This web feature is based on an exhibition prepared by the Friends of Waiuta, which was compiled and curated by Les Wright, Claudia Landis and Bruce Watson.
Research material was gathered with the aid of the Department of Conservation, Hokitika. Additional text was written by Simon Nathan and the feature was produced by the NZHistory team. Tony Nightingale and Margaret Hurst also contributed advice.
About 200 glass negatives taken by Joseph Divis are known to exist, together with prints, postcards and 'stereophotos'. They are held in a number of places, and more may come to light. The images used in the Friends of Waiuta exhibition came from the following sources:
- Brendon Wilshire collection
- Ian McEwin collection, Hocken Library, Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, Dunedin
- Derek French collection, West Coast Historical Museum, Hokitika (copies of some images are also held at the Alexander Turnbull library, Wellington).
Can you contribute?
We would love to hear recollections of people who remember Joseph Divis or Waiuta. We are particularly keen to find more of his photographs. In particular, few of his pre-1925 photographs have been identified, but they may come to light in collections, magazines or family albums. If you have information, please email [email protected]
Links
- Read about Waiuta resident Ann O'Donnell in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
- Field trip to Waiuta - a field trip guide to Waiuta, from the Department of Conservation website
- Visiting Waiuta - a page about visiting Waiuta, from the Department of Conservation website
- Waiuta: the town, the mine, the people - a site with information on the town of Waiuta, and a page about the Friends of Waiuta
- West Coast region, Te Ara - Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Books and other sources
- Ed Chandler, Waiuta ghosts: the meanderings of a quartz-miner, 1st pub. 1962, Cadsonbury Publications, Christchurch, 2004
- The Ghost town ball [DVD], directed by David Sims, NZ National Film Unit, Lower Hutt, 1986
- Anne Hutchison, Our own correspondent: Waiuta 1906-51, New Zealand Forest Service, Hokitika, 1986
- Darrell Latham, The Golden Reefs: an account of the great days of quartz-mining at Reefton, Waiuta & the Lyell, 2nd edn, Nikau Press, Nelson, 1992
- Simon Nathan, Through the Eyes of a Miner: The Photography of Joseph Divis, Potton and Burton, 2016
- Tony Nightingale, ‘Journeys and stores: Waiuta in mind', in Heartlands: New Zealand historians write about where history happened, ed. by Kynan Gentry & Gavin McLean, Penguin, Auckland, 2006
- Waiuta, 1906-1951: the gold mine, the town, the people. Comp. & ed. by Gerard Morris, updated edn, Friends of Waiuta, Reefton, 1990
- Les Wright, Big River quartz mine, 1882-1942: a worthwhile speculation, Friends of Waiuta, Reefton, 1993
- Les Wright (ed.), Our own fun: childhood memories of Waiuta, Friends of Waiuta, Reefton, 2006
