Belinda Feek

Through relentless Coromandel rain and appalling mud a handful of men found the spark that would change their lives forever. reports

It was just a speck, a slight flicker at the start. It would have probably been a cold winter’s day when William Hunt, John Ebenezer White and George Clarkson were digging away in the Kuranui Stream with their pick axes.

They were one of many groups who had flocked to the Coromandel in search of gold.

Dressed in old mud-covered rags and living in tents, the allure of a £5000 reward to whoever discovered the first payable goldfield was enough to make the atrocious conditions worthwhile.

Then, 150 years ago today, they hit the jackpot.

Buried in the rock face of the waterfall they spotted the speck that would forever change their lives — they found gold.

The discovery was the first big strike in the Coromandel and within months the Thames foothills swarmed with men.

For Hunt, White, Clarkson and their friend William Cobley, life would never be the same again. They turned into millionaires overnight.

MUD MUD & MORE MUD

Backtrack a few days to the beginning of August and the men were living in awful conditions with others who were hoping to find their fortune. The rain was relentless, the mud so thick and deep even horses ended up stuck, neck high, struggling to move.

There were no roads, no buildings apart from a few whare, nowhere for the miners to really keep dry.

Many who had flocked to the area with dreams of finding gold initially settled on the flat, around the Shortland Wharf.

They soon moved up into the hills where they slept on Ponga fronds in floorless army issue tents.

Author and historian Kae Lewis, who runs The Treasury website, says it was a wetter-than-usual August in 1867.

“We’re talking about a very primitive camp. And what’s more, that camp was on a swamp. All the land where Thames now sits was a swamp, with four or five rivers coming down through the centre so it was not a pleasant place to be.”

Women traipsed through kneehigh mud just to cross the main street, while men just remained dirty most of the time.

“Their beds were full of mud because they were in mud all day and then nowhere to have a shower or anything, you just climbed into your bed.”

Lewis, who has also written a book, Goldrush To The Thames 1867-1869, said food was basic and they cooked over an open fire.

Biscuits were a staple, while the peach trees which local Maori had earlier planted around Mt Pleasant were actively raided.

Their equipment was also primitive. Miners either had a pick, a shovel or a wheelbarrow to smash their way through the hills.

THE DISCOVERY

On August 10, Hunt, White and Clarkson decided to search a waterfall which flowed into the Kuranui Stream.

They climbed up and George