A celebration of goldmining in the Coromandel peninsula is behind a new online exhibition put together by Archives New Zealand’s Auckland Regional Office.
The exhibition shows what it was like to live and work in the goldfields. As reported by Alexander Aitken, Mining Inspector, alluvial deposits found in the Coromandel district in 1851 were the earliest discovery of gold in New Zealand.
From 1862 Warden's Offices were responsible not only for the local management of gold mining and the resolution of disputes, but also the allocation of residence, business and machine sites, water rights, administration of agricultural and pastoral leases, and the hearing of civil and criminal suits within the district.
These Warden’s Office records feature heavily in the exhibition and include applications for rights, registration of claims and claim plans. Mining company registration records also appear. The names of some of the claims are quite fanciful – Nil Desperandum, Asteroid, Golden Anchor, Mount Aurum, and Harp of Tara are just a few examples.
Life in the goldfields would have been dirty, noisy and dangerous. An extract from the Thames Hospital register records details of three men who had been involved in an explosion at the Caledonian Low Level mine in 1884.
The Wardens Courts also licensed machine sites, including stamper batteries, which were used to crush the gold-bearing ore. At one time there were 693 stamper heads operating in Thames alone. These batteries operated almost 24/7, with a break on Sunday mornings to allow for church attendance. It was a stressful environment and people reported that they found the silence unnerving.
Currently volunteers at Auckland Regional Office are indexing some Warden’s Courts holdings, which will make these records more accessible. These records are being made searchable through Archway, Archives New Zealand’s online search engine.