Image: Jaime Apolonio | Creative Commons
Tailrace Walk.
Tailrace Walk

Located in Greymouth area in the West Coast region

This short Nelson Creek walk crosses a number of impressive historic tailraces.

To start the walk, go through an old hand picked tunnel and cross the Nelson Creek suspension bridge.

This is short walk that crosses a number of impressive tailraces. Old gold workings are also visible throughout the red and silver beech which are the dominant tree species.

Nearby tracks you can walk in Nelson Creek are Callaghans Track and Colls Dam Walk. 

From Greymouth follow SH7 about 25 km north to Ngahere. Turn right at the Ngahere-Kopara Road and carry on to the Nelson Creek Settlement. The turn off to access the picnic, camping area and walks is opposite Nelson Creek Hotel.

The forest in the Nelson Creek area, which is predominantly beech, is now regenerating. It was felled in the past to provide fuel and timber for huts, fluming and other mining structures, and was used in farming to a small degree.

Red and silver beech can be seen on the lower slopes and hard beech on the higher slopes.

Tailings

The Nelson Creek area is formed from layers of sandstone overlaid by glacial outwash gravels. Gold was concentrated in trough-like hollows on the surface of the sandstone.

Ground sluicing was the main method of working the gold. Sluicing needed a good supply of water which was directed over the working face, washing the gravels out.

Large rocks were lifted aside and stacked as tailings, while the smaller material was washed down tailraces containing riffle boxes to 'save' the gold. Tailraces were also essential to remove excess water from the working area.

Nelson Creek has had a varied goldmining history of success and decline from its beginnings in 1865, when it was rushed as a shallow creek working, which yielded shotty course gold. Some areas were rich in gold but finds were patchy.

At the height of the rush over 1200 miners were scattered throughout Try Again Terrace downstream from Nelson Creek, but numbers fell almost immediately, once the productive ground was worked out.

The suspension bridge crossing Nelson Creek is a historic bridge. It was originally built in 1872 and has been rebuilt a couple of times, most recently by the New Zealand Forest Service in 1982 using the original plans.