Exploring my mining heritage

I recently attended a family reunion in Reefton, on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. An area that was once remote and inhospitable, cut off from the more civilised east coast by impassable mountain ranges but made attractive by the discovery of extensive gold reefs in the 1880s, for which the town is named. Reefton has now turned into a welcoming historical relic visited by the odd tourist and nature/adventure lover and, in February 2023, more than 30 of the Hocking clan. 

From left to right: (1) main street of Reefton today; (2) the ghost town of Waiuta; and (3) the dense forest of the West Coast above the Snowy River battery.

My great, great grandparents, John and Margaret Hocking, emigrated from Cornwall to New Zealand on the Edwin Fox in 1878. John Hocking was a miner who had been forced into farming as the Cornish mines closed, while Margaret Oates Hocking was the daughter and sister of Cornish miners. Their passage was paid for by the New Zealand government to help build up their farming workforce and, on arrival, they were sent to a farm near Richmond where conditions were very primitive. At the same time, word was spreading of the gold discovered at Reefton and the need for experienced miners.

John and Margaret moved to Blacks Point, near Reefton, as the mines opened up on the West Coast. John found work as a pick and shovel man at the Energetic gold mine, in 1879 and purchased shares in several other mines in the area. Margaret ran a boarding house at Blacks Point, notable for being the only temperance (no alcohol) boarding house in the area. She was also one of the first women suffragettes to sign the 1893 petition for women to get the vote in New Zealand, which occurred that same year more than 20 years before most other self governing nations. The Blacks Point museum preserves some of her treasures as well as part of the Golden Fleece stamping mill (relocated downstream by helicopter in the 1970s), which crushed and separated the gold from the quartz extracted from the Energetic Mine, which was then transported down the mountain by tramway.

​(1) John and Margaret Hocking and family pictured on the verandah of their West Coast home, pictured from left to right Maggie, Nicholas and Howie (Richard Herbert) in the pram, Margaret, Caroline Jane (aka Jinny), Beatrice, Ada and John; (2) Mrs Hockings Boarding House at Blacks Point; (3) the 1893 petition for women to get the vote.

John died of Miner's phthisis in 1898 caused from breathing in the dust generated during mining and crushing of the quartz veins. Today we would call it silicosis. John and Margaret had a daughter Caroline Jane, my great grandmother, who married an Australian, named Herbert Thompson who had moved to New Zealand and had experience operating steam engines. Bert worked mainly above ground at the Energetic mine, operating a steam motor that lowered the cage down the 2120 foot deep main shaft, a position he was favoured with as he didn't drink and hence was considered reliable. 

From left to right: (1) slowly decaying remnant mine road bridge; (2) the top of the 2120 ft shaft of the Energetic Mine where both my great great grandfather and great grandfather worked; (3) a swing bridge on the trail up to the Energetic Mine in Victoria Forest Park.

Caroline and Bert Thompson had 6 children including Doris (my grandmother) and the entrepreneurial Arthur (her younger brother) who joined a cooperative to start a private coal mine in the hills above the Energetic mine, worked by 4-5 partners who did the blasting and shovelling and shared the profits (if any) of the enterprise. The mine was called Defiance and is not recorded on any maps but overlooked the Waitahu River.

​While in the area we joined some of our relatives in hiking up the Murray Creek track that follows the old mine roads into gold and coal country. We visited the well-marked Energetic mine (see above) where the relics of the cage my great grandfather used to operate still lie crumbling near the surface of the exposed shaft. The more enthusiastic members of the party (the Thompsons) were determined to rediscover the small private coal mine their father (Arthur - the grandson of John Hocking) had owned and worked. They had advertised the adventure as a 4.5km walk, neglecting to mention that was only one-way. Distances were also sketchy as the position of the mine relied on 60+ year old memories of a visit by one of Arth's children to the mine when they were 10 years old. Arth had stopped mining and the family moved away from Reefton after the roof of the mine collapsed on him and he spent more than a year in Greymouth hospital. The Thompson brothers were determined to find the mine and were rewarded with the mid-afternoon rediscovery of Defiance (pictured below). Little now remains visible apart from the dark, flooded entrance and some abandoned rusty implements. The forest is reclaiming all the old mines in the area but their legacy will live on while adventure tourism remains popular, with the old mine roads in the region converted into hiking and mountain bike trails. After our 12km hike we all regrouped in Reefton in time for a well-earned family reunion dinner.

Left to right: (1) Hiking through the Victoria Forest Park to find the Defiance mine; (2) View down the valley of the Waitahu river; (3) the flooded entrance to the Defiance coal mine.

Reefton's School of Mines was a real treat. I couldn't decide whether I liked the Wilfley table, the furnace, the rock displays or the old mining manuals best...

​Golden Fleece quartz mine stamper battery, relocated close to the Blacks Point museum and generating its own electricity. 

To see a fabulous video of the rediscovery of the Defiance coal mine, please visit my second cousin Grant Thompson's YouTube channel.