Lyell.

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DescriptionLyell is the site of a historic gold mining town in the Buller Gorge in the South Island of New Zealand. It lies on State Highway 6, 18 km northeast of Inangahua.
Lyell was named by the geologist Julius von Haast after the British geologist Charles Lyell, a friend of Sir George Grey, whose writings had influenced Charles Darwin.

The gold rush in Lyell began in 1862 when Māori prospectors found gold in Lyell Creek, a tributary of the Buller River. In 1869 two Italian miners, Antonio Zala and Giorgio Zanetti, discovered gold in quartz veins in the Lyell Creek area. The mine in this quartz reef was worked from 1872 until 1912. Gold in quartz reefs was successfully mined in only two places on the West Coast: Lyell and Reefton.

The settlement grew quickly with a population of about 100 in 1863, despite the area being inaccessible, difficult to work and prone to flooding. In the 1870s Lyell had a main street, Cliff St, with banks, newspaper offices and hotels. The population grew to more than 2000 in the late 1880s. By 1901 the population was 90 with 40 children at the school and in 1905 the Alpine Extended Gold Mining Co Ltd still employed 60 people.

Local newspapers were published during the height of settlement: the Lyell Argus and Matakitaki Advertiser from 1873 to 1882 and the Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette from 1881 to 1898. The newspaper office and other buildings in Cliff St were destroyed by a fire in 1896.PhotographerTyree BrothersMap^[1]External LinkWikiContributorHeather Newby

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Location (city or town)Lyell

Category Information

Category TagGoldmining

From Facebook

CommentsGlenn Johnston
I'm not sure it is entirely correct to say that gold from quartz on the West Coast was only mined successfully at Lyell and Reefton. For that to be true Boatmans/Waiuta/Blackwater/Big River area and Alexander River would have to be classed as being Reefton and some less important successes discounted. Some Buller and Westland quartz mines were profitable for brief periods! In the long run all mines are depleted. Various iterations of quartz mines on the back of Mt Greenland at Ross worked for many years and some dividends were paid. Though it wasn't a particularly profitable the Greenland field provided wages for employees and income for contractors plus a lowish level of dividends. The Britannia mine in Buller was a dividend payer with that Waimangaroa field also being worked off and on over many years.
Caroline Crann
Mum and Dad (Charlie & Freda Hinton) lived there for a

Rhonda Glasson
I am so fascinated by this place tooHenri Aarsen
Make a stroll trough the bush and visit the old grave yard .

Jim Staton
Same applies to the Croesus mines

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Lyell.

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