Thames (NZ): The Treasury Archive Building update

Another major step has been taken today, with the driving of the piles for the new archive building at Queen Street, Thames. The Coromandel Heritage Trust members and supporters will be delighted to see the building now full steam ahead!!! It has been a dream for some time, now the following weeks will quickly see the construction and completion of the building that meets all the latest archive requirements.

A vote of thanks to all who have been involved with this vision - to the stage today where it is becoming a reality!

Above: Looking south from the present Treasury building towards the site of the new archive
Below: Architect's view of the finished building attached to  The Treasury

Thames (NZ): Miners & the New Zealand Tunnelling Co WWI

For those of you who didn't manage to hear the presentation at The Treasury today on the New Zealand Tunnelling Company - you missed a very informative presentation.

Why is this of interest to THAMES? Many of the men that joined this company were experienced miners, many having come from Thames, or their fathers/other relatives had been on the goldfields from the time they opened. Many of us have generations of miners in the family, some of these men then went to war and were involved with tunnelling projects in World War One.

For more information go to the dedicated New Zealand Tunnelling Company website. Waihi men in particular played a major part in this company and a memorial is planned to remember their efforts.
If you have any family information on men from Thames that were in this company, please can you make contact - as I try and find out more about these Thamesites.

A list of the names of men found with a connection to the wider Thames area can be found here.

WAIHI'S QUOTA OF THE NEW ZEALAND TUNNELLING CORPS LEAVING THE MINING TOWN LAST WEEK TO GO INTO CAMP AT AUCKLAND: THE CROWD FAREWELLING THE MEN AT THE WAIHI RAILWAY STATION.
Auckland Region (N.Z.)
Source: ' Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19151014-50-5 '

SOME OF THE MEMBERS OF THE NEW ZEALAND ENGINEER TUNNELLING COMPANY NEAR THE FIRING LINE IN FRANCE.
Auckland Region (N.Z.)
Source:  Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19170111-41-2

If you have any information in general or on any soldiers from the New Zealand Tunnelling Company,
contact the webmaster at the website mentioned above.

Thames (NZ): Heritage Week Lectures & Walks

If you live locally, maybe you have already managed to attend some of the events scheduled for the first week of the Heritage Festival.

Have you dropped into the Thames Library yet? and taken a photo of your Thames house - so it can be added to the digital collection.

There are two lectures left at The Treasury, in their series: The Way We Were Lectures.

Tomorrow, Friday 15th March 2013 is Sue Baker-Wilson speaking on the NZ Tunnellers in World War One and Monday 18th March is Dr Caroline Phillips on the archaeology of the Shortland area.

If you want a walk, then Graham Robinson has a tour of Shortland on 17th and 19th March.

Pollen Street, Shortland 1868
Photo courtesy of J Vedder-Price

Thames (NZ): Shortland Cemetery & Heritage weeks

The Heritage Festival is underway - Shortland Cemetery has been mowed and cleared. The paths are very dry, thanks to the long hot summer. So if you were ever waiting for the chance to visit and search for ancestors - now would be the time.

There is a tour coming up, for those interested in a guided walk:
Thursday 14th March 5:30pm - 7:30pm Historic Shortland Cemetery Tour

Top Photo: Looking out over the Danby Street, lower section of Shortland Cemetery
Lower Photo: Looking up at the Shortland Cemetery from the lower north end

If you want to view just how large this cemetery really is - use the TCDC intramaps website.
Now on the left hand side of the page under MODULES, click CEMETERIES
The page will refresh, then down the bottom right, there will be a drop down list, click SHORTLAND
the page will refresh and you will see the whole Shortland cemetery map..you can zoom in or use the hand symbol to drag the map around.  You can also use the bottom tabs to search and get information on burials.

Thames (NZ): Miner's Rights

Old copies of the 'butts' of the Miner's Rights book are available at Auckland Archives. A copy of numbers 47-97 are available to view  at The Treasury The file number at Auckland Archives is

Auckland Archives BACL 14345 A208 1a

Ranapia Mokena's Miners' Right taken out 23rd August 1867

There is a wealth of information on mining at the Auckland Archives, that stretches up to the 1970s.

There are card indexes available in the index room adjacent to the main reading room - that have reference details for each miner and mines they were associated with. Then in  Miners Index Books for instance, there are alphabetically listed names of mine applications by surname. The one below is for 1965.

 

December 2014 update:

Since writing this, The Treasury at Thames have been obtaining copies of many miner's rights

Also remember you can check Kae's Goldminers Index for the years: 1867 - 1872



Thames (NZ): The Treasury update & New Book by M Hawkes

Meghan Hawkes has a new book on tales of Thames from the local newspapers. Called "A Line of Duck Boards" it is available from The Treasury at Thames; as well as the first book called "The Coming Year." For those coming to the upcoming Heritage Festival, there is a dramatisation of excerpts from the book - 19th and 20th March 2013.

 The Coromandel Heritage Trust has taken another step forward and nearer the building of the new archives building. The site is now cleared and ready for the building work!

Taken 27 February 2013, From Queen Street looking westwards towards the Treasury building (on right)

Thames (NZ): Lecture Series for Heritage Festival

Keep an eye on the HERITAGE FESTIVAL Programme - there are many new items.

**The Thames School of Mines is hosting several lectures:
There will also be evening presentations on gold field technology, Maori mining on the Thames gold field, and one from the Chief Executive of NZ Historic Places Trust, Bruce Chapman CE NZHPT on "Heritage Matters".

**The Coromandel Heritage Trust is once again holding a lecture series at The Treasury building in Queen Street, Thames. These include:

Monday 11th March 1pm - 2pm 'The Way We Were' - Thames Big Pump: 1872-1895 ('re-opened' 2012)
Historian David Wilton will speak about the Big Pump which was installed on the flat near Moanataiari in 1872. This followed the record production of the Caledonian Mine in 1871 and optimism was high that optputs would be as great at deeper levels. At the time, the pump was reputed to be the largest steam pump in Australasia. It provided services to mines on the flat until it was superceded by an even bigger pump - at Bella St - around 1895. Nearly forgotten for over 100 years, the Big Pump was to make itself known to Thames-ites in 2012, when its shaft collapsed under the main road north of town. This led to an intensive investigation and archaeological analysis of the site, which will be described in the talk.

Tuesday 12th March 1pm - 2pm 'The Way We Were' - Exploring the life of the early settlers at Opito
Local archaeologist Brenda Sewell will speak about early settlers from Polynesia who landed on the eastern coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, what they found and how they adapted to a much cooler climate. Excavations at Sarah’s Gully and Opito illustrated the changes that took place through various cultural layers covering about 400 years of prehistory.

Monday 18th March 1pm - 2pm 'The Way We Were' - CSI Thames: Archaeological Detective Work in Shortland
One of the fascinations of the many forensic TV programmes is the piecing together of many different bits of evidence to find out whodunit. Although archaeology doesn’t investigate crime scenes the methods are very similar. Renowned archaeologist Dr Caroline Phillips will explain what the archaeological evidence reveals about Shortland.

Tuesday 19th March 1pm - 2pm 'The Way We Were' - Doing our bit, Hauraki Goldfields 1914-1919
This presentation by Waihi historian Sue Baker Wilson provides a short summary of the formation of the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company (NZETC) and their service on the Western Front. It is also an account of a journey of rediscovery and recognition. In 2012, the first WW1 unit specific overseas pilgrimage was made by Tunnelling Company descendants and supporters. Sue has a long term interest in military history and has constructed what is regarded as New Zealand’s first World War One e-memorial.

If you want to attend any of these lectures 'The Way we Were:
Venue: The Treasury, 705 Queen Street, Thames

Price: $5.00 pp. Limited to 40 per session & available at The Treasury & Thames I-Site
Contact: details available on website

The Big Pump

Thames (NZ): Heritage Week & Identification of Houses

During the Heritage festival this year, the Thames Library are holding an event called: Capturing the Present, to become the Heritage of the Future.

The details posted are:
Add your photos and memories to a digital archive collection of buildings and homes in Thames. Bring in your current (and old) photos of buildings around Thames - perhaps your home, your workplace, your school. We'll help you scan and upload them to the Thames Streets & Places basket on Kete Hauraki Coromandel. Material in this Kete is harvested to National Library NZ's National Digital Heritage Archive, ensuring that it will always be safely stored for future generations to access. Play your part in leaving a trail for future generations to explore. Staff and volunteers will be on hand to help you each weekday during the Festival, from 10am to 12 noon, at Thames Library.


The event is Monday 11 March to Friday 15 March and Monday 18 March to Friday 22 March 2013
Times 10am - 12pm

You can view photos that are already onsite and add comments - just complete the simple login registration

Description

Looking south from Broad Street, over Shortland (Thames). At centre right of image (amongst small group of buildings on the flat), are the premises of Butement Brothers, Manufacturers of Aerated Waters and Cordials, situated along Pollen Street. The Butement Brothers had aerated water factories established in Dunedin, Greymouth, Christchurch, Wellington and Shortland. The long white building in the centre background is Smale's Folly (Smale's Boarding House), built 1868/9. Phoenix Brewery?, centre left.
Thames Coromandel Region (N.Z.)

Source: 'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A16669'

Thames (NZ): Heritage Festival March 2013

The events for the Heritage week are appearing, more added every day; advertised as the Thames Heritage Festival 2013 and running 8th - 24th March 2013

There are guided walks of: Shortland, Grahamstown, Tararu, Hall's Reserve. Plus options via mini-van around the town and Thames Coast

Old cars, fashion parade, and many musical and film related items.

Or fancy attending a Victorian Dinner at Rev Lush's old house?

Home brewing, market days and fetes, craft days, photo displays...plenty of things to do and see

Our ancestors started their time on the goldfields in very simple conditions
Label: THE BEGINNING OF A PROSPEROUS TOWN: MINERS' SHANTIES IN THE THAMES IN THE SIXTIES.

Auckland Weekly News 20 FEBRUARY 1913 p011


Source: Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19130220-11-4

Thames (NZ): World War One Soldiers

As mining opportunities diminished on the goldfields, many miners went off to war to South Africa in the South African War. This call to arms continued on into the 1914-1918 First World War, with many of our young men enlisting and going off to fight. Large numbers never returned and the names of many of these men adorn the memorials around the Peninsula.

The Treasury has an article on the Memorials of Thames. At present I am gathering information on the wider Coromandel Peninsula area to record the names of more of the men who died in or as a result of wounds/sickness from serving in World War One.

YOU can help, by contributing any family information on any of these men. The resulting collection will then be available at The Treasury in Thames.
Also if by any chance you are visiting Wellington archives and can assist with the request for digitisation of war files, please could you make contact.

Below is a postcard sent to Miss IVY GORDON of Thames during World War One. Perhaps this could have been sent by her brother Victor GORDON, the family lived in Augustus Street Thames.

'Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 630-13'