Articles
Waiuta
Today Waiuta is a West Coast ghost town. But from 1906 to 1951 it was the company town for the South Island's largest gold mine and home to 600 people. The superb photographs of Czech immigrant Joseph Divis provide a fascinating glimpse of Waiuta in its heyday.
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Page 2 – The Blackwater mine
A small prospecting group discovered a gold-bearing quartz reef in the upper reaches of Blackwater Creek, a tributary of the Grey River, on 9 November 1905.
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Page 3 – The town of Waiuta
As more houses were built, Waiuta started to look less like a mining camp. It always had the appearance, though, of a frontier town dominated by wood and corrugated iron.
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Page 4 – From boom to bust
The outbreak of the Second World War led to a gradual decline in the number of miners.
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Page 5 – Joseph Divis, Waiuta's photographer
Biography of Waiuta photographer Joseph Divis
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Main image: Waiuta miners preparing to strike
These Waiuta miners outside their union hall look cheerful enough, considering they were in the process of voting to strike.
