Pukerua Bay Goldmines

Sketch of the gold mining area. Bruce McFadgen (1963). Gold in Wellington, New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter, 6(3).

In 1852 gold was found west of Wellington at Terawhiti. A minor gold rush developed there in 1869 and interest in gold spread to other Wellington areas. In 1864 Mrs Selig of Lambton Quay had found two pin head sized specs of gold in the gizzard of a duck from Pāuatahanui she was preparing to cook. Prospectors explored Mt Welcome east of Pukerua Bay thinking the gold had been washed down from there.

First mention of Mount Welcome Gold Mining Company. Evening Post 6 August 1869. Papers Past.

The possibility of finding gold in the area was confirmed late in July 1869. Two men hunting cattle in the bush on the ridge east of Pukerua found a promising quartz reef and within a few weeks up to fifty men had climbed up a muddy bush track from Horokiri Road and were hard at work digging. The Mount Welcome Gold Mining Company was the first company to peg out a claim and they built a substantial log house for shelter. The company was registered in Wellington on 6 August 1869 by the manager Robert Cooper, a soap and candle manufacturer. The capital of the company was £290. Of the 29 shareholders 17 were from the Horokiri Valley, eight from Porirua and four from Wellington.

Under the headline “A new Quartz Reef” the find was reported in the Wellington Independent on 10 August 1869:

The shareholders have given it the name of “Mount Welcome,” and are now vindicating their adopted name by threatening with a rather warm welcome a second company, which has pitched its tent on their ground. Till proper regulations are in force to establish claims, differences of opinion will arise respecting them, and in this case there is considerable probability of the matter being settled by pugilistic encounter, a less expensive and more handy plan than a suit at law. There is plenty of room on the reef for any number of companies, as large blocks of quartz cropping up above the surface of the ground readily enables one to trace its course for several miles. As soon as it becomes more known it will be well thronged with prospectors.

Advertisement for shareholders meeting. Evening Post, 5 October 1869 p3. Papers Past.

The second company, The Telegraph Gold Mining Company, began operations but their workers pitched a tent within the Mount Welcome company’s claim leading to a dispute over boundaries. The new company was registered on the 18 August 1869 with 47 shareholders: 36 from Wellington, nine from Porirua and one each from Johnsonville and Greytown. The capital of this company was £600 and the place of operation was the “Native Reserve at Pukerua”.

The Mount Welcome company sent quartz samples to Wellington but were disappointed by the results. A shareholders’ meeting was held on 16 October at Blackie’s Hotel, Horokiri which had temporarily been renamed Blackie’s Mount Welcome Hotel. Later that month it was announced that work on the claim had ceased because of financial difficulties and the boundary dispute with the Telegraph Gold Mining Company. The Mount Welcome company held its final shareholder meeting on 16 December 1869.

Shareholders in the Mt Welcome Gold Mining Company. NZ Government Gazette, 14 August 1869.

In spite of heavy expenses in the dispute with the Mount Welcome Gold Mining Company, The Telegraph Gold Mining Company carried on working until early in 1870. A month later the company called an Extraordinary General Meeting of shareholders to discuss winding up the company.

Nothing further was heard of the Pukerua goldmines until a flurry of interest on the Terawhiti Goldfield in 1880 prompted well-known Pauatahanui farmer and public figure Frederick Bradey to write to the editor of the Evening Post. His letter was under the heading ‘An Extensive Quartz Reef’ and began:

Sir — Now that goldmining is exciting the mind of the people of Wellington, will you allow me, through the medium of your paper, to call public attention to a very extensive quartz reef situated between the Pukaroa District and the Horokiwi Valley, not far from the proposed line of the West Coast Railway, well known in Pahautanui as Mount Welcome. I have made a personal inspection of the reef.

The reef, he wrote, ran for several miles in a north south direction and appeared to be in a direct line with Terawhiti. It was several yards wide, was visible from the surface and had the appearance of marble where it had been worn smooth by the waters of the Kakaho stream. The reef would have been more visible after bush was cleared for farming. There seem to be no further records of gold or gold prospecting in the locality.

Nine separate excavations have been recorded on Mt Welcome and the only change from the mining days are that some shafts have been filled in to keep stock safe.

The peak with the gold mines has no recorded Māori name and has been known locally as Mount Welcome from mid-1869 when the gold mining companies were active. The name came from the first miners who said, “You’re welcome!” to later arrivals. The original farm which included the peak was called Mount Welcome. The peak was known as “Diggins” on maps from 1884 until 1979 when it suddenly became “Diggings No. 2” on NZ Topo maps. Diggins remained the name on maps until 2009 when there was another change to “7408.”

View of Pukerua Bay and the South Island from the top of Mount Welcome.

Land Information New Zealand, in their reply to an official information request, explained that the name referred to the trig itself rather than the peak on which the trig is located. In 2009 the way trigs with beacons were shown and named on topographic maps was standardised. The names of trigs were replaced with the unique identification code of each trig and Mount Welcome is now identified with the trig number 7408.

No gold was ever found on Mount Welcome and today the goldmines are home to cave wetas which interest the occasional curious visitors.

By Ashley Blair

One of the gold mining shafts on Mount Welcome.

A drive into Mount Welcome dug by miners in 1869.

References


Bruce McFadgen (1963). Gold in Wellington, New Zealand Archaeological  Association Newsletter, 6(3)

Evening Post

Hart and Buckley, Solicitors of the Telegraph Gold Mining Company, Wellington To: Colonial Secretary Date: 27 August 1869. R24208533. Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga.

NZ Government Gazette, Province of Wellington, 14 August 1869.

Wellington Independent