West Coast
Te Tai Poutini
Pounamu country, then a gold rush that briefly made it the most populous part of the South Island, and then coal — along with the mining disasters that came with it.
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5 events in West Coast between 1803 and 1998
The 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 SoundWest Coast gold rush
Thirty thousand miners crossed to the Coast in two years, and Hokitika briefly became one of the busiest ports in New Zealand.
HokitikaThe 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 Ōtira tunnel pierces the Southern Alps
An 8.5 km tunnel under Arthur’s Pass completed the transalpine railway between Christchurch and Greymouth, fifteen years after work began.
ŌtiraThe Ngāi Tahu settlement
A claim first lodged in 1849 was finally settled: $170 million, an apology, and the return of Aoraki/Mount Cook, over land covering most of the South Island.
Ōnuku Marae, AkaroaMeanwhile, nationally
4 events that reached West Coast along with most of the country. They still shade the map and sit on the timeline above, but they are not West Coast’s own history.
The provinces are abolished
Nine provincial governments were swept away and replaced by central government plus counties and boroughs — the shape of local government for the next century.
The first Labour government
Michael Joseph Savage led Labour to a landslide and built the welfare state: state houses, guaranteed prices, free health care and a 40-hour week.
WellingtonThe 1951 waterfront dispute
Lockout and strike ran for 151 days. Emergency regulations made it a crime even to give food to a watersider’s children.
Wellington waterfrontRogernomics — the economy is deregulated
A Labour government floated the dollar, removed farm subsidies and tariffs, and sold state assets — the fastest liberalisation in the developed world.