Greymouth

Fog being pushed down the Grey Valley by the Barber

A katabatic wind blows down the Grey Valley and is known locally as the Barber, which can be seen as well as felt because a mist accompanies the cold wind.[9] In the early twentieth century the Barber was also known as the "gorge wind".[10] It was reported that there were changes to the direction, severity and coldness of the wind in that era and this change was attributed to the felling of trees on the Coast Road leading north towards the new settlements of Dunollie and Seven Mile.[10] Greymouth businesses would often advertise the benefits of their products, especially clothing to ward off the chill of the Barber.[11]

1905 Greymouth Flood

A combination of high intensity rainfall, high topographic relief and short steep rivers often leads to rapid flooding of low-lying land across the West Coast.[12] Since its founding Greymouth has experienced two dozen floods by the Grey River, with many of the most significant being assigned names: for example, the Great Flood (1872), the Jubilee Flood (1887), the Big Flood (1905), The Biggest Since 1887 (1936), The Biggest Since 1936 (1977), The Big One (May 1988) and The Biggest (September 1988).[13] After the two floods in 1988 the mayor of Greymouth, Barry Dallas, organised the construction of a flood protection wall. Rising 2 m above the level of the railway embankment and riverside wharf, it was completed in September 1990 at a cost of NZ$4m. Since its completion Greymouth has not suffered a significant flood, although the river has come close to the top of the flood wall several times.[14]

Coal Creek Falls

The path gently descends down to the Coal Creek valley though a mixed beech-podocarp forest. The walk is approximately 3.6 km return and is accessed 8 km northeast of Greymouth at Runanga.[15]

This is a zigzag uphill track taking in four lookouts across Greymouth and the Grey Valley. The first lookout shows the Greymouth town centre and the Grey River. The second lookout provides a view of central Greymouth from a greater elevation. The third lookout at a rock outcrop gives a view of Cobden and the final lookout provides a panorama of the lower Grey Valley.[16]

Located off Turumaha Street next to Anzac Park, this short loop walk takes you through the Kōwhai Forrest, half of which is bounded by the mudflats of Blaketown Lagoon. There are some boardwalks which follow through estuarine vegetation.[16]

This walk is located in the only substantial forest area close to Greymouth. It is located on Marsden Road and is a 25 minute loop track. Halfway along the track is a deviation to a lookout point with views of regenerating forest.[16]

View from Point Elizabeth Walkway

This walk is accessed via North Beach Road, Cobden or Seven Mile Road, Rapahoe and is 5.5 km one way. It is a well-formed walk through coastal bush with stunning cliff top views.[17]

This forest track passes by tailraces and dams and through tunnels built by gold miners in the 19th century and is a 1.1 km loop track. It is approximately 30 km southeast of Greymouth.[18]

Archaeological evidence shows Māori settlements on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island dating back to 1300–1400 AD. Located at Karamea, Westport (Kawatiri), Bruce Bay (Mahitahi) and Jackson Bay (Okahu), excavations have identified in-ground cooking ovens (hāngī) and middens (rubbish tips). They show that these early Māori ate moa and seals as well as fish from the river and sea. These earliest West Coast people were from east Polynesia. Their stone knives and adzes were made by using the Polynesian flaking method and personal ornaments found on the sites were based on traditional Polynesian shark-tooth designs. These early people were subsumed by later Māori tribes (iwi) who came to the West Coast as population grew and settlement spread.[19]

Ngāi Tahu came to Te Tai Poutini (the West Coast) about the start of the nineteenth century. Under Tūhuru Kōkare, a great warrior, they defeated the Ngāti Wairangi in a series of battles for the greenstone (pounamu) coast. The West Coast was one of the principal sources of the highly-prized greenstone which is almost as hard as steel. The Poutini Ngāi Tahu built fortified pā at Māwhera (Greymouth), Ōkārito and Mahitahi (Bruce Bay) and had villages or gardens at other places including Inangahua, Taramakau, Mahinapua, Pouerua, Okuru and Arawhata (Jackson Bay).[19] The name Māwhera (meaning 'wide spread river mouth',[20] is still an alternative name for the Grey River.

The first Europeans to visit the site of what is now Greymouth were Thomas Brunner and Charles Heaphy in 1846. Brunner and Heaphy were detailed by the Nelson Land Company to investigate the country south of the Buller and to report on its resources and potential as a field for further settlement. They set out from Nelson on 17 March 1846 accompanied by a Māori named Kehu, who had previously visited the West Coast and who had agreed to act as their guide.[21] Brunner discovered coal in the Grey Valley, and several places in the region (notably the town of Brunner and Lake Brunner) bear his name. Brunner himself named the Grey River after Sir George Grey, Governor of New Zealand.[22]

As numbers of colonists continued to increase in Nelson and Canterbury, interest grew in settling the West Coast, but the land was still owned by Māori – Poutini Ngāi Tahu. In 1857 Poutini Ngāi Tahu chiefs wrote to Donald McLean, the New Zealand government land purchase officer, offering to sell the land for £2500, as long as some land was reserved for their use and they kept their rights to the pounamu (greenstone) of the Arahura River.[23] In 1859, James Mackay was sent to broker a purchase deal, known as the Arahura Deed. This was signed in Māwhera by leading chiefs on 21 May 1860: it sold the entire West Coast to the Crown for just £300 (equivalent to NZ$38,060 in 2021), apart from a scattering of reserves totalling 4,000 ha (40 km²).[24] (Just after the signing, Mackay capsized his canoe in the Grey River, and some of the writing in the document is smudged to this day.)[24] The reserves included Māwhera, now the centre of Greymouth.

On 22 July 1864 the Nelson became the first steamer to cross the Grey bar and steam up the Grey River.[25] Aboard the 'Nelson' were Matthew Batty and Reuben Waite plus approximately 70 prospectors.[25] Reuben Waite would open the first store in Greymouth on the banks of the Grey River at the corner of which is now Waite Street and Mawhera Quay.[26] Matthew Batty would become the first European coal miner on the Grey River overseeing a group of Māori digging up the Brunner Seam on the Grey River bank.[26]

John Rochfort undertook the original survey of the site of the township in 1865.[27][28] Greymouth was proclaimed a borough on 16 July 1868, and on 26 August 1868 an election was held. On 16 September 1868, the new borough council held its first meeting and unanimously elected Edward Masters as the first mayor of Greymouth.[29]

Greymouth in 1924

From 1853 until the abolition of provinces in 1876, Greymouth was first part of Canterbury Province (the West Coast part of the Province was known as West Canterbury) and then part of an independent Westland Province. However Cobden, on the north (or right) bank of the Grey River was a part of Nelson Province from 1853 to 1876. The boundary between the Canterbury and Nelson provinces had been set as a straight line from the head of the Hurunui River to Lake Brunner at a time when the area was virtually uninhabited, but the West Coast Gold Rush straddled that boundary, with a population boom also straddling the boundary.[30] In 1866, there had been a proposal for portions of Canterbury Province, including the urban area of Greymouth and the rural area south, to be annexed and solely administered by Nelson Province.[31] The situation for the citizens of the area was partially alleviated with the creation of the County of Westland – which had all the administrative powers of a provincial council, but saw the legislative powers remain with Parliament in Wellington. Members of Parliament were not happy with having to spend their time on local legislation, and in 1873 the government elevated the county to full provincial status as Westland Province.

Shipwreck of the Abel Tasman, Cobden Beach, Greymouth

The Greymouth Bar is a sandbar at the mouth of the Grey River. It is notorious in New Zealand and more than 44 ships have been wrecked there while entering, leaving or mooring in the harbour.[32] The first shipwreck happened on 13 September 1863 when the schooner Gipsy carrying mostly gold diggers from Sydney, was caught in a northeasterly gale.[32] Sixteen lives have been lost since 1865, when the Nugget drifted out of the river and across the bar at night.[32] The cutter was half full of water when the crew came on deck and only one of the two crewmen made it safely to shore.[32]

The year 1866 was the most dangerous year for shipping in Greymouth, with five schooners and screw steamers being wrecked due to a number of reasons, including getting stranded on the spit, sheered in current, insufficient tug power and the engine stopped.[32]

On 23 June 1910 the Lauderdale was heading to Greymouth from Nydia Bay and on 27 June struck the north tiphead, ending up stranded on the Blaketown beach after, at one point, being grounded against another shipwreck from 1908, the Hawea.[33][34] The Lauderdale is one of three wrecks which remain on the Greymouth coastline in the twenty-first century and in April 2016 a local Blaketown family unveiled a commemorative plaque on the West Coast Cycle Trail, telling its story. This plaque is within sight of the wreck remains which appear and disappear on the shoreline with the tides.[35] The Abel Tasman and the Hawea are the other two remaining wrecks.[35]

Greymouth Rural statistical area, which stretches between Greymouth and Lake Brunner, covers 340.00 km² (131.27 sq mi).[36] It had an estimated population of 780 as of June 2022,[46] with a population density of 2.3 people per km².

Greymouth Rural had a population of 693 at the 2018 New Zealand census, an increase of 30 people (4.5%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 129 people (22.9%) since the 2006 census. There were 285 households, comprising 363 males and 330 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.1 males per female. The median age was 47.1 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 114 people (16.5%) aged under 15 years, 105 (15.2%) aged 15 to 29, 369 (53.2%) aged 30 to 64, and 108 (15.6%) aged 65 or older.

Ethnicities were 94.4% European/Pākehā, 10.4% Māori, 0.4% Pasifika, 0.9% Asian, and 2.2% other ethnicities. People may identify with more than one ethnicity.

The percentage of people born overseas was 9.5, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 59.3% had no religion, 30.7% were Christian, 0.4% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.4% were Hindu, 0.4% were Buddhist and 1.7% had other religions.

Of those at least 15 years old, 69 (11.9%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, and 144 (24.9%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $32,100, compared with $31,800 nationally. 93 people (16.1%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 315 (54.4%) people were employed full-time, 90 (15.5%) were part-time, and 21 (3.6%) were unemployed.[47]

Left Bank Art Gallery, interior

Founded in 1992, the Left Bank Art Gallery in Greymouth is located in the former Bank of New Zealand building on the left bank of the Grey River. It is operated by the West Coast Society of the Arts and exhibits the works of artists from Karamea to Haast and holds the National Pounamu Collection.

In 2007 the first Art in the Park event was organised in Greymouth at Dixon Park by Linda and Ashley Morley, South Africans living in New Zealand. They brought the concept from South Africa.[55] In 2008 inclement weather meant the organisers sought an alternative venue that was more sheltered from rain. The 2009 Art in the Park was held at Shantytown, and remained there for a couple of years before locating to the Greymouth High School gymnasium.

In 1944 the Greymouth Operatic Society was formalised, following a number of successful patriotic reviews and concerts during the war years. The first production in 1945 was "The Country Girl" with Beverley Patterson in the lead role of 'Marjorie Joy'.[56] In 2021 the Greymouth Operatic Society is a thriving operation, providing the opportunity for local performers, musician and stage crews to learn all things theatre. The aim of the Society is to support, educate, and nurture local talent.[57]