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Archaeological Remains of
New Zealand's Historic Industries

What is industrial archaeology?

Trypots behind the beach at Te Awaiti whaling station, Tory Channel. Picture: Nigel Prickett, DoC

From the earliest days of European contact with New Zealand there have been historic industries. Initially industry was based offshore but with growing European settlements people began to produce goods for their own needs, to trade and for export. These early industries ranged in size from small backyard operations to large scale businesses.

Coppermine pumphouse ruins Kawau Island. Picture: Tim Smith, DoC

Industrial archaeology is the field of study that examines the physical remains of these and other industries. Archaeological studies can trace technological change and innovation through time and give insights into New Zealand's past, development and way of life. There is a wide variety of historic industrial archaeological sites in New Zealand.

The industries described in this brochure are just some of the industries that survive as part of our archaeological heritage. There are other types of industrial archaeological sites such as shipyards, flax and flour mills, factories, roads and railways.

Different types of historic industrial archaeological sites

Sealing and whaling

Cutting the blubber off a whale on Mohaka Beach, 1860 Alfred J Cooper. Picture: Alexander Turnbull Library a-235-010*

Two of the very first European industries were sealing and whaling. Sealing and whaling sites are part of a wider network stretching across Australia and the Pacific. Most sealing gangs were not based permanently in New Zealand, but came to our offshore islands to harvest seals. There are very few archaeological sites relating to sealing activities. Whalers, however, required more elaborate and extensive onshore stations. There are sixty-one shore-based whaling station sites surviving in New Zealand. Remnants of the equipment used to process the whales, such as tryworks and pots, huts and house foundations, chimneys, whale bones and sometimes the graves of early whalers can still be seen in some places.

Gum digging

Gum digging was a major industry in Northland and Auckland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The gum is the resin of the kauri tree and lies in the soils after dropping from a living tree or after a fallen tree decays. People dug up the gum for export overseas, where it was used to make varnishes for furniture and linoleum for flooring. he demand ceased following the development of synthetic substitutes. Archaeological remains of their camps and diggings still survive in many places, although the industry itself no longer exists.

Metal and coal mining

Brunner, West Coast of South Island, 1910. Picture: Alexander Turnbull Library 1/2-091-702*

Some of the largest industrial archaeological sites in New Zealand are the remains of mining for metal ore and coal. Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf was the site of one of New Zealand's first major mining efforts, running from 1844 to 1855, to extract manganese and copper. Remnants of some of the original structures still stand including the smelting house, pump-house and chimney. Coal mining remains are especially widespread on the west coast of the South Island.

Gold mining

Gold mine tailings, Cromwell Reserve. Picture: NZHPT

Archaeological gold mining sites in the Coromandel, South Island West Coast and in Central Otago show the changing technology from simple manual methods to large-scale steam and water powered machinery. Gold mining took two main forms: alluvial mining from river gravels, and hard rock mining where the gold was mined from seams beneath the ground. Hard rock mining requires complex machinery to mine, crush and chemically treat the rock to extract the gold. Hard rock mining is still carried out today. Archaeological remains of gold mining include the alluvial gold-fields marked by tailings, working faces, water races and miners' huts and camps, and remnants of hard rock mining such as stamper batteries, shafts, cable and railways, and cyanide tanks.

Timber extraction and milling

Timber extraction and milling were significant early industries, initially fuelled by the export trade in timber for ship's spars and building materials and later the domestic market. There are archaeological remains of the early equipment and technology used for harvesting and transporting trees, such as tramways, kauri driving dams, and pits and sawmills for processing the timber.

Brick-making

Kiln inside ceramics factory between 1880-1920. Steffano F Webb Picture: Alexander Turnbull Library 1/1-019-529*

Brick-making was an important domestic industry. The archaeological remains of kilns used for ring bricks can still be found in some places. Building with brick also requires mortar, and several early lime kilns used to make mortar have also survived. There are also archaeological remains of early cement works, for example on Limestone Island in Northland.

Farming

New Zealand's farming industry has also left behind archaeological traces of its early history. Old woolsheds, yards, sheep dips, rabbit-proof fences and other fence lines are part of the historic landscape in rural areas.

* Photo: Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand / Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

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