Nokomai River
Nokomai about 1873, with a group of men outside the United States Hotel
Location
DistrictSouthland District
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationMount Tennyson
 • elevation1,538 metres (5,046 ft)
Mouth 
 • location
Mataura River
 • elevation
240 metres (790 ft)
Length23 kilometres (14 mi)

The Nokomai River (or Rokomai River) is a river in New Zealand, officially named on 1 January 1931.[1] It rises on Mount Tennyson and flows south-westerly into the Mataura River.[2] The valley was known for its gold rushes. In 1901 113 people lived in the valley.[3] By 1956 the population was down to 17.[4]

A small part of Nokomai patterned mire is in the Nokomai catchment.[5] It is part of a relatively unmodified wetland on several square kilometres of the southern Garvie Mountains.[6] It is possibly the largest such area in Australasia and is dominated by grasses, sedges and mosses, with shallow pools, small islands and clumps of low vegetation. The mire drains north via Roaring Lion Creek to the Nevis River, and south via Dome Burn to the Waikaia River.[7] Cardamine bilobata (bittercress), Neomyrtus pedunculata (rōhutu) and Veronica rigidula (hebe) are Nationally Critical species growing in the area.[8]

Geology

The mountains around the valley are mostly undifferentiated volcaniclastic sandstone and siltstone of the Caples terrane, dating from Permian-Triassic times, around 250 years ago.[9] The valley is aligned with the Nevis-Cardrona Fault System, which has resulted in pumpellyite-actinolite, schist-like facies. The rock has been eroded to produce a Quaternary alluvium in the valley, which increases to a depth of 35 m (115 ft) in the lower valley. It is likely some gold came from local hydrothermal sources and some was placed in the valley by the Wakatipu glacier, during its Quaternary advances.[10]

History

The Nokomai valley was part of the land acquired by the Crown under the 1848 Kemp’s Deed (over 20,000,000 acres (81,000 km2) for £2,000)[11] and 1853 Murihiku (6,900,000 acres (28,000 km2) for £2,600)[12] purchases.[13] The 1998 Ngāi Tahu Settlement redressed some of the injustices.[14]

Donald Angus Cameron (1835-1918)[15] left Scotland in 1854, worked at Penola,[16] sailed from Melbourne to Dunedin in 1859,[17] took his sheep to the Nokomai valley that[18] and the following year[19] and named it after Glenfalloch (hidden glen), near his Inverness birthplace.[20] Glenfalloch station was sold to Frank Hall,[21] or Hore in 1950,[22] with whose family it remains, as a sheep and beef station[23] of 33,184 ha (82,000 acres), on a high country pastoral lease, which extends into the Nevis valley to the north.[13]

Gold

Store at Nokomai River in 1903

Victoria Gully, an eastern tributary of Nokomai,[24] had its first gold rush when 6 Victorian miners, including James Lamb, discovered alluvial gold in 1862 and named it after their place of origin.[25] It was one of the smaller gold fields, producing 1,984 oz (56.2 kg) in 1862,[26] though a government report in 1865 said it had more than justified expectations.[27] Charles Sew Hoy and his family mined the valley from January 1894.[28] Sew Hoy built two aqueducts to the valley. The 47 km (29 mi) race from Roaring Lion Creek in the Garvie mountains, to the north, took 3 years to cut.[29] Since 2014 it has had Roaring Lion walking and mountain-biking track alongside it from Garston, which includes Mud Hut and Slate Hut.[30] In 1932 The Nokomai Gold Mining Coy Ltd was floated, with capital of over £60,000 and a 150 ton, 50 ft (15 m)-high, dragline excavator was assembled.[31] It was found unsuitable and was last used on 12 April 1934.[32] The mine closed in February 1943.[33] The dredge was sold for use in the Avon River / Ōtākaro[34] and its generator for the Fraser River, both in 1948.[35] Gold was mined again from 1991.[36]

Cinnabar, almandine, magnetite, spessartine, and grossular garnets also occur in the valley.[36]

Township

A 1924 report claimed that during the gold rushes Nokomai township had over 2,000 people, but by 1924 Glenfalloch's stone homestead stood alone. In the 1870s there was a wide main street, with Thomas Aiton’s Myall Hotel,[20] Thomas Whitaker's Provincial Hotel (c.1862-76)[37][38] and Job Coulam's United States Hotel (burnt down in 1888).[39] As well as running a store and hotel, Thomas Aiton was also secretary of a gold mining company wound up in 1874.[40] After a petition to the Education Board,[41] on 31 October 1870, a school for 50 children opened.[20] In 1922 it had 9 students.[42] The school seems to have closed between 1938[43] and 1943,[44] attendance still being recorded in 1934.[45] However, the 1924 report said it had closed and its bell moved to Athol school. The teacher, Henry Thurston Evans, set up the Nokomai Weekly Herald,[20] which was hand-written on 4 pages of small post folio.[46] It lasted a year from 11 November 1871.[47]

Nokomai railway station in 1964

Railway station

About 8 mi (13 km) from the Nokomai valley,[20] was a flag station named Nokomai, on the Kingston branch railway.[3] It was west of the Slate Range, in the Mataura valley,[48] 72 mi 74 ch (117.4 km) from Invercargill, opened about July 1881 and closed to passengers on 4 October 1937 and completely on 25 November 1979.[49] It had a shelter shed on a platform with a cart approach.[50] A siding was added in 1895.[51] The station was 298 m (978 ft) above sea level, 7.81 km (4.85 mi) north of Athol and 2.47 km (1.53 mi) south of Garston.[52] The site is now on the Around the mountains cycle trail.[53]

See also

References

"Place name detail: Nokomai River". New Zealand Gazetteer. New Zealand Geographic Board. Retrieved 12 July 2009.

  1. ↑ "Nokomai River". gazetteer.linz.govt.nz. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  2. ↑ "Nokomai, Southland". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Nokomai Siding". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  4. ↑ "1956 Census". statsnz.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  5. ↑ "Mount Tennyson, Southland". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  6. ↑ "DOC wants to seek international recognition for Taieri Scroll Plain". www.doc.govt.nz. 6 August 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  7. ↑ A. F. Mark , P. N. Johnson , K. J. M. Dickinson & M. S. McGlone (March 1995). "Southern hemisphere patterned mires, with emphasis on southern New Zealand". Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 25: 23–54. doi:10.1080/03014223.1995.9517481.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ "Nokomai EA (NOK)". New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. 1989. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  9. ↑ "Geology of the Wakatipu area : scale 1:250,000 Digital Download". GNS Online Shop. 2000. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  10. ↑ John H. Youngson , Paul Wopereis , Luke C. Kerr & Dave Craw (2002). "Au‐Ag‐Hg and Au‐Ag alloys in Nokomai and Nevis valley placers, northern Southland and Central Otago, New Zealand, and their implications for placer‐source relationships". New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 45: 53–69. doi:10.1080/00288306.2002.9514959.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ "Kemp's Purchase". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. 1891. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  12. ↑ "The Murihiku Block". nzetc.victoria.ac.nz. 1891. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  13. 1 2 "Crown Pastoral Land Tenure Review NOKOMAI STATION Lease PS 076" (PDF). July 2009.
  14. ↑ "Ngai Tahu Settlement". The Beehive. 13 October 1998. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  15. ↑ "OBITUARY. Otago Witness". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 8 January 1919. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  16. ↑ Wellington City Libraries : Camerons of the Glen : the story of the Camerons of Glenfalloch Station, Nokomai, Central Otago by Offwood, Donald. 2008. ISBN 978-0-473-13955-1.
  17. ↑ "Shipping News. Otago Witness". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 6 August 1859. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  18. ↑ "Otago Witness". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 26 November 1859. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  19. ↑ "Otago Witness". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 7 July 1860. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 "PURPLE PATCHES IN NOKOMAI HISTORY. Otago Witness". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 11 November 1924. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  21. ↑ "GLENFALLOCH STATION Otago Daily Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 18 October 1950. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  22. ↑ "SLIP BLOCKS ROAD, RIVER". The Press. 24 January 1966. Retrieved 24 July 2023 – via Papers Past.
  23. ↑ "The Station". Nokomai Station. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  24. ↑ "Victoria Gully, Southland". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  25. ↑ "THE NOKOMAI DIGGINGS. Otago Daily Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 8 September 1862. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
  26. ↑ "COMMERCIAL. Lyttelton Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 20 May 1863. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  27. ↑ "FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE OTAGO GOLD FIELDS". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 1865. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  28. ↑ The Press [Christchurch] 20 March 1933, page 12
  29. ↑ "Roaring lion, hidden gold". New Zealand Geographic. April 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  30. ↑ McLeod, Hannah (8 December 2014). "Blazing a trail in the south". Stuff. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  31. ↑ New Zealand Herald, 18 March 1933, page 8
  32. ↑ "FUTURE OF NOKOMAI Otago Daily Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 19 June 1934. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  33. ↑ "MINES STATEMENT BY THE HON. P. C. WEBB, MINISTER OF MINES". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 1944. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  34. ↑ "NOKOMAI DREDGE AT WORK. Press". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 22 July 1948. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  35. ↑ "POWER WILL BE GENERATED BY FRASER RIVER HYDROELECTRIC PLANT THIS WEEK Otago Daily Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 16 December 1948. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  36. 1 2 "Nokomai Valley". mindat.org.
  37. ↑ "Southland Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 16 March 1874. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  38. ↑ "Southland Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 14 July 1876. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  39. ↑ "NOKOMAI MINING NOTES ETC. Mataura Ensign". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 2 November 1888. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  40. ↑ "Otago Daily Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 9 September 1874. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  41. ↑ "EDUCATION BOARD. Otago Witness". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 27 August 1870. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  42. ↑ "EDUCATION: PRIMARY". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 1922. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  43. ↑ "Lake Wakatip Mail". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 4 October 1938. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  44. ↑ "Otago Daily Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 11 September 1943. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  45. ↑ "EDUCATION BOARD Southland Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 24 November 1934. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  46. ↑ "Lake Wakatip Mail". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 20 December 1871. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  47. ↑ "EARLY JOURNAL Southland Times". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 2 June 1933. Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  48. ↑ "1:63360 map Sheet: SD14-16-22-23-30". www.mapspast.org.nz. 1894. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  49. ↑ "Stations - NZR Rolling Stock Lists". 20 October 2020. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  50. ↑ Scoble, Juliet. "Station Archive". Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand.
  51. ↑ "REPORTS BY THE ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF AND MR. C. NAPIER BELL ON THE CONDITION OF THE OPENED RAILWAYS". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 1895. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  52. ↑ New Zealand Railway and Tramway Atlas (First ed.). Quail Map Co. 1965. p. 29.
  53. ↑ "Nokomai, Southland". NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 29 July 2023.

45°33′S 168°39′E / 45.550°S 168.650°E / -45.550; 168.650

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