West Coast gold rush
- When
- 1864–1867
- Where
- Hokitika
- Reach
- Several regions
Thirty thousand miners crossed to the Coast in two years, and Hokitika briefly became one of the busiest ports in New Zealand.
The rush created a string of towns in dense rainforest reachable mainly by sea, over a bar that wrecked dozens of ships. When the alluvial gold ran out the population collapsed, but coal, timber and a distinct West Coast political culture remained. The Coast has voted differently from the rest of the South Island ever since.
Regions affected
Sources
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Related
The Great Strike
Watersiders and miners struck nationwide; the government swore in mounted special constables — farmers on horseback — who cleared the wharves by force.
Wellington waterfrontThe southern sealing rush
Gangs of sealers worked the far south so intensively that fur seal colonies collapsed within a generation — the first sustained European industry in New Zealand.
Dusky SoundGold found at Gabriel’s Gully
Gabriel Read’s find more than quadrupled Otago’s population in three years and made Dunedin the largest and wealthiest city in the country.
Gabriel’s Gully, TuapekaVogel’s public works and immigration scheme
Julius Vogel borrowed £10 million in London to build railways, roads and telegraph lines, and to bring 100,000 assisted migrants.