Survivors

After Waiuta died and was basically abandonded, there was a world-wide shortage of building materials, due to ongoing reconstruction after the War. This town was there for the taking, so people descended on it and took it away.

Six of the buildings survived and are still in Waiuta today, due to their still being in use as homes for the few who stayed on and as holiday homes. There are a couple of other buildings there, but they're not original. The old shed was built as a boiler-room and bath-house after the big sheds burnt down in the 1940's. The lodge was built after the restored hospital burnt down in 1986, and the information centre and toilets are new buildings.

These are my models of the surviving buildings.

Stan Stephen's house/ Artie Gill's holiday home, in the back road, (Incubator Alley). Recently restored by DOC.

Ossie McTaggart's house - not actually in Waiuta. This is above the main road on the approach to the town. Ossie lived on in here until he died in 1990, the last surviving resident of the town.

Roy Bartlett's Barber Shop and the adjoining "Rimu Cottage". You could actually buy them, they're for sale if you've got way too much money to spend on a holiday home in a ghost-town.

Police station. Sold, by the mine manager, to Dick Willis, (Willan? - whatever.) for ten pounds, even though the company didn't own it. Now Tim White's holiday home. The lock-up, minus its distinctive roofline, is now in someone's backyard in Stoke, Nelson - but that's another story.

Jos Divis' house, in Shinbone Alley. Jos was the photographer and he lived on here until he died about 1962. Earlier, the Jones family lived in this little cottage with their 8 children. (Must've been crowded).

And, that's all. It's a great site on a nice sunny day. Shame that we don't get more of them.

(Now we'll see if that worked).

cheers