservation and recreation works at the Waiuta site, reflecting an aspect of New Zealand’s heritage recreation history. (b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history Waiuta is associated with events, persons and ideas of importance in New Zealand history. The discovery of the Birthday Reef in 1905 led to what was to become one of New Zealand’s most successful quartz mines, operating between 1906 and 1951 to exploit one of the world’s most regular and persistent gold reefs. Mining entrepreneur, David Ziman, was responsible for revitalising the quartz mining industry on the Reefton Goldfield, including advancing the mining at Waiuta. The rapid growth of gold production after the formation of the Consolidated Mines of New Zealand Company in 1896 mirrored the rapid rise in gold production nationally. The early days of mining there involved dust-heavy conditions leading to a devastating condition called silicosis or miners’ phthisis. Lobbying efforts of the Inangahua Miners Union, of which the Waiuta miners were a part, and evidence provided by medical specialists in Reefton led to the Miners’ Phthisis Act (passed in 1915) which provided pensions to miners with silicosis as well as financial compensation for the widows and children of those miners who died from the disease. Numerous individuals made up the place and the vigour of the Waiuta community is renowned. Often mentioned is Joseph (Jos.) Divis, a miner and photographer whose composed glass negatives provide a fascinating record of the mine, the town and its people in the 1910s through to the mid-1930s. Over time Divis has come to be recognised as particularly important because of his legacy of extraordinary Waiuta photographs. Tasman (‘Tas’) Hogg was another figure of importance at Waiuta, having roles as chief surveyor, assistant mine manager and eventually mine manager, seeing through pivotal changes at Blackwater Mine right through until the mine’s closure in 1951. Friends of Waiuta is a group with a particularly meaningful association with Waiuta, formed at the time when the New Zealand Forest Service was carrying out clearing and recording work as part of early heritage recreation efforts and in time for a reunion to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the mine. Friends of Waiuta reflects New Zealand’s culture of active volunteerism, many of its members being former residents of Waiuta, or descendants of such, who promote the place and carry out works on the public conservation land. (c) The potential of the place to provide knowledge of New Zealand history Waiuta is recognised as having a significant story to tell in a recreational setting. The nature of the place, with many hidden features at ground and below-ground level, means that there is likely to be fabric at the place that is not visible or accessible without further investigation. Such fabric could enhance knowledge about both the mining and town, complementing existing site surveys and the extensive photographic collection which already enables one to consider what life and work was like in its heyday compared to tantalising remnants that survive on site today. (e) The community association with, or public esteem for the place Existing communities have a strong current association with Waiuta. This includes former residents and their descendants, former miners and mining historians, many of whom are associated with the active volunteer group called Friends of Waiuta. This strong association is demonstrated through their physical works on the ground, meetings and regular newsletters, publications and in 2020 the successful documentary, ‘Whispers of Gold’. The place is also held in high public esteem by heritage recreationalists, including former New Zealand Forest Service employees involved in opening up and interpreting the site in the 1980s and from 1987 Department of Conservation, and in 2020 Waiuta became celebrated as a Tohu Whenua, a landmark that tells our New Zealand stories. (f) The potential of the place for public education Waiuta has special characteristics as an important source for the public to learn about quartz mining in New Zealand. Such is the quality, variety of remains and history that it has significant potential for education and research on gold mining in New Zealand. It is accessible to the public, has on-site interpretation utilising high quality images taken by miner-resident Joseph Divis, and has a particularly interesting history in terms of the mining undertaken (quality, persistency and depth mined) and the highly social and cohesive community that grew up around the main mine shaft before the whole place abruptly closed down in 1951. (g) The technical accomplishment, value, or design of the place Waiuta includes remnants that reflect significant technical accomplishments, since the entire complex of mining features at Waiuta demonstrate the design of the place to enable an understanding of the stages of successful mining and gold extraction. The Blackwater Mines South shaft site, including winder foundations, and the Snowy River site with its battery foundations and cyanide vat remains, demonstrates the original methods of gold extraction. With the arrival of the Prohibition Mine north of Waiuta, an aerial ropeway was built to transport the quartz directly to the Snowy River site for processing. This process was then superseded by the technologically advanced ball mill used for gold extraction, the foundation remnants of which survive at the Prohibition site. (j) The importance of identifying rare types of historic places Waiuta has rarity value in its history as one of the last and longest-lived of the gold mining towns established on the West Coast, built around what became one of New Zealand’s most successful quartz mines that operated between 1906 and 1951. The site of the historic town and associated mining remnants tell the story of the internationally renowned quartz reef and, when looked at through the lens of the extraordinary collection of photographs taken by miner-resident Joseph Divis and the extensive oral and social histories, Waiuta is a rare historic place. Summary of Significance or Values Waiuta has outstanding significance or value. Its historic mining and domestic features dotted in the valley might seem like a far cry from when the place was a bustling town within a noisy mine operation. However, remarkably, the former mine and town are very readable despite the loss of most of the standing buildings. The metalled roads, gardens, fences, open spaces, chimneys, and numerous other historic features - not least being the remains of Blackwater Mines South shaft, Snowy River Battery and Blackwater Mines South (Prohibition) site - are all markers of Waiuta’s mining lives and livelihoods bygone. Their interpretation is made all the more compelling and detailed through the extensive collection of photographs taken by resident miner photographer, Joseph Divis. Far from being just a deserted mining ghost town, Waiuta is alive with both tangible and intangible reminders of this once thriving place. Much of this is thanks to conservation initiatives since the late 1970s by the New Zealand Forest Service and its successor, Department of Conservation, and former residents and researchers, many of whom are involved with the highly engaged volunteer group, Friends of Waiuta.
Construction Details
Description
Mine buildings, including poppet head, plant buildings, carpenters and blacksmiths shops completed (Blackwater South Shaft). Boarding house and other accommodation completed. Snowy River Stamper battery constructed, cyanide works constructed.
Start Year
1908
Type
Original Construction
Description
Slimes plant constructed (Snowy River site).
Finish Year
1909
Start Year
1908
Type
Original Construction
Description
Miners’ Union hall built, more single-roomed huts and four-roomed cottages built, new Boarding house in Main Street. Low-level (No. 3) tramway to battery completed, Tangye 136 h.p. suction charcoal gas plant erected, Wilfley tables installed at Snowy River site.
Start Year
1910
Type
Original Construction
Description
Waiuta-Snowy River Battery skip completed.
Finish Year
1911
Type
Original Construction
Description
Hospital built, Nurses’ Home built.
Start Year
1914
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
St Barnabas Anglican Church built.
Start Year
1913
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
New South Shaft winder in use.
Start Year
1917
Type
Original Construction
Description
Recreation Ground created, electric light poles installed.
Start Year
1920
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
St John’s Catholic Church built.
Finish Year
1922
Start Year
1921
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Hospital grounds extended.
Start Year
1922
Type
Addition
Description
New water race from Staircase Creek completed, Gas engine eliminated, new
Start Year
1923
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
New water race – extension from Absolum Creek to Staircase Creek, Edwards
Start Year
1924
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
School dismantled on old site and completed on new site, new road to Recreation Ground completed.
Start Year
1925
Type
Relocation
Description
Recreation Ground pavilion completed, further new houses constructed.
Start Year
1926
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Post Office building constructed, public tennis court completed.
Start Year
1927
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Draper shop and billiard saloon destroyed by fire.
Start Year
1927
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
Blackwater Mines Limited took over existing mine north-east of Waiuta (Prohibition site).
Finish Year
1928
Start Year
1927
Type
Other
Description
Second public tennis court complete.
Start Year
1928
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
School enlarged, recreation ground enlarged.
Start Year
1928
Type
Addition
Description
Dental clinic built on school grounds.
Start Year
1930
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Bowling Club opened.
Start Year
1931
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Croquet lawn built.
Start Year
1932
Type
Addition
Description
Barbershop established next to Bannan’s butchery.
Start Year
1933
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Swimming pool constructed, Whippet track built, Aerial from Prohibition to Snowy River Battery completed, another 10 stamps added to Snowy River Battery.
Start Year
1935
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Electric-powered winding system installed at Prohibition site.
Start Year
1936
Type
Addition
Description
Ball Mine installed at Prohibition site.
Start Year
1938
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
New hydro plant near battery commissioned.
Start Year
1940
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Miners’ hall destroyed by fire.
Start Year
1941
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
New miners’ hall in place.
Start Year
1942
Type
Reconstruction
Description
Nob Hill boarding house destroyed by fire.
Start Year
1942
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
Most of Blackwater (south shaft) Mine chimney taken down.
Start Year
1943
Type
Demolished - prior building
Description
South shaft mullock bins and O’Donnells stables demolished.
Start Year
1944
Type
Demolished - additional building on site
Description
Mine buildings at South Shaft destroyed by fire.
Start Year
1946
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
Blackwater (South) Shaft caved in and Mine closed.
Start Year
1951
Type
Demolished - Other
Description
Hotel burned down, most other buildings removed.
Start Year
1951
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
South shaft poppet head destroyed by fire.
Start Year
1964
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
Hospital building restored for conversion to Waiuta Lodge but destroyed by fire in same year.
Start Year
1985
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
Four agitating vats and Tube mill installed (Snowy River site).
Start Year
1909
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
First (temporary) poppet head (4.5 metres high) built, two tunnels completed.
Start Year
1906
Type
Original Construction
Description
Building of the first houses, semi-permanent poppet head started.
Start Year
1907
Type
Original Construction
Description
Hospital building restored for conversion to Waiuta Lodge.
Start Year
1985
Type
Restoration
Description
Waiuta Lodge rebuilt.
Start Year
1986
Type
Reconstruction
Description
Open framed interpretation shelter built atop Post Office building foundations.
Period
1980s
Type
Additional building added to site
Description
Cottage in Shinbone Alley destroyed by fire.
Start Year
1990
Type
Demolished - Fire
Description
Prohibition Shaft capped by concrete.
Start Year
2005
Type
Modification
Description
Prohibition Mine decontaminated.
Start Year
2015
Type
Other
Construction Materials
Brick, timber, concrete, iron, metal
Early History in Te Tai o Poutini Te Tai o Poutini features prominently in the early Māori history of occupation in Aotearoa/New Zealand and is named after Poutini, the taniwha who accompanied Ngahue on his voyage from Hawaiiki. Poutini is also rendered as the taniwha who abducted Tamaahua's wife Waitaiki and turned her to pounamu, and who swims along the coastline protecting people and pounamu. The regions rich geological resources were investigated and utilised for centuries prior to the arrival of Pākehā. During these centuries, travel pathways were created by successive generations, relying on cumulative mātauranga (knowledge) to successfully navigate the landscape. Geographic features such as mountains, rivers and ranges were given names attributed to memorialise people, events, resources or physical characteristics. Nohoanga, mahinga kai and mahinga toi were dotted along rivers and plains along with inland kainga at Ohinetaketake near Ahaura, Takataka and Te Kainga at Kotukuwhakaoko (Lake Brunner), although the majority of kainga were located on the coastline and mostly within a day's walking distance of each other. The Ikamatua and Inangahua awa were utilised as part of the ara pounamu (travel routes) for expeditions to extract and trade for pounamu. Waiuta translates as ‘inland water’ in Te Reo Māori, but the name itself is not directly associated with Māori history in this place. Rather, it was an invented name, part of a late nineteenth and early twentieth century trend in ascribing Māori place names to postal and railway settlements on the West Coast. When Pākehā began arriving in the area in the mid-19th century, Ngāti Waewae played a key role in assisting the visitors and newcomers with surveying and exploration. Brunner coal was known and utilised for warmth before the Pākehā arrived, and it was Māori who first discovered the gold so coveted by the Pakeha, opening up the goldfields of Waimangaroa, Karamea and Lyell in Buller, as well as Hohonu and many of the other great goldfields of the West Coast, including here in the upper Grey Valley. West Coast Gold Mining Gold mining was responsible for the initial large scale Pākehā settlement of the West Coast and provided prosperity. Māori continued to provide transport and guidance as well as storekeeping and mining, for example at Waimangaroa (north of Buller), Westport, Karamea and at Lyell Creek. As alluvial sources dwindled, hard rock mining of the ‘mother lodes’ took over and was important in extending the life of the industry for many decades. Gold-bearing quartz had, in fact, been discovered in the Inangahua District as early as 1866 but as the goldmining industry found out all too often, these reefs were difficult to access and unpredictable. A few early mines in the Reefton area turned out to be profitable and brought wavering prosperity to the area. The richest of the area’s mines lay undiscovered until it became a lucky prospecting find in the valley of Greek Creek, a Blackwater River tributary, in 1905. Early Days at Waiuta On 9 November 1905 a prospecting party of Ernest Bannan, Bill Meates, Dave Ross and Jimmy Martin found an auriferous quartz reef outcrop, which they named the ‘Birthday Reef’ because the discovery coincided with the birthday of King Edward VII. In early 1906 they sold their claim to a speculator, Percy N. Kingswell for £2,000 and then, with a massive effort expended on prospecting trenches to prove the reef, the site was on-sold in mid-1906 to the London-based Consolidated Goldfields Limited for £30,000. The company Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand had been formed in 1896 by mining entrepreneur, David Ziman, and he was pivotal in developments at the site. In March 1907 a subsidiary company, Blackwater Mines Limited, was formed to work on the reef and by this time a shaft was already being sunk. Winding gear and temporary head gear were installed to allow sinking of the shaft to 457 feet (139 metres) by September 1907, after which a semi-permanent poppet head was erected. At the mine shaft’s No. 2 Level, 90 metres below ground, a 450 metre tunnel known as the Joker level was being driven to connect the shaft with the Snowy River valley, some 900 metres away to the south. There a 30-stamp battery and processing plant, to crush quartz and extract the gold, was being planned. The Blackwater Mine was fully operational by 1908 and was profitable from the outset - a ‘picture of a mine’ for the company. Snowy River Battery and Treatment Plant The battery-site selected was steep and required clearing of dense bush and the construction of large concrete retaining walls. A sawmill was erected to provide timber for the machinery and battery house. By July 1908 the machinery for the battery was installed and a cyanide plant to treat the tailing sands was in the course of construction. By August 1908 the battery was busy crushing quartz. Initially, between 1908 and 1910, the ore arrived via the incline from the Joker level. Gravity played a major part in feeding the material from process to process. Lumps of ore from the mine were dumped on a grill of heavy steel bars at the top of the battery complex, dropping into massive storage bins ready for crushing. The 30 stamps of the battery were set out in groups of five stamps within six mortar boxes. Automatic feeders from the storage bin released the quartz into the mortar boxes and water was added for the stamper crushing process, producing a pulp which was then taken via a launder (open timber flume) to the plate room. Inside the plate room were v-shaped boxes where the pulp ran through to a spreader at the head of nine polished copper amalgamating plates smeared with mercury. As the slurry passed over the treated plates, gold flakes amalgamated with the mercury, each plate being carefully scraped each morning for the amalgam to be further processed. The amalgamation process accounted for approximately 80% of the gold recovered at Snowy Rivery Battery. Balls of amalgam were heated in a retort, separating off the mercury and leaving behind impure sponge gold which was later refined. The result was molten gold poured into bars. Following the amalgamation process the leftover pulp went through a size classification process in a hydraulic device (spitszkasten) which separated coarse pulp (sands) from the finer material (slimes). The sands went to Wilfley concentrators and the slimes were taken to cyanide vats. Thirteen large steel cyanide vats were built, each with a rotating distributor consisting of a central bowl from which six distributing pipes radiated. Sands from the spitzkasten and Wilfley concentrators (and later the roasted concentrates) were carried in launders to the bowls and after a settling period, were pumped with a sodium cyanide solution. The cyanide solution percolated through the sand, dissolving the gold, a slow process that was repeated three times with a successively weaker solution. After the third cyanide treatment, the gold-cyanide solution was run from the vats through to the zinc room while unwanted sands (with traces of cyanide) were washed down the Snowy River. The zinc room contained partitioned boxes fitted with gratings and filled with zinc shavings. The gold-cyanide solution was run through these zinc boxes, precipitating the gold via a chemical process as a slime ready for recovery by acid treatment and smelting. Slimes that came from the spitzkasten were also treated by cyanidation, in four 12 metre tall ‘B. & M. agitator tanks’ which blew compressed air that allowed the gold to be dissolved in an oxygenated solution and then filtrated via a vacuum process and settlement in cyanide vats. It then followed the zinc room precipitation process as the sands had - that is, both slimes and sands processes went to the zinc room. In 1910 Wilfley concentrating tables were installed. The coarse pulp (sand) that passed over the amalgamating plates was collected and washed over mechanically agitated tables called Wilfley tables, inclined tables covered with heavy linoleum and narrow wooden laths froming thin tapering depressions called riffles, while the remainder (sands or pulp) flowed over them. The heavier grains (concentrates) containing gold rich material and metallic sulfides sank into the riffles. An assay office building was complete by October 1908. In 1909 a tube mill - a revolving In 1911 a skip incline tramway was built, descending very steeply from about 500 metres east of Waiuta reaching the true right bank of the Snowy River. Furnaces were used for various stages of gold recovery: driving off mercury from the amalgam, purifying gold-bearing sludge from the zinc boxes and finally smelting and purifying the gold. The gold bars were stamped BM for Blackwater Mine. An Edwards Roasting furnace was built in 1924 at the Snowy site. Revolving arms within the furnace agitated the sand to encourage oxidation, helping to get out the last of the bits of gold encapsulated in the ore. A side effect of the roasting was to drive off arsenic from the ore concentrates causing the killing or stunting of vegetation around the plant. In 1935 another 10 stamps were added to northern (upstream) end of the crusher – this was the last major addition at the Snowy River site. Power for the Snowy River machinery The plant was largely water-powered. The main shaft for the stampers was driven by a Pelton wheel. Smaller wheels drove the Wilfley tables, air compressor and electric power generator. By October 1908 a two kilometre water-race was in operation, but this proved to be problematic in freezing or dry weather as there was insufficient or irregular power for the crushing machinery. To remedy these issues, and as more equipment was added, a suction charcoal gas engine was installed in 1910 as a supplementary power source. A retort to make charcoal from local mānuka timbers for the charcoal gas engine proved unsuccessful, however. In 1923 a water race was completed from Staircase Creek (a tributary of the Grey River) and in 1924 this was extended to Absolum Creek (a tributary of the Alexander River). A licence for another water race was applied for in 1925 along the north bank of the Snowy River, starting at the battery tail race, to run an electric power generating station. In 1940 a power plant with cast iron Pelton wheels was erected on a new foundation to make use of the two main water supplies. Mining operations changed in 1936. The North or Prohibition Shaft became the centre for quartz extraction. A 1.6 kilometre aerial ropeway was constructed to deliver its quartz to the Snowy River Battery (prior to this, from 1910 ore had arrived via a low-level horse tram, which had limited capacity for transporting ore to supply the battery, especially as the mining took place further north). By mid-1938 a new ball mill at the Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) site eliminated the need for the battery at Snowy River, though it was still used for the cleaning up of untreated ore and tailings for a time. The Edwards roaster at the Snowy River site was dismantled and re-erected beside the new Prohibition ball mill. Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) Shaft and associated remains Soon after the south shaft was sunk into the reef, various competitors had begun attempting to access the reef from neighbouring sections, including at the Prohibition lease on the hill north-east of Waiuta town. In 1909, a Westport syndicate under the direction of Sidney Fry conducted prospecting work there, including sinking and driving, but they failed to find anything payable. David Ziman strongly suspected the Birthday Reef lay below and, without his hoped-for backing from sceptical Consolidated board, raised his own capital to secure an option on the Prohibition lease in 1909. Limited support from Consolidated Goldfields did follow, but reluctantly. During 1910 and 1911 the Blackwater No. 2 level, 93 metres below the surface, was driven north to the Prohibition with crosscuts east and west, and an old surface tunnel northward from Greek Creek was extended, but nothing was found. Ziman’s perseverance in that space eventually led to his estrangement from the company and financial hardship. Ziman formed the North Blackwater Development Syndicate, which was registered in late 1915 with 39 shareholders. Later renamed North Blackwater Mines Limited,they expended considerable effort and sank a mine shaft as far down as 380 feet (115 metres) but that company’s finances gave out and eventually the Prohibition lease was cheaply acquired by Blackwater Mines Limited in around 1926. The shaft became the Blackwater North Shaft, or Prohibition Shaft. A lot of plant was already at the site when Blackwater Mines took it over, including engine and compressor house, boiler house, storerooms, poppet head, Tangye engines, tubular boilers, Bury air compressor, steam sinking pump, winding engine, sawmill and smithy iron. Blackwater Mines soon drove its Nos 6 and 9 levels northward across the boundary. By 1932 the Blackwater workings were down to No. 12 level at 560 metres and work began repairing the Prohibition shaft and plant in anticipation of it becoming the centre of mining operations. When the shaft was deepened to No. 13 level, 716 metres below the collar, in 1935 it became (for the time) the deepest vertical shaft mined in New Zealand. Because of the depths being worked, a new electric-powered winding system was installed in 1936 to replace an earlier steam plant. During reopening and development work, the Blackwater Mines South and North (Prohibition) Shafts were linked at No. 7 level to connect electric cables and compressed air pipes from the old workings to the new area and to improve ventilation. When they reached No. 12 level, an electric Sirocco exhaust fan was installed near the Blackwater South Shaft to help keep temperature down in the lowest levels. To begin with (1936-38), quartz from the Prohibition mine was transported to the Snowy River battery via the 1.6 kilometre gravity-powered mono-cable aerial tramway. However, by early 1937 it became clear that most of the quartz was coming from the Blackwater North (Prohibition) and no longer the Blackwater South Shaft. The introduction in 1938 of an electrically driven ball mill near the Prohibition Shaft did away with the need for the aerial and stamper battery. Prohibition’s ball mill was New Zealand’s most modern quartz reduction and gold saving plant for its time. Instead of descending stamp crusher plants, as had been used on the West Coast for 70 years, it had revolving steel drums containing steel balls for primary reduction, a smaller tube mill for fine grinding and flotation cells for efficient gold-saving. The Prohibition Shaft opened at No. 17 level at 300 metres below sea level (879 metres below the collar) in July 1951 but within days, on 9 July 1951, the Blackwater (South) Shaft collapsed below the surface. This destroyed the ventilation system and pumps, stopping all mining work immediately. Waiuta – the Town The first dwellings were canvas tents and makeshift huts used by the miners who ‘proved’ the reef. Once it became clear that the mine would be developed, from 1907 more comfortable dwellings began to be constructed. Blackwater Mines Limited knew from the outset that a sizeable labour force would be required and therefore a town with company-built accommodation was an early priority. Earlier thoughts of establishing a township about two kilometres to the west of the mine shaft were abandoned when residents preferred to establish themselves right beside the mine itself. By early 1907 there was a shop incorporating a post office, its owner being Mr Meates, one of the original prospectors who discovered the reef in 1905. It was Meates who chose the town’s name – Waiuta – from a selection of three names put forward by the ‘postal’ department. By March 1908 the company had built a cluster of simple one-roomed huts, two-roomed cottages as well as some four-roomed cottages for families and a boarding house. In these early days, it was still a rough and ready heavily male-dominated settlement and all supplies, including vegetables, needed to be brought in from elsewhere. Conditions in the town gradually improved, roading was formed and more families arrived. Most of the houses built were, at the start of their life, classic weatherboard and iron two-roomed cottages, usually with corrugated iron chimneys, although larger houses for the managers of the mine were also built. In addition, a series of small miners’ huts (‘Red Huts’), without kitchens, were erected for the single men. The roads and tracks developed quirky names. Examples of the tongue-in-cheek naming of parts of the town include ‘Nob Hill’ where many of the wealthier staff houses were located, Incubator Alley where many growing families lived, Shinbone Alley and Dingbat Flat near the Prohibition site. By 1911 there were buildings standing on Bottom Road, Shinbone Alley, Battery Road and Incubator Alley. By 1913 more houses and businesses appeared in the town. Early public buildings included a miners’ union hall above Top Road (1910, destroyed by fire in 1941 but rebuilt the following year), a school at the east end of Top Road, an Anglican Church south of Bottom Road (1913), a cottage hospital (1914, half funded by subscriptions from the miners) and the Empire Hotel (before 1913) near the town entrance on Top Road. Boarding houses were also constructed, including two owned by Blackwater Mines Limited and rented to operators. The Miners’ Union was key for the workers and the town. As part of the Inangahua Miners’ Union, Waiuta miners were among the first New Zealand workers to fight successfully for improved workplace health and safety to combat the lung disease known as miners’ phthisis. Lobbying efforts led to the Miners’ Phthisis Act (passed in 1915) which provided pensions to miners with silicosis as well as financial compensation for the widows and children of those miners who died from the disease. Heydays of Waiuta town The quartz reef proved to be very regular and the profitable mine supported a thriving community. Even through the 1928-35 Depression, Waiuta continued to experience full employment because gold, as an attractive security, rose in price. By the 1930s Waiuta had already taken on a well settled appearance. It had a police station, a proper post office, a second church (this one for the Catholics, built circa 1921), many facilities and some better quality houses compared to the rudimentary ones built earlier. Bungalows were built in the 1930s, mostly as staff accommodation provided by the company, two east of the recreation ground and others on Nob Hill east of the south shaft. Workers and their families tended to reside in more rudimentary accommodation on the lower lying areas of the town, though they also began to build their own houses or alter the ones built for them by the company. Many of the houses had well-tended gardens, with flowers and shrubs, fruit trees and vegetable gardens. While most people lived in the main township of Waiuta, some lived in the Snowy Valley on the south side of the river in houses and huts and a boarding house, and later on some workers and their families lived around the Prohibition (North) shaft or at nearby Dingbat Flat. Waiuta’s population was drawn from an international mining community, its inhabitants hailing from countries as diverse as Australia, England, Dalmatia, Denmark, Italy, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) as well as including Māori and earlier Pākehā settlers. The diverse community was particularly active in the arts, sports and social gatherings. The place operated with workday and home life routines, with a strong sense of community interaction. The mining workforce was made up of men. Women carried out domestic duties but also had their own sports teams, a women’s institute hall, and a few were storekeepers or hoteliers. The miners’ hall was a centre of town life and its social events, including dances, musical and dramatic performances, and wedding receptions, were well known in the district. The recreation ground, built by locals flattening a mullock heap, was the other main centre of town life – a key place where a whole range of sporting activities and games took place. These included rugby league, wood chopping, hockey, cricket, as well as school picnics, fairs and fetes. Locals also built their own swimming pool, tennis courts, bowling green, whippet track and children’s playground. Although there was sometimes a class divide about where sport was played – for example there were two sets of tennis courts, one for the company staff and the other for the workers and their families – many places were for the whole community. Waiuta was known for its sportspeople and some won national titles. For example, Stan Purton was the national amateur flyweight boxing champion in the mid-1920s and Ron King, the first boy born in Waiuta, became an All Black rugby captain in the 1930s. The community as a whole was vibrant. While individuals and families made up Waiuta’s vital social fabric and mining expertise, there are three stand-out names often mentioned in conjunction with the place – David Ziman, Tasman Hogg and Joseph Divis. David Ziman (1862-1920), Influential mining entrepreneur, David Ziman, was born in Poland but lived in England and South Africa before coming to the Reefton Goldfield in the late nineteenth century, infusing much-needed capital to restructure the quartz mining industry there. Ziman’s London-based company, Consolidated Goldfields of New Zealand Limited, was formally incorporated in 1896 and involved international mining experts, representatives of the House of Rothschilds, an Earl, a Knight of the Realm. From 1900, the company was significant in producing a marked increase in gold production on the Reefton Goldfield and in 1906 it acquired the recently discovered Birthday Reef, becoming instrumental in developments at Waiuta’s Blackwater Mine. Through Ziman’s understanding of the geological uniqueness of the Birthday Reef, he also postulated it plunged further to the north of the Blackwater Mine, within the neighbouring Prohibition lease. However, this notion was derided by Consolidated mine management and led to Ziman having to raise his own capital in 1909 to secure an option on the Prohibition lease to the north and, eventually, falling out with his own Consolidated Goldfields Board. It took many years after the sinking of the Prohibition Shaft in 1909, and much angst, capital and diffident company involvement, before Ziman’s theory about the rich persistent Birthday Reef deep at the Prohibition proved to be correct. Unfortunately, after a career marked by volatile extremes, Ziman died in Hokitika in 1920 and so never lived to see this eventuality. Blackwater Mine Company, despite having previously disparaged Ziman’s Prohibition theory, cheaply acquired the lease and continued sinking Ziman’s shaft down until, in 1936, after it intersected the Birthday Reef, it became Waiuta’s main shaft in 1938. Tasman Rangi (Te Rangi Tuangahuru Tahimana) Hogg (1883-1974) Thames-born Tasman Hogg, often called ‘Tas’, was one of six children born to Scotsman, Alexander Hogg, and his Ngāti Maru wife, Te Arani Watana. He proved to be an exceptional student of mining and as a young man had worked in mines in Thames and then Western Australia. In 1914 Hogg and his wife Blanche moved to Reefton and then in 1915 to Waiuta, where he became Chief Surveyor at Blackwater Mine. In 1931 he became assistant mine manager and in 1935 was appointed manager, staying in that position until the mine’s closure in 1951. Hogg presided over Blackwater Mine during a period of significant change in mining and processing at the Prohibition site. He was one of the few residents of Waiuta of Māori descent and, fluent in both English and Te Reo Māori, he returned to Thames every two or three years to visit whānau and maintain his proud connections to Ngāti Maru. Hogg played a pivotal part in mining operations at Waiuta and, like so many, was very active in its community. He was involved in sports clubs, particularly tennis and bowls, and used his survey skills to help prepare the courts and greens. He also made an important contribution to mining education through the School of Mines and was a member of the Board of Examiners and a Fellow of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Joseph (Jos.) Divis (1885-1967) Resident miner and photographer, Joseph Divis, left an outstanding legacy of high quality photographs that documented mining and community life at Waiuta between 1910 and 1935. Bohemian-born Divis had arrived in New Zealand in 1909, visiting Waiuta the following year and producing a series of postcards and images, Wondrous Waiuta, which were subsequently published in the Auckland Weekly News. In October 1912 Divis had his first of many stints of mining employment at Waiuta’s Blackwater Mine. He lived at Waiuta, on and off, from 1912 until the mid-1960s, many years after the mine closed. The first half of the 1930s was an especially productive time with his Waiuta photography and he had many images published. He captured posed images of people (often including himself) in work scenes as well as events such as the town’s Queen Carnival in 1931, weddings, jubilee celebrations, formal groups, theatrical productions, commercial scenes, and many more intimate family or household scenes. In 1932 he had purchased a cottage on Shinbone Alley after its former occupants, Percy Jones and family, were forced to leave due to ill health from miner’s phthisis. This cottage, now known as Divis Cottage, is one of the few surviving buildings still at Waiuta. Decline The mining operations came to an abrupt end in July 1951 with a collapse in the original Blackwater (South) Shaft. While the Prohibition (North) Shaft was the centre of mining operations by this time, the original south shaft was still essential for pumping and ventilation. The London-based directors of the company decided that repairs were not economic and so the mine closed. Workers and their families soon left Waiuta, many taking their houses with them. Waiuta was given ‘ghost town’ status from 1951, although a small number of residents did remain, albeit without electricity and only a single telephone line. Whereas in 1948 the town had a population of 500, by late 1953 there were only around 14, including two children. Picnickers occasionally visited, often gathering berries while there. In 1959 five houses in Waiuta were occupied by pensioners. Divis was one of the few residents who stayed behind, continuing to live in his Shinbone Alley cottage and acting as the town’s telephonist from 1957. Artist Toss Woollaston made repeat visits to Waiuta in the 1950s and 1960s, creating a number of expressive paintings of from that period. People came and went over the years. Long-time resident, Dick Willan lived in the former police station until his death in the late 1970s. A small number of alternative lifestylers lived in the old hospital for a few years. In 1986, the town’s three residents were Ossie McTaggart, Errol Clements and John Pedersen. In 1998 John Pedersen was reported as being the sole permanent resident at Waiuta. Revival: Heritage Recreation and Interest After most left town in 1951, vegetation began to cover over some of the sites. From the late 1970s efforts were made by some local workers at the New Zealand Forest Service, the department responsible for what was to become the Victoria State Forest Park, to record Waiuta’s history and encourage ‘heritage recreation’. An industrial archaeological site survey was made, interviews with former residents undertaken, and in 1985 a Friends of Waiuta group was established to arrange a reunion in 1986 to mark 80 years since the place’s inception. The remains of the derelict former hospital building were restored to become a lodge in 1985, rebuilt adjacent again in 1986 after the lodge was destroyed by fire. At the same time a brochure was prepared and ‘state of the art’ interpretation and general signage was installed on site reflecting 1980s outdoor presentation techniques. This work on interpretation and development at Waiuta was recognised in 1986 with a Tourism Design Award presented by the then Minister of Tourism, Hon. Mike Moore. The Department of Conservation formed in 1987 and continued this awareness, running school holiday programmes and open days. Books and articles have been written and documentaries made, including in 2020 ‘Whispers of Gold’. In December 2020 Waiuta was recognised as a Tohu Whenua site, a treasured heritage place that tells the stories of New Zealanders. Decontamination/remediation The Department of Conservation inherited a site that was highly toxic. The Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) Mine was deemed to be the world’s worse water-borne arsenic site (nearly 600,000 parts per million). Contamination had occurred as a result of the process used to extract gold from arsenic bearing rock. A major decontamination and remediation programme was undertaken in 2016, resulting in 96 barrels of highly arsenic contaminated material being removed from the Prohibition site for treatment and appropriate disposal elsewhere. Ever since the mine closed suddenly in 1951, there has been speculation that substantial quantities of gold remain below ground. In August 2020 a mining company confirmed it had the funds and permissions to invest in a mine drive from the Snowy River that will pass under the township to reach below-sea-level of the Blackwater Mine (this is below but outside the extent of the List entry).
Waiuta town Waiuta town site is situated at the end of a winding road following the Blackwater Creek, 17 kilometres eastward from State Highway 7. It is located at approximately 440 metres above sea level on a flat valley of a tributary of Snowy River. Around 900 metres south of the town is the valley of Snowy River and 800 metres north-north-east of the town is Prohibition Hill (560 metres above sea level). The town site itself is in a hollow, with hills at the head of the valley, ridges either side and hill at the bottom end. Roads, tracks and tram routes identify the layout of the town. The remains of the original Blackwater Mines South Shaft are situated towards the eastern end of the town. At the lowest part of the valley is the mullock (waste rock) heap, a recreation ground and other sports facilities and an area of native bush. Most buildings sites and roads are on hill slopes and ridges around a central depression, though some run along the southern side of the depression (Bottom Road) and on the lower part of Side Road. Remaining standing buildings at the shaft entrance include chimney of the boiler house, shed for shower room and smokebox, and winding engine foundations – these are discussed below. Standing historic residential buildings in the town are the Police Station (Former), Gill’s Cottage, Rimu Cottage, Divis Cottage, a Barber’s Shop (Former) and the Waiuta Lodge which is a rebuild from 1986 next to the site of the original Waiuta hospital. In addition, there are hundreds of building remains and associated features such as garden remnants, fences and foundations. Other surviving features include the first mining adit, swimming pool, bakery ruins, sawmill engine and kiln ruins, bakery oven, playground post, and flattened open areas for sporting facilities such as the bowling green and recreation ground. There is also a plaque near to the Birthday Reef discovery site. Blackwater Mines South Shaft and associated remains A number of substantial timber buildings to house the winding engine, compressor, workshops and sawmill were clustered around the shaft entrance, as well as a bathhouse and changing sheds. However, most of these buildings were destroyed by fire in 1946 (and the poppet head destroyed by a later fire in 1964), and only the foundations remain. The most distinctive of these are the concrete foundations of the winding engine. Today, the only remaining standing buildings at the shaft entrance are the timber shower room/changing shed, built after the 1946 fire, and the chimney of the boiler house, steel-plated and lined with brick (reduced from its original height by one third and now approximately 9 metres high). There is also a substantial mullock heap, part of which was flattened and used as a bowling green in 1931. Only the chimneys and foundations remain of the pavilion building built alongside. The shaft entrance itself, originally around 3 x 1.5 metres, has collapsed, and is partially blocked. It, along with the winding engine foundations, is fenced off for safety reasons. Barber’s Shop (Former) The Barber’s Shop in Bottom Road, Waiuta, is a two-roomed, timber and iron cottage, 3.8 metres wide by 5.6 metres long, with a 2.3 metre lean-to at the back. It has a partially filled-in verandah. On the interior, the building still contains original wallpaper and other decoration and an old barber’s chair (not the original but a similar one brought in from Reefton). It is possible that this building may date from the early days of the town (circa 1906-1916) and be an enlarged version of one of the company single men’s ‘Red Huts’ but with its verandah placed on its short rather than long side. In 2018 the Barber’s Shop was repaired and renovated. It is situated just to the west of the garage of Rimu Cottage. Rimu Cottage Rimu Cottage in Bottom Road, Waiuta, is a classic timber and iron cottage and is likely to have been built some time before 1917 by the Blackwater Mining Company. Like many Waiuta cottages, it has been added to as the settlement became more permanent and the population more settled; it has had a rear lean-to added, as well as a verandah at the front which was subsequently filled in. There is also a garage associated with the property, which seems to have been built before the mine closure. Divis Cottage Joseph Divis’ Cottage near the end of Shinbone Alley was probably built by the Blackwater Mining Company in the 1920s and appears to be made up of four little huts (perhaps roadmen’s huts or similar) side by side, perhaps brought to the site from elsewhere. It has two parallel ridgelines and is lined with weatherboards. Across the front is a square façade, with two sets of double casement windows; this façade is slightly unusual, as the majority of Waiuta houses had verandahs (either open or later closed-in). There is also a rear lean-to. Police Station (Former) The former Police Station building, also known as Whites Cottage, on Top Road is a two-room weatherboard building, which housed the police station from the very early days of the town of Waiuta’s existence. The Blackwater Mines company built the house, at the eastern end of Top Road, in the early years of the settlement. Soon after, the company leased it to the government as a police station, possibly at the time of industrial unrest in 1909. For a short time, possibly around 1911, it was used as a post office. Most of the houses built by the company, including this one, were of a similar style: two roomed, weatherboard and iron cottages with verandahs (often, as in this case, later closed-in) and a rear lean-to. In this case, there was also a single cell lock-up built a few metres from the building. Gill’s Cottage Gill’s Cottage on Incubator Alley was originally fourth in a line of nine such buildings constructed by the mining company on quarter acre sections on a road informally known as Incubator Alley, because the row contained a lot of large families. Its date of construction is uncertain. Maps show buildings in this area in 1911 but a map in 1917 shows this section being empty (the only one empty on Incubator Alley), so it may have suffered a fire around that time. It is shown in a map drawn a year later so was potentially rebuilt then. The house is a timber and iron cottage with verandah, now with four rooms in the main building and a rear lean-to containing kitchen and bathroom. Originally, it probably had only two rooms, with the rear rooms and lean-to added later. The section also contained a derelict shed and long-drop toilet. The various owners were workers in the mine. The Thomas family remained in the house after the mine closed as Mr Thomas was employed to dismantle the mine equipment. It was then purchased by the Gill family (former Waiuta residents) to use as a family bach. In 1990, a member of the Gill family sold the cottage to the Department of Conservation, and its ownership later transferred to Friends of Waiuta who have undertaken restoration of Gill’s Cottage. Other remains and vegetation While few of Waiuta town’s buildings remain, physical evidence of them comes in the form of concrete and brick fireplace or chimneys poking through vegetation. Previously carefully planted garden plants have grown without much restraint, so that now some shrubs (such as the grevillea beside the bowling green site, and numerous large rhododendron shrubs throughout) are more like mature trees. Large macrocarpa and rimu trees are situated near some of the standing cottages. Blackberries and flowering currants abound. Remains of Joker level tram and incline Remains of the tramway formation run from a partly collapsed tunnel entrance (adit) and mullock dump at the original exit point of Blackwater ore, around a hillside, crossing the Waiuta-Snowy battery walking track and finishing part way down the steep hill at an excavated ore bin site. At the top of the incline formation is a small mullock heap and parts of a double-drum winch which was the braking system for the ore tubs going downhill. Part way down the walking track are the remains of a counterweight shaft for the cable tensioning system, virtually all that remains from the aerial that briefly carried quartz from the Prohibition site. Below the Joker level horse tram are remains of the number 3 level that superseded the Joker level, and its associated incline. That level came out at the bins just above the stamper battery and was used until the end of the battery’s working life, late 1937. Incline tramway To the north, above a bend in the Snowy River, is a very steep bank with a formation where the 1911 incline (skip) tramway had run off at the end of Skip Road to supply the battery site. At the foot of the formation is a concrete structure with channels. Snowy River Battery site Snowy River Battery site is situated around 900 metres south of the Blackwater Mines South Shaft and is located in a steep-sided valley, approximately 80 metres deep. The on-the-ground footprint of the plant comprises the physical remains since the superstructure and equipment largely no longer survives. The ground works and foundations are key indicators of what was there. Impressive concrete foundations stepping up against the western wall of the valley are a dominant feature of the battery site. They were made from shingle and rubble from the riverbed and finished with coarse plaster and originally supported the large rooms that housed the stampers, amalgamating plates, berdans and tube mill. A rope well on the southern side was from the main battery drive rope, while a rope well on the northern side was from the rope of a charcoal gas engine that drove the plant in times of low water supply. A smaller slot with a curved top south of the main drive well leads up to the foundation for what was the Wilfley room, while at the foot of the Wilfley drive well is a small chamber with Pelton wheel. A concrete chamber at the foot of the main rope drive well was the housing for the plant’s main Pelton wheel. Foundations for an air compressor, a small power generating plant and the larger Pelton wheels and generating plant are located between the main battery building foundations. A substantial retaining wall at the northern end of the site was the base for the later smithy, carpenter’s shop floors and gas engine foundations. At the time of writing this report (2021), two of the original four B&M agitating tanks remain standing, almost 12 metres high, but in a corroded state, at the southern end of the Wilfley room foundation. A crumbling concrete foundation and a few bricks are all that remain of the original site of the Edwards roasting furnace. Remains of the slimes vats sit just south of the agitating tanks. One vat has vertical timber staves bound with circular steel rods and fasteners and next to this is a steel tank with part of the timber framework for the distributor still in place. Are few staves are the remains of other timber slimes settlement tanks south-west of the lower cyanide tanks. Remains of the cyanide plant and zinc room includes ten steel tanks, the base of one and the foundations for two others. They vary in size – the largest, nearest the river, is 7.7 metres in diameter while the others are six metres in diameter. Brick remnants of the zinc extractor room are nearby. Two tanks on a lower level may have been for storage of cyanide solution. A small corrugated iron electrical shed is located on the site of the blacksmiths shop, on the west side of the tramway connecting the battery with the bottom of the skip incline. Remains of electrical equipment survive inside. Snowy River water races and Power House Two Snowy River water race ditches survive largely intact, originating and finishing at different points higher up the Snowy River on the hillside opposite the battery. Substantial race ditching, some tunnels and penstock survive leading to the remains of a Power House, some two kilometres west of the battery site. This Power House was the last built of four separate power stations or sites – the first one was on the same Snowy track (remnants survive) and the other two were in the battery itself at different times. Previously, there was a walking track which followed the race wall. Another largely intact water race with ditches and tunnels between Absolum Creek (a tributary of the Alexander River) and the Snowy River water race originates more than 10 kilometres east-southeast of the battery and runs 13 kilometres to a point high on the hillside opposite the battery. Snowy River Settlement sites Most of the buildings on the opposite (east) side of the Snowy River, including the battery manager’s house, were destroyed by fire in 1937. It is understood that building sites across the river are overgrown but include features such as fireplaces, foundations and doorsteps mostly appearing as mounds. It is thought that little remains of the Assay room, which was also located across the river. Blackwater Mines North (Prohibition) site The Prohibition mine and mill is located on a hilltop at the top of Prohibition (or ‘Pro’) Road, around 800 metres north-east of Waiuta township site, 560 metres above sea level. Passing features on the Prohibition Road include an early prospecting adit, the lower end of a miners’ shortcut track and the foot of the incline tramway, as well as the ‘Dingbat Flat’ settlement site. A mullock heap is off a junction near the top. Prohibition Road bears left, passing the top of the miners’ shortcut and the incline tramway, and some house site remains, and continuing on to a carpark beside several key mine features. The sites of the ball mill, assay office and top section of the aerial route are accessed on a short road just below the carpark (at the junction where the house sites are). Foundations for the headframe or poppet head and winding engine are accessible near the carpark but the shaft is capped by a concrete slab that was poured after an attempt to reopen the mine in 2004-5. Mining relics – including rails, remains of headframe including pulley wheels, safety gate, conveyor belt rollers, broken ore bin - lie about the site. Concrete foundations just east of the shaft site are from the 1920-36 steam winder. Immediately to the east are the foundations of the electric winding plant. These are surrounded on three sides by concrete walls and have concrete steps leading to a below-ground section. Nearby are concrete foundations and flywheel remains of a steam compressor. A mullock heap sprawls north and west of the Prohibition Shaft. Nearby is a large concrete foundation that held the top return wheel for the aerial system that ran between the Prohibition and Snowy River sites. Extensive concrete foundations from the ball mill include concrete steps, site of the circular ore bin, and bases for the tube and ball mills. On the eastern side are brick remnants from the roasting furnace sitting on a concrete foundation. The large concrete foundation was also used for the conveyor belt that took the ore to the 600 ton storage bin at the Ball Mill. At the south end are the remains of the brick bullion furnaces and adjacent strong room. Concrete foundation remains of the assay office and brick assay smelter are south of the ball mill site. Remains of a fitting shop comprise concrete floor, low concrete walls and foundations blocks for workshop equipment. Remains of an office comprise a concrete strong room, complete with steel door, two concrete fireplaces with brick chimneys and four concrete steps. Behind the office site are the remains of the dam and water tank foundations and a small standing explosives shed. Below the main mine site, north of the winding engine foundations, are remains of the miners’ bathhouse cut into a slope. They comprise a large main floor and cubicles at the west end for shift bosses, brick and plaster furnace and remains of the boiler room. Below Ground Mining Features Remains of mine shafts and drives survive below-ground. Areas were frequently backfilled with waste rock during the mining process and, some years after the mine closed the shafts were used for dumping and burning vegetation. It is not clear how much survives underground but it is known that the reef was mined extensively at each level. Because the ore was particularly rich, an unusual practice was implemented whereby rather than leaving horizontal safety pillars between the mine levels, all the ore was mined out utilising a unique timbering solution to support and avoid collapse of the upper levels. Elements of this will exist, in a crushed state, underground. Parts of the original 1906 prospecting trenches can still be seen in places. The slope from the Prohibition Road upslope to the ridgeline above Coorang Creek retains these trenches. From the ridgeline down to Coorang Creek there is evidence of adits and shafts, with a collapsed shaft right next to Coorang Creek. From the creek there is an old track back eastwards to the Prohibition Road. Construction Professionals Waiuta will be associated with a range of various designers, engineers and foundries, but a comprehensive list has not been prepared as part of this report. The houses are likely to have been built by local builders, mainly engaged by the Blackwater Mines Company. Comparative Analysis There are three aspects of Waiuta considered for comparison with other places in New Zealand: 1. surviving quartz mine sites; 2. production and processes (stamper batteries, cyanide process and ball mills); 3. mining township sites. Quartz mine sites There are a number of Listed placed within former gold/quartz mining sites from around New Zealand, although there are also many that have not been Listed. The Listed places include nearby Big River Quartz Mine, 1880s (List No. 7762), the Old Golden Crown Battery Building, Thames, c1880 (List No. 4643), the Young Australian Co. Mine Battery, Carrick Range (List No. 2393), Battery Foundations, at the Victoria Battery Site Ruins, Waikino (List No. 4602), the Young Australian Mine, Carrick Range (List No. 342), the Crown Battery Site Ruins, Karangahake, 1891 (List No. 4673), the Waihi Gold Dredging Plant and Tramway (List No. 7670), the Adams Gully Gold Battery Complex, Carrick Range, 1870s (List No. 5616), the Otago Pioneer Quartz Mine Complex, 1860s (List No 9692) and the Government Battery Coromandel, late 1890s (List No. 130). While in many cases the machinery and superstructure has mostly been removed or decayed, many of these places have impressive retaining walls and foundations, such as the Crown Battery ruins and at Waiuta. Production and Processes Waiuta’s Blackwater Mine proved to be very successful in terms of the amount of gold extracted, although the actual return to shareholders was limited. For its time, Waiuta was the third largest producer of gold in New Zealand, producing just under 740,000 ounces of gold. Waihi’s Martha Mine was by far the biggest producer of gold (5,600,000 ounces), Talisman Mine at Karangahake was the second (3,500,000 ounces), followed by Waiuta. Waiuta’s straight, almost continuous, one kilometre long reef makes it stand out as one of the major quartz reefs of the world. Because of the richness of the ore, an unusual practice was implemented at Waiuta, whereby rather than leaving horizontal safety pillars between the mine levels, all the ore was mined out utilising a unique timbering solution to support and avoid collapse of the upper levels. When, in 1935, the Prohibition shaft was deepened to No. 13 level, 716 metres below the collar, it made it the deepest vertical mine shaft in New Zealand at that time. Murray Creek’s Energetic shaft had been the deepest at 691 metres. Around six stamper battery sites, in various stages of survival, are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List and not all surviving stamper batteries are entered on the List. Listed examples include the 10-stamper battery at Big River Quartz Mine, the five-head stamper battery in the Carrick Range (Adams Gully Gold Battery Complex) in Central Otago and the Government Battery Coromandel that was used by the Thames School of Mines and remains as a working tourist attraction. Waiuta’s stamper battery at Snowy River comprises mostly concrete foundations and various remains scattered about the site – stamper shoes, some drive wheel centres and a cam from the main shaft. By the time the Snowy River Battery was built in 1908, stamper batteries were already old technology – there were many throughout New Zealand including a number of them nearby on the Inangahua goldfields – but, in conjunction with other technologies using cyanide and roasting, it played a crucial role in gold extraction. The cyanide process, developed in Scotland, had been tested as a world first at the Crown Mine at Karangahake in the Coromandel in 1889. There is a number of New Zealand sites where remains of cyanide plants survive, including impressive tall tanks at Karangahake and shallow cyanide tanks at Big River Quartz. Zinc box types found at the Snowy River Battery also remain at some other West Coast mine sites, such as at the Britannia and Inglewood Mine sites, but these appear to be relatively rare survivors of components of the cyanide process that was once common. With its ball mill, Waiuta is comparable to other major goldfields in the Thames-Coromandel. Mines at Waihi and Waikino also had the up-to-date technology of ball mills. The technology was a radically different form of gold extraction compared with methods previously used on the Inangahua field. For its time, the Prohibition mine was the most modern quartz reduction and gold saving plant in New Zealand, utilising the latest gold-saving equipment including flotation cells. Mining Township Sites Waiuta township developed a greater air of permanence compared with most of the earlier gold rush settlements – it was, after all, the last gold mining town established on the West Coast – and, although some other settlements might have had more shops and hotels than at Waiuta, it was recognised for its particularly active and social community and its events which were also a drawcard for visitors. This energised community life, which is well recorded through oral and social histories, articles and the extraordinary collection of photographs taken by Joseph Divis, sets Waiuta ahead of other mining towns in New Zealand. Waiuta was remote, had a single employer and the company contributed to many of the facilities but it was not like the ‘company town’ that was seen in places in North America. Nevertheless, Waiuta was a one-resource-town, so that when the mine closed abruptly in 1951, the community didn’t linger because there was nothing to sustain it. This abrupt almost total departure of population (and buildings) is another point that sets Waiuta apart from other old gold towns – places like Stafford, Goldsborough, Charleston and Brighton, for example, continued to be worked and reworked and people left more gradually as the resource petered out. Compared to other deserted or near-deserted gold mining towns in New Zealand, none can match the complexity of roads, tracks and evidence of buildings and sports facilities found at Waiuta. Otago’s Bendigo, Carricktown, Macetown and Skippers and Coromandel’s Karangahake and Mackaytown, for example, do not have the same extent or variety of features as are found at Waiuta township site. Big River Quartz Mine, near to Waiuta, had a settlement flat, with a scattering of houses and huts and some boarding houses, but it never developed into a town proper. The West Coast region has a number of abandoned coal mining and sawmilling settlements but only Denniston-Burnetts Face is physically comparable to Waiuta – at Denniston more habitable dwellings survive but it has a smaller number and range of other building remains. Friends of Waiuta The group Friends of Waiuta, an incorporated society established in 1986, is part of what makes Waiuta so special. The group is a strong advocacy organisation, with clear forward-looking objectives. It has a well-established partnership Department of Conservation, including a formal Memorandum of Understanding and effective lines of communication. It has relationships with local authorities and other organisations and can be considered part of the institutional framework for advancing heritage values in the area. Friends of Waiuta has undertaken restoration and maintenance work, research and publications, video productions and engagement with visitors. While Friends of Waiuta is not unique, there are very few groups quite like this - active volunteers associated with the site’s history that promote the place and carry out works on the public conservation land. A comparable group is Friends of the Hill who do similar activities at the former coal mining site of Denniston. Groups at Waihi and Thames are also noted for museum and publication activities.
Public NZAA Number
L31/35
Completion Date
6th June 2021
Report Written By
Robyn Burgess
Information Sources
Latham, 1984
Darryl Latham, The Golden Reefs: An Account of the Great Days of Quartz Mining at Reefton, Waiuta and the Lyell, Pegasus Press, Christchurch 1984. [1992]
Wright, Les, 2007
Les Wright, 'Prohibition Hill (Waiuta) Mine and Mill Historical Assessment,' Department of Conservation, 2007.
Morris, Gerard, 2012
Gerard Morris (ed), Waiuta: the Goldmine, the Town, The People, Waiuta, updated edition 2012.
Barnett and Barnett (eds), 2018
Barnett, Ross and Pauline Barnett (eds), Hard Won Gold: Stories from Waiuta and the Reefton Goldfield: Essays in Memory of Les Wright 1950-2013, Friends of Waiuta, 2018.
Hancox, 1988
Hancox, N. G., The Quartz Mines of the Blackwater Goldfield 1986-1951: An Archaeological Site Survey & Historical Record, 1988 reprint.
Hutchison, 2001
Hutchison, Anne, Our Own Correspondent: Waiuta Notes 1906-51, revised edition 2001, Friends of Waiuta.
Nathan, 2016
Nathan, Simon, Through the Eyes of a Miner: the Photography of Joseph Divis, revised edition 2016.
Nightingale, 1985
Nightingale, Tony, ‘Waiuta: A history of a quartz goldmining community on the West Coast’ (Master of Arts Thesis, University of Canterbury), 1985.
Wright, 2007
Wright, Les, Snowy River Battery (Waiuta): Historical Assessment, unpublished report for Department of Conservation, 2007.
Wright, 2010
Wright, Les, Waiuta Township Historic Baseline Report and Heritage Assessment, unpublished report for Department of Conservation, 2010.
Report Written By
Disclaimer Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions. Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include ‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office for archaeological advice. A fully referenced New Zealand Heritage List report is available on request from the Christchurch Office of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. Other Heritage Recognition Tohu Whenua site Waiuta Amenity Area (within Victoria State Forest Park, NZ Gazette 1981, p. 1420).
Current Usages
Uses: Cultural Landscape
Specific Usage: Industrial/mining landscape
Uses: Mining
Specific Usage: Mine road/ track
Former Usages
General Usage:: Cultural Landscape
Specific Usage: Townscape
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Aerial ropeway
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Assay Office
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Battery/Crusher
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Cyanide vat
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Furnace/oven
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Mine buildings
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Mine Water Race/ Water Race cuttings/tunnels etc
General Usage:: Mining
Specific Usage: Mining camp/settlement/housing
Themes
Heritage Inventory 2012-2012 (Buller)
Web Links
description: Buller Inventory Project