Prohibition Mine at Waiuta Historic Reserve: 13 November 2021

Deepest mine shaft in New Zealand...Prohibition Mine

The last thing I did before leaving Waiuta was drive up to the Prohibition Mine shaft atop a hill close to Wauita. You get to the mine along Prohibition Road which starts next to the Waiuta information kiosk on Top Road. Prohibition Mine features the deepest mine shaft in New Zealand at 879 meters and the third deepest in the Southern hemisphere...

Prohibition Road runs past the Waiuta Information Kiosk

Map: Historic Waiuta including Prohibition Mine

Prohibition Road is a gravel road and it winds up the side of the hills to the start of the Big River Track and to the carpark at the Prohibition Mine site. It is a lot rougher than the main roads around Waiuta but the Silver Surfer made it up there so most cars should be good to go. Be careful driving up the road as it is winding, narrow and has a deep ditch either side of the road bed. 

Prohibition Road running up to Prohibition Mine

Start of the Big River Track at Waiuta

There is a sizeable carpark at the top of Prohibition Road where you can leave your car and go exploring amongst the ruins. Prohibition Mine was dug in the mid 1930's to access the top parts of the quartz reef at Waiuta. There was a mine shaft here, an aerial cableway to transport quartz down the hills and later a mill which crushed the rock and recovered the gold. 

Silver Surfer parked at the Prohibition Mine shaft, Waiuta

There are great views from up near the mine north to Victoria Forest Park and the Paparoas but much of it was covered with low cloud on the day I was visiting. There was intermittent rain the whole time I was on site and I had to stand under the trees a couple of times as showers went past. I would probably have spent more time at the mine if it was not so wet. 

View north from the Prohibition Mine site, Waiuta

Prohibition Mine shaft was the deepest in New Zealand and reached down for 879 meters. The last 300 meters of the shaft were below sea level which gives you an idea of just how deep it really was. The massive quartz vein ran down from the top of the hill to deep underground and when the mine closed in 1951 it still had 40% of its reserves left to mine. 

Old mining equipment at the Prohibition Mine, Waiuta

The main buildings near the old shaft top were the electricity generating room, offices and a set of worker showers for when the miners came out of the shaft at days end. The mine workers could use a truck service to get the 1.8 kilometers back down to Waiuta or they could walk back down to the town on a track specifically built for the purpose. 

Prohibition Mine information panel...

Prohibition Mine shaft is now encased in a meters thick concrete cap over the portal for the mine as there was some thought of eventually re opening the mine sometime. There used to be a 25 meter high poppet head over the shaft but this along with many of the old buildings have been removed over the years. Prohibition shaft is still there as it was the nearby Blackwater shaft used for ventilation and pumping water which collapse suddenly in mid 1951. 

The Prohibition Mine shaft is under this concrete cap...

There is some kind of underground fluid level room here the use of which I could not really understand but the signs next to the buildings explain it all. Basically they increased or decreased the fluid level in this space to change the electrical charge of the generators. 

The mine was quite a sophisticated enterprise and would have required engineers, metalsmiths, carpenters, boiler makers and fitters and turners to keep it in operation. 

Inside the pumping room at the old Prohibition Mine, Waiuta

...hydraulic fluid was pumped into the mill from here...

The upper parts of the many buildings at Prohibition Mine have been removed but there is still a lot of old mine relics left to explore including some of the flywheels from the elevator system, boilers, mine buckets and sections of the old aerial cableway down to Waiuta. 

Spindle wheels from the mine winding gear at Prohibition Mine, Waiuta

You also have the foundations of the buildings to give you an idea of the scale and complexity of the infrastructure need to run a mine even in the 1930's. There are a series of very informative panels near the poppet head...have a read of them as they give a lot of context to the ruins you are walking about. 

Overview of the Prohibition Mine, Waiuta

Map of the underground quartz reef at Waiuta

Prohibition Mine information panel, Waiuta

Next to the shaft buildings is the old site office where the mine manager and his various clerks and foremen worked. The building is gone...all that remains are the old chimney foundations, some stairs, building piles and an old lock room where the extracted gold and wage money was stored. 

The old Prohibition Mine office foundations

Chimney from the old office at Prohibition Mine, Waiuta

The old office safe at the Prohibition Mine

From the Prohibition Mine shaft you can walk over to the old site of the quartz crushing mill built in 1938 to replace the outdated Snowy River Stamper Battery.

Looking down on Prohibition Mill from the track

 The mill used state of the art technology to separate the gold from the quartz using a series of methods including crushing, heating, filtration and chemical suspension. What was left was a highly toxic amalgam of zinc/arsenic/gold which was heated and turned into gold ingots. 

Site of the Prohibition Mill at Waiuta

Prohibition Mill: the foundations remain.....

This whole process could be controlled by as little as four men making it infinitely more productive and far less expensive. The mill never ran at full capacity as by the time it was built the amount of gold in the quartz had started to diminish. When the mine closed in 1951 all this equipment was sold, dismantled and taken to new gold mines in the North Island. 

The Prohibition Mill was a large enterprise...

There is a fenced off chemical dump near Prohibition Mill, Waiuta

When the Prohibition shaft was first dug the quartz ore was brought to the surface and transported by aerial cableway down the hills to the Snowy Battery where it was crushed and processed to recover the gold. Eventually when the mine was deep enough a horizontal tunnel was dug so the ore could go direct to the crusher plant. 

Parts of the aerial cableway still exist around the site and the path cut through the forest is very evident even 85 years later...

Looking down on Wauita Lodge from the Prohibition Mill

There was an aerial cableway from Prohibition Mill to Waiuta

In 1951 the Blackwater shaft unexpectedly collapsed and as it was used for ventilation and to clear flood water the whole mine quickly became unusable. The mine might have closed anyway as the yield from the quartz ore had started to diminish but there was an expectation at the time that the mine still had 5-10 years of life. It must have been a real shock to those who called Waiuta home...

Looking south from near Prohibition Mill

From the Prohibition Mill I headed back around to the car and started my journey home. I stopped on the way out of town at the kiosk at the entrance to Waiuta.  This is the place where the old aerial cableway once crossed the valley enroute to the Snowy River Stamper Battery. It is a fascinating site and well worth the time if you ever find yourself at Waiuta.

Prohibition Mill was on the hill center right...

If you have never visited Waiuta then you should put it on your to do list...you can easily spent 1-2 days just in the town walking the many tracks. For the more adventurous walk into Big River Hut and then spend a day at Waiuta exploring the area. Stay a night in Waiuta Lodge in between...it is a great base of operations.

I hope to return to Waiuta Lodge in the near future...

That is the last of my posts about Waiuta...next week I am walking the Heaphy Track so look out for some posts about that trip...

Access: From Reefton head south for 21 kilometers along SH 7 towards Greymouth. Turn onto Waiuta Road at Hukarere and follow Waiuta Road to the lodge. Prohibition Mine shaft is at the top of the winding gravel Prohibition Road 

Hut Details: Waiuta Lodge: Serviced, 24 bunks, wood burner, electric lights/heating/cooking, water from aquifer, wood shed, toilet/shower block

Miscellaneous: On the DOC hut booking system, must be booked for overnight visit. Close to the historic mining town of Waiuta. The Waiuta Road is a winding, narrow gravel road take care at all times.