Gillespies Beach Beginnings/Part 1
PART 1 - Gillespie's Beach
Our story begins at Gillespie’s Beach, situated approximately 20 kilometres west of what is today Fox Glacier township, formerly known as Weheka. The name was changed in 1944 but children of my generation knew that Grandmother Julia Williams lived at Weheka. I note a lengthy article in the Grey River Argus on 16th June, 1908, by a Mr H.S. Roberts of Oamaru, lamenting the careless use of the Maori place names in South Westland by its inhabitants. According to him Gillespie’s was previously known as Kaohaihi Point and We-heka was the Maori name for Cook’s Bluff. Many Maori names, probably difficult to pronounce by the early settlers, were converted to easier words, particularly rivers and creeks. The Haeremare stream was called Hairy-Mary. The Waikukupa river became Wai-cuppy-cup. Mahitahi was pronounced My-tie and Ohinetamatea fondly called the Saltwater.
In the gold-seeking years which saw the genesis of the New Zealand branches of the Sullivan and Williams families, Gillespie‘s Beach was an isolated and hostile environment. It was described by the Okarito Gold Warden in 1872 as a beach about two and a half miles (about four kilometres) in length with a lagoon at the rear of it. Not a great deal has changed. The Gillespie‘s road passes through forest now part of the Westland National Park linking it to an inland area which, because of its scenic alpine views and glacier, has become a popular tourist resort.
Visit the Beach today and you will see only a handful of dwellings, mainly because the original settlers failed to freehold the small area of land on which their cottages were built. Today, the Department of Conservation protects the area. Of interest is the recently renovated small cemetery and the relics of the second gold dredge. This second dredge, in later decades, was tested for uranium when significant levels were found in the sand concentrates but on testing proved to be too low to be of economic value.
Fossicking on the beach, despite the sandflies, is a pleasant pastime. In stormy weather, this is a wild coastline. In clear and sunny weather, the sunsets are glorious and the view inland of the alpine mountain range is magnificent.
Let us take an imaginery journey with our ancestor, Laurence Sullivan. Firstly a three month ordeal by boat from Ireland to Victoria, Australia. Henry Brett’s White Wings, gives vivid insights into not only the conditions aboard these ships but also the dangers inherent in such long sea voyages in stormy weather, particularly if the ship’s surgeon or sea captain was fond of the bottle.
In past accounts of this family’s New Zealand beginning, the emphasis has always been on Laurence Sullivan. As we will discover later, his wife-to-be, Margaret Vaughan, made a similar voyage from Ireland to Australia, about the same time, but it is doubtful they knew each other in Ireland although the counties of Limerick and County Clare abut each other on the west coast of Ireland. It is known that Laurence’s brother, Michael, also emigrated to Australia in the 1860s, so they probably travelled together and as their cousin, Mick Carroll, also ended up at Gillespie’s, it is more than likely that he also travelled with them. Who knows? Michael Sullivan visited his brother at Gillespie’s in March, 1887, but the Australian Sullivan connection seems to have been lost.
It is timely here to remember that in September, 1845, when blight was first noticed in the potato crop in Ireland, both Laurence Sullivan and Margaret Vaughan would have been in their teens. Potatoes were the main and often the only diet for many families, supplemented by a little buttermilk. Between 1846 and 1851 when it was estimated the population of Ireland was eight million, over one million died as a result of this five year long famine, with another one million fleeing to other countries. In the decades following more would leave.
The famine was at its height in 1849 when Margaret Vaughan was 19 years of age and Laurence Sullivan 16. Anglo-Irish landlords, often absentee, occupying hereditary land which had in earlier centuries belonged to the Irish clans, evicted tenants and razed their turf or stone cottages when they were unable to pay rentals for their small holdings and sub-holdings. Over 80% of the land in Ireland was owned by Anglo-Irish gentry at the time of the famine. Landless labourers working on the big estates, allowed to build a meagre dwelling for themselves often paid their rental in potatoes. A vicious circle resulted. Landlords could not pay the rates on their properties if tenants could not pay rentals. Evictions were brutal. Soup kitchens flourished. Desperate families entered Workhouses where they were segregated by age and gender. Homeless and hungry, the people starved - this famine likened to that in Rwanda within recent decades. Corn was available and other foodstuffs but the poor had no money. Some tried to survive on seaweed or raw shellfish. Dysentery and typhus were rife.
For those who managed to find the boat fare to escape elsewhere, there were high death rates on the worst ships. Western Ireland which includes Limerick and County Clare were badly affected, partly due to the wet climate and boggy soil. The famine changed the entire social structure of Ireland. It was also the cause of late marriages so it is no surprise that both Laurence Sullivan and Margaret Vaughan were single and in their thirties when they departed their homeland. We will never know their particular circumstances in Ireland at the time of the famine, and why they survived when so many didn’t or whether other family members were lost. It is recorded that there were seven girls and one son in the Vaughan family in Ireland. Their father, Patrick, was described as a labourer as was Laurence Sullivan’s father, also named Patrick.
Life on the Victorian goldfields for Laurence was probably tough but not as tough as he would have witnessed in Ireland. He must have raised sufficient cash to pay for further boat travel when news reached miners in Australia of the gold bonanza in Otago’s Gabriel’s Gully. This “Australian invasion” had begun in 1865. Miners tended to keep moving to new areas when existing claims petered out but their daily existence would probably have been hand-to-mouth at best. Again, when the best of the gold gave out in Otago, Laurence Sullivan moved to the other side of the alps on New Zealand’s West Coast.
The West Coast had been officially declared a gold field in 1864 but it was 1865 before the real influx of miners began. By the time Laurence arrived in Hokitika some time in 1865 - the exact date unknown - it would have been quite a busy place which had developed quickly once the West Coast had been declared a gold field. It had a well-used if somewhat dangerous river port with many mishaps because of the river bar. Ships from Melbourne in Australia arrived and departed from there, as did coastal shipping.
On arrival it is likely Laurence heard of the rich deposits of gold being found on the beaches further south. He probably acquired a horse or perhaps, like others, he travelled on foot. It is unlikely he travelled alone as other hopefuls were also following the beach route south as did limited dray traffic carrying supplies. It is more than likely that his cousin, Mick Carroll, was with him. The news of good strikes further afield invariably acted as a spur to up stakes and keep moving.
For those travelling down the coastline, the first obstacle to cross was the Hokitika river, followed by the Mikonui and Waitaha rivers. It is known that Laurence worked the gold at Mikonui Beach where his future wife lived but whether they met there or not isn’t known. In the newspaper report of the wedding which appears later, Mikonui was described as the bride’s family home and the wedding certificate states that this is where the marriage to Margaret Vaughan took place. How long he mined at Mikonui Beach isn’t known but again he moved on.
Early settlers at Mikonui south of Ross reported on the dangers crossing this river when in flood. Further south, travellers would have encountered the swift-flowing Wanganui river and bluff. The next big obstacle was the Whataroa river which I know from childhood years was an awesome sight following torrential downpours. Onward to the Poerua river and round the Saltwater lagoon to skirt Abut Head before reaching the hazards of soft sands near the Okarito lagoon. Just beyond lay the rip-roaring settlement of Okarito which had arisen so quickly out of nothing because of the gold strikes in the area. How many days did this journey take and where did he linger? Who knows? The weather and the state of the rivers would have been deciding factors. Usually it was necessary to journey inland to find the best place to cross the biggest rivers, before returning again to the sea coast.
We know that Laurence ended up at Gillespie’s Beach so from Okarito south he would have negotiated Kohuamatua Bluff, the 3-mile lagoon, Blanchard’s Bluff, and on towards the 5-mile where miners were working in some considerable numbers, and where there was quite a large settlement. Whether he also worked here has not been established but it is recorded that his travelling wasn’t over. The obstacle of the glacier-fed Waiho river and the Omoeroa Bluff lay ahead. The Waikukupa river could also be an awesome sight when in full flood. Obstacles not high-lighted were the numerous creeks and streams which could become dangerous torrents in wet weather. The last hurdles were Galway Point and Gillespie’s Point before reaching Gillespie’s Beach. These geographical features are mere names and fail to convey the difficulty of the terrain and the dangers inherent on this coastal route.
It is also recorded that Laurence went on to the Bruce Bay area, a well-documented paper-chase after a non-existent rich strike in 1865. South of Gillespie’s lay the dangerous Otorokua Point, the milky snow-fed Cook river and Cook Bluff all of which would become familiar landmarks during a life-time’s residence at Gillespie’s Beach when return trips were made to collect stores landed at Bruce Bay off vessels carrying supplies. On all the big rivers drownings were commonplace. Waiting for the tide to recede before negotiating the numerous rocky bluffs which protruded into the sea could be a hazardous affair, particularly when trying to coax reluctant horses into the surf. River mouths were also dangerous when men misjudged the force of the sea. Few of these gold-seekers would have been accustomed to the unpredictability of the West Coast climate and the wildness of its coastline as the first police book in Hokitika held in the National Archives will attest. A short few years later ferrymen or cages suspended from wires would provide a much safer service on all the southern major rivers, from the Taramakau near Greymouth down to the Cook river south of Gillespie’s.
The above itinerary assumes Laurence made the journey along the Coast. This assumption is probably correct despite the fact that boats did travel south to Okarito and Bruce Bay and Jackson’s Bay once there was a demand for supplies in these areas. However such a method of travel precluded the opportunity to fossick for gold along the way and also involved money to pay for the fare.
At the present time, we, the descendants of these first pioneers, can fly in to Hokitika, and journey comfortably by car along well-kept tar-sealed roads all the way to Haast in a few hours without breaking the speed limit or stopping too long to admire the many lakes and other scenic attractions on the way, the only danger being our own stupidity if we take a bend too fast or encounter an overseas tourist driving on the wrong side of the road. And we think we’ve got it tough if we have a puncture!
Rushes which resulted in no gold being found became known as duffers. Today, when travelling along Coast roads, numerous bridged creeks bearing this name are a reminder of the hardy souls whose dreams of striking it rich were proved to be just another pipe-dream.
Initially on the Coast the gold being found in rivers and streams could be described as coarse with the result that diggers displayed no interest in the sea beaches along which they travelled. However three miners had arrived in Hokitika in August, 1865, with 1 cwt of gold and mercury amalgam yielding 100 lb of pure gold obtained at South Beach near Greymouth. The use of mercury to save fine gold had been used on Californian beaches. Many miners had honed their skills prospecting in California and Australia before reaching New Zealand. Because of this find attention shifted to the black sands on Westland beaches. Large numbers of miners promptly moved south. Not all were well-equipped so rough and ready alternatives by diggers on the move to separate the gold from the sand were utilised, using coarse cloth or totara bark in lieu of mercury to separate the fine gold from the sand.
With news of strikes travelling fast, miners returning north from the gold-rush hoaxes down south at Hunt’s Beach and Bruce Bay began to focus attention on the sandy beaches along which they travelled. One of these returning horsemen was named James Edwin Gillespie. Investigation by him at one particular beach revealed good leads above the high tide mark. From then on the area became known as Gillespie’s Beach.
I quote from my book, Westland Heritage. “Within a few weeks over 650 men were working in the area. Okarito, further north, had become the service centre for other gold strikes on the nearby beaches at the Three Mile and the Five Mile, the description denoting the distance from Okarito. Gold exploration also extended inland to the Forks, Lake Mapourika, McDonalds Creek, the Waiho Gorge and along many other creek beds as well as south into the Haast region.”
In his book, West Coast Gold Rushes, Philip Ross May stated that by June of 1865 Gillespie’s had reached its greatest production and continued to prosper through the summer and winter of 1866, with 650 diggers there and another 1500 up north at the not-too-distant 5-mile. (Philip’s mother was Bessie Chesterman, a descendant of Edith Sidwell cum Williams cum Chesterman whose link is outlined in the family chart on the first page of this publication.)
The Okarito correspondent of the West Coast Times reported in April, 1866 “that excellent gold was being found at Gillespie’s Beach, the gold being highly auriferous, with workings extending over three miles in length”. Miners were said to total 200 persons. “At the end of that month, the rush was on, not to the sandy beaches this time but into the scrub where the ground was pegged out for a very long distance. Miners were reported to be making ten to twenty pounds a week.”
When the readily accessible gold gave out at the beach, miners stripped the land to considerable depths to follow the rich seams of gold dust deposited by the sea in earlier times. Water races were erected to service the sluice-boxes and some of these races carried water over long distances.
Prospectors were required to register and pay a fee for a Miners Right, which enforced guidelines as to size, pegging, duration, conditions of working, tunnelling and drainage, as well as water rights and the construction of water races.
By June, 1866, Gillespie’s Beach had eleven stores, two butcheries and two bakeries catering for the needs of 650 men, their supplies coming by sea mainly to the port of Okarito and by pack-horses along the beach. A few small coastal vessels entered the Cook River to the south of the beach. Estimates of the population at any one time could vary simply because diggers didn’t stay long at any one place if they weren’t making the equivalent of good wages. By mid 1867 however, fewer than 500 remained.
Miners constructed a tunnel through Gillespie’s Point north of the beach to avoid the dangerous seas around this Bluff, thus avoiding dependence on the tides. The tunnel still exists but is no longer negotiable having been fenced off by the Department of Conservation due to sea erosion at one end.
Laurence Sullivan and Margaret Vaughan married in June of 1870 - more details of which appear later - and began their married life at Gillespie’s Beach, so the following selected extracts from the Grey River Argus established in 1866 give an insight into life and some of the family names at Gillespie’s at that time. In Hokitika, the West Coast Times had begun a year earlier in 1865 and ceased publication in 1909. Despite extended delivery dates to remote areas, settlers relied on newspapers to advise details of postal deliveries, electorate rolls and elections, government proclamations, as well as news items of local interest.
1873. A Report from the paper’s Okarito correspondent published on 4th September: “I hear nothing out of the way from Gillespie’s but I hear no complaints. This in itself is so far cheerful and some of the squatting diggers have taken to planting early potatoes which looks like staying in the same place another year and the man with a family to have his little plot of potatoes, his cow, pig etc seems to me to be a happy digger. Anyhow for being well put on, being clean and always cheerful he can compare most favourably with a class that hardly spares 8 hours for digging out of the 24 hours but often can spare 10 to 12 hours out of 24 for the company of barmaids and billiards.”
1873 - 4 September - Grey River Argus - a report from Okarito. “I hear there is talk of shutting up Okarito as a port of entry. This looks like going backward. I think that our member in the Council for this district should let his voice be better heard on such subjects. At the election time, his friends held him up as a very great man. He was learned like a doctor, learned like a priest etc. A man may be all these and more and be a right man, but not in the right place. Patience to see what may turn round I hold to be a great virtue but it is a virtue of a 4-legged ass as well as of a man. We all know that the animal named can roar and by so doing it can both attract and repel. Members of Council should be reminded they are public property and it is in the public welfare that I write.” (Note: Closure of this port at this time would affect supplies to Gillespie’s.)
An editorial in the West Coast Times on 5.1.1875 highlighted the lack of personal hygiene on the Coast. “It is much to be feared that it must be said that the quantity of water used in outward ablution and in alliance with soap is, considering the respective surfaces to which it is applied, sadly disproportionate to the quantity taken in alliance with whisky for the stomach’s sake, so we must consider ourselves to be a good drinking and dirty community in the absence of social provision for the free personal use of that which contributes so essentially to the good sanitary condition of the population. We possess elaborate schemes for the introduction of water for the purpose of sluicing the soil but are prone to forget how much the human system may also be benefited by periodic sluicing assisted by soap.”
1875 - 12 October - Grey River Argus advised that Gillespie’s Beach has now quite a busy appearance. They quote from the correspondent of the West Coast Times.
“There are about eleven extended claims taken up and most of the shareholders in the different claims are busy stripping and otherwise preparing to test the lead north and south of the prospecting claim. Opening out one of these claims is no holiday task as no paddock can be bottomed or properly tested without a water-wheel and pumping gear, in fact it will take at least 3 months to prove whether this is a properly defined lead of gold and where it runs in length along the beach.”
1877 - In September the West Coast Times reported that there were 5328 European and 817 Chinese miners working in Westland. Australian pastoralists brought indentured Chinese to work for them and many began to drift across to the goldfields from 1866 onwards. Census of 1880 show 1260 Chinese in Westland but restrictive legislation in 1881 curtailed their entry. Chinese merchants had businesses in Greymouth and Hokitika and branches at various goldfields. (There doesn’t appear to have been Chinese miners at Gillespie’s but some anecdotal reports indicate they worked the waterways up at the Forks and McDonald’s Creek.)
1878 - In February the West Coast Times advised that Okarito had suffered an invasion of fish with the beach covered in all kinds and sizes along a 3-mile length.
The haul was said to be a godsend for the half-starved residents. In view of the fact that these small settlements lost no time erecting a church, perhaps this phenomenon could be seen as a gift from on high.
1880/81 - The New Zealand Post Office Directory showed that Gillespie’s Beach had one church, two hotels and a population of one hundred.
1883 - On 16th June a newspaper item that Gillespie’s Beach residents intended to apply for a cemetery reserve which, if successful meant that Okarito folk would lose the subscription that would’ve been forthcoming from that area.
1884. The Superintendent of Westland visited the area and in his report published on 12 December in the Grey River Argus said:
“At 9am arrived at Gillespie’s and went round the district with Mr Ryan who had been busily engaged in clearing and planting a large field of potatoes and who is in fact one of a number who exhibit a disposition to settle down in these districts and make it a home. At this beach there is a large water-race which has been built in the most substantial manner and capable of carrying 30 heads of water which will afford an increased supply for working the numerous leads of auriferous sand at the back of the beach. There are about 40 men at work a number of whom accompanied the Superintendent and Engineer round the Bluff to ensure their safety when negotiating the most dangerous places.”
1884 - E. Ryan and A. McBride both applied and were successful in obtaining a renewal of their hotel’s liquor licence.
1885 On 6 January, the Okarito contributor under the pseudonym of Mountain Rat, reported in the Grey River Argus:
“Through the non-arrival of the Waipara (at Okarito) this Christmas will be as dull and as miserable as one as ever was passed here. Owing to the shortness of nearly everything many a one has got to go to Gillespie’s to get enough flour to make a loaf and all through the steamer not making its appearance on time. No wonder people keep leaving the district. The Waipara has done more harm to this district than any other vessel that ever visited here.”
1885 - 21 May - the Grey River Argus advised that 29 year old Mr E.L.Body, late publican of the Royal Hotel, Okarito, drowned crossing Stony Creek, 4 miles below the Waikupakupa, whilst seeing Mrs Sullivan and Maggie Carroll to Gillespie’s Beach. The creek was swollen at the time.
1885. The paper’s southern correspondent reported 9th October
“That at Gillespie’s the residents are doing very comfortably devoting their time alternately to mining and looking after their cattle and gardens. The beaches are fairly good and it is expected that they will improve very much after the stormy weather.”
1886 - an item in the Grey River Argus advising that great preparations were taking place at Gillespie’s Beach for a ball to be held on 29 April in aid of the hospital at Hokitika.
1889 - Under the title, “Echoes from Okarito,” the contributor, Mountain Rat, reported in the Grey River Argus “The goings-on at Gillespie’s and the other nearby areas still being mined. At the time nobody was reported to be doing very well yet earlier in 1866 it was reported “that the sand at the 5-mile further north but south of Okarito was not black but yellow with gold.”
1895 - July - the West Coast Times contained a report that Rev. Father Brown narrowly escaped from drowning near Okarito, rescued by the mailman, Jock Adamson with whom he was travelling. (It was usual for a priest to visit Gillespie’s via Okarito every three months or so to perform baptisms and weddings.)
The Gillespie’s Beach settlement, unlike the much larger township which sprang up at nearby Okarito, had a relatively short hey-day, but after the busiest years, some families, including the Sullivans, stayed on to eke out a living and raise their families. Gillespie’s never matched Okarito with its police station, resident magistrate, courthouse, jail, a busy port with harbour master and bond store, 2 banks, numerous hotels and stores, its own newspaper, and a much larger population. The gold finds at both the 3-mile and 5-mile from Okarito added to its busyness. Many of those who settled at Gillespie’s were of Irish extraction and Catholic so they had something in common.
Mick Sullivan Jnr (2nd generation, farmer, hotelier, County Councillor and glacier guide) once remarked that his grand-parents stayed at Gillespie’s because they were too poor to move elsewhere. There were no social welfare payments to cushion lack or absence of income. People were and had to be charitable and willing to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate. Faith, hope and charity loomed large in the thinking of the times, balanced by the old adage that God helps those who help themselves.
In Petticoat Pioneers, Margaret Harper stated that by 1890, only about 16 families remained at Gillespie’s. The surnames remembered in the McBride memoirs were Walsh, Quinlan, London, Ryan, Sullivan, Williams and Bines plus their own. Other surnames were Carroll, Patrick, Ferguson, Morrissey, Purcell and Scaese. Mrs Scaese boasted she’d once worked in Queen Victoria’s household. Jacob Scease was still in residence at Gillespie’s until his death at the Westland Hospital when 56 years of age as reported in the West Coast Times on 25.6.1909.
Many of the settlers who stayed behind at Gillespie’s produced large families. Visitors to the area often commented in written reports about the large number of children in such a small community.
Against this, the West Coast Times on 10.2.1902 mentioned a leaflet put out by the Registrar-General on the falling birth rate in New Zealand, lamenting “the pernicious influence of Malthusian doctrines which must be decisively countered. The wilful restriction of births is to be greatly regretted.” It is obvious this wasn’t something to which Gillespie’s Beach residents would plead guilty because large families were the norm.
It is understandable that the Gillespie’s Beach settlement passed through many stages over the decades from the 1860s onwards as the gold finds proved less rewarding and men moved on to seek their fortune elsewhere. In his book, Climbs in the New Zealand Alps, published in 1896, E.A.Fitzgerald said:
“Gillespie’s Beach was reached about one o’clock and we lodged at the so-called Gillespie’s Beach hotel. This establishment consisted of a one-storied wooden shanty with the title in large letters over the entrance facing the sea. The accommodation must be scanty at best but we found that its resources extended so far to supply us not only with a cabbage but with real beef. This excited some surprise as we had come to regard mutton as the sole article of diet available in these districts. The little town stands about 20 yards from the beach where the great surf rolls in night and day with a thundering noise. The majority of the population so far as I could gather, consists of 
Behind the little houses, green pastures stretched for a few hundred yards to the margin of the sombre forest which clothes the West Coast slopes up to the foot of the great snowy range beyond. We were curious to see the process of gold washing so we strolled down to the spot where the men laboriously washed the sand upon a bit of bark. A stream of running water is played over this fibrous texture and when the sand is washed away only the gold remains. The sand is brought from the beach in wheelbarrows. Inland the glorious snow ranges lay in full view. The peak of Mt Cook was enveloped in a slight haze but Tasman, Haidinger and Elie de Beaumont towered to their vast heights within a distance of about 15 miles. Later in the afternoon I was persuaded to visit the gold dredger which a company had set up about a mile further along the beach. The dredge, I was informed, cost over two thousand pounds but has not been profitable chiefly owing to the great cost of transportation. We did at last reach the gold dredger only to find that it was undergoing extensive repairs. It floats on a small lagoon about 200 yards from the sea.”
This first gold dredge had been assembled at Gillespie’s Beach in 1891, of suction design originally, later converted to bucket line, but the yields were poor. The accident to the dredge master was the final straw, and the dredge was closed down and sold.
1892 - Grey River Argus of 10 August - advising death of John Hartwell, manager of the Gillespie’s dredger. Mortification had set in 3 days after the necessary amputation of his leg. (One report said the school teacher at Gillespie’s, who would have been Henry Williams, had rushed up to Ross and brought back a doctor. Another report said it was a Maori. Regardless, the patient died.
There had been what has been described as a dredging boom both in Otago and on the Coast, as the design of dredges evolved. The first dredges on the Coast were simple spoon dredges which lifted the blacksand into a sluice box or on to gold-saving tables. Bucket lines eventually replaced the spoon dredge with the development of an elevator fitted to the stern to stack tailings. A total of 58 dredges had worked the West Coast by 1902, both inland and along the beach, many of which proved a poor investment because their construction was too light to move the obstacles encountered. Dredging continues today with the huge increase in the price of gold making this industry remunerative.
In 1894, A.P. Harper commented in his book, Pioneer Work in the Alps of New Zealand, that many of the inhabitants of Gillespie’s were not on speaking terms. He had problems getting his mail from the Post Office there because of that behaviour. Charles Douglas expanded on this in one of his reports: “Last year’s survey report gives the Fox Glacier with trimmings and I suppose it will be the last exploration of it for some years to come. I at least don’t want to see either it or that district again unless the present inhabitants get exterminated. The law which permits people from murdering each other ought, in my opinion, to be modified in the case of the Okarito and Gillespie’s districts. If Gillespie’s is bad it can’t hold a candle to the Paringa in the matter of quarrelling. There are three parties on the river, all Irish, and the excitable brand at that. How any are alive is a mystery.”
Charles Douglas was reported to be the first European to explore many of Westland’s valleys. Like others, he had been attracted to the West Coast during the gold rush of the 1860s and in the following decades explored the rivers and also the glaciers. He eventually joined the Lands and Survey Department helping to draw maps of the topography of the area.
Westland Land Board reports, all of which were published in local papers, contain references to disputes over both land and timber in the Gillespie’s and Waiho Survey Districts. The Sullivans and Henry Williams arrived after the Ryans and were now competing for land, both to buy and lease. There were complaints to the Board on both sides of taking trees for fencing on land which didn’t belong to them. When both wanted the same land with a decision being made by ballot, obviously the loser would not have been happy. It seems, therefore, that land acquisition, rather than gold mining was more likely to have been the source of ongoing disputes at Gillespie’s as the years passed. Like all small isolated communities it doubtless had its share of malcontents, particularly when fuelled by jealousy or alcohol.
It was usual in these years for one household in a community to act as a Post Office. In later years the Williams household at Weheka would perform this role usually announced in the Grey River Argus ex the latest Government Gazette. Later again Mick Sullivan’s house became the Post Office.
As I commented in Westland Heritage, “along with the Irish stubbornness, cantankerousness, drunkenness, bigotry and fiery tempers which could result in fists flying before the mind was put in gear, went also tenacity in the face of hardship, generosity of spirit, perseverance, great faith that the Lord was on their side, and a determination that their offspring would have a better life than they had known.”
Douglas’s parting shot on Gillespie’s Beach indicated that its glory had departed and those remaining are a “few old fogies who consider they might as well die there as anywhere else.” I am reminded that Keith McLauchlan of Auckland wrote to me over a decade ago telling of his experiences as a Truman’s traveller down south in the 1930s. This intrepid salesmen travelling in a small van loaded with merchandise, brought the pleasure of shopping to women living in remote areas. On a visit to Okarito in these years, as part of his South Westland round, Keith, riding on horseback, took samples of the goods on offer down to the dredge at the 5-mile. That’s real customer service.
Because of land being made available in the Cook area, road construction between Gillespie’s Beach and the Cook valley was commenced in 1886 by contract gangs from Ross to replace the narrow rough track through the bush. The road was gravelled and sufficiently widened to enable horses and pack-horses to travel along. It wasn’t improved until the 1930s, no doubt as a result of the advent of the motorcar. There were complaints at the time that because the tendering conditions for road construction required a deposit of Twenty Pounds, this made it difficult for ordinary working men to compete for tenders.
The above is the setting for the next part of our story.