Waiuta: The Gold Mining Town

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Waiuta: The Gold Mining Town

by Lutheneior on 18/03/09 at 6:53 am

History of a gold mining town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

Waiuta was a small gold mining settlement in the Inangahua District near Reefton on the West Coast of the South Island. The Waiuta gold mine was started in 1906 and lasted until 1951; it became one of the greatest gold producing mines in New Zealand. In this essay, I will describe briefly how the mine was started, it’s development and some of the history of the town.

Beginnings

On 9 November 1905 in the Reefton field, four prospectors by the names of Ernest Bannan, Jimmy Martin, Bill Meates and Dave Ross discovered a quartz lode1 near the Blackwater stream. They named it the Birthday Reef because they discovered it on King Edward VII’s birthday.

A Reefton broker called Percy N. Kingswell, heard about the newly discovered reef while he was having a drink at Dawson’s Hotel. The next day he went to the find to have a look around. Kingswell then discussed with three of the prospectors that discovered the reef for an option to purchase the property. Later in early 1906, Kingswell purchased the property for £2000, which was £500 for each of the prospectors.

Town

When Kingswell had completed the first major prospecting, it was discovered that the mine was most likely going to be a major gold producer. If a mine was to achieve an economic level of production, it was going to need a large work force. To get that size work force to such a remote location was too create a township where the miners and their families could reside. (Gerard Morris (ed), 1990)

By March 1908, the Blackwater management had built one boarding house, a large quantity of singles huts and a few four-room cottages for families. The miners in the single huts had to share with other miners, while the unfortunate ones were left outside in tents, to brave the harsh winters.

The town was progressing, but it was still missing a proper school facility, so one was constructed in 1912. The initial site that the school was built on was found to be too cold, so in 1925 they moved the school to a new location. The new space for the school had a sealed playground and a dental clinic. Waiuta also had the pride of having two churches, the Protestant Church that was built during the town’s early years and the Roman Catholic Church, which was built in 1923.

The People

Waiuta grew to be home to 400 people. Apart from the miners, the town had people of many different occupations: Teachers; Medical Staff; Blacksmiths; Law Enforcement; Publicans; Service People to name a few.

There were over 100 pupils in the Waiuta School at its height, the school hosted children of a range of ages.

Three pupils from the Waiuta school went on and became quite successful: Stan Purton, in 1925-26 became the champion of New Zealand flyweight boxing; Sir Stanley Whitehead, after working in amongst the trade union activities, became a Member of Parliament for Nelson from 1957 to 1976, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1972 until 1975; Ron King, who in 1937 became the All Black captain. (Gerard Morris (ed), 1990)

The Mine

In early 1907, Consolidated Goldfields (NZ) Ltd started proper construction of the mine, by driving two tunnels into the mine. The sinking of the main shaft had been slower than expected, they decided to stop the sinking at level three, which was 432 feet down to excavate a sump2. (Darrel Latham, 1992). By mid 1908, the battery that was being constructed on the Snowy River was operational and by July, it was in use by crushing the ore from the second level of the mine. By December, 9169 tons of ore had been mined and treated, out of which they had extracted 4247 ounces 18 pennyweights of gold worth £17,647.

The first full year of production was in 1909 and the mine was showing its worth

commercially. By 1911, Consolidated Goldfields had employed 280 men and had treated 44,000 tons of ore, which earned £92,000. (Gerard Morris (ed), 1990)

(Gerard Morris, 1990, p. 123)

Waiuta’s End

The productivity of the mine declined from 1942 when there was a labour shortage because of World War II, the number of men employed was forty less than the year before. It was now clear the mine was in danger of closing. As the number of labourers was dropping and the amount of gold won was dropping as well. Then came the final blow.

“On the night of 9 July 1951 a ‘disastrous cave-in occurred in the South [Blackwater] Shaft, destroying the ventilation system and putting the pumping system out of action. In spite of all efforts to restore ventilation and get operating again, the mine had to be abandoned 17 July”

(Darrel Latham, 1992, p. 332 – 333).

The mine had been running for forty-three years, it descended half a mile into the ground and had mined 1,578,755 tons of stone, which held 732,907 ounces of gold, which had a total value of £4,592,389.

The Waiuta mine was a quartz lode that was discovered in 1905. The mine was one of the most productive mines in New Zealand. This success sustained a strong community, the evidence of which can still be seen to this day. The “ghost town” receives regular visits from tourists and descendents interested in West Coast gold mining history.3