Hut at the former township of Veronica, Mt Greenland, near Ross

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DescriptionThis derelict hut/shed is still standing in the scrub on the south side of Mt Greenland. The site was once the township of Veronica. It is associated with the quartz mining for gold of the "Cedar Creek Reefs" some of which were worked spasmodically from the early 1880's to the 1930's. The hut is partially lined inside with flattened kerosene tins & broken down wooden explosives boxes.

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Here is a close up of the wording on one of the explosive box bits used as interior lining. I like the warning "don't let the liquid escape in to a sewer or drain". Presume the boxes once held gelignite and any liquid coming off would be nitro glycerine?
PhotographerGlenn Johnston Last edited by: Glenn Johnston

Date of Photo1st January 2017Map^[1]ContributorGlenn Johnston

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Location (city or town)Mount GreenlandEventOld hut

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Category TagOld buildings

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LinkFacebookDate Created2017-04-18CommentsGlenn Johnston Here is a close up of the wording on one of the explosive box bits used as interior lining. I like the warning "don't let the liquid escape in to a sewer or drain". Presume the boxes once held gelignite and any liquid coming off would be nitro glycerine?
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Like · Reply · 2 · 8 hrs
Laura Mills Detlaff
Laura Mills Detlaff Nana Pop Detlaff
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Benjamin James Watchman
Benjamin James Watchman Yep...and if they got in a drain or sewer with meathain gas....
Like · Reply · 6 hrs
Les Holmes Germanicus
Les Holmes Germanicus It's amazing what a bit of a bracing up, plumbing, power on and a lick of paint could do for a great little doer-upper like this.
Like · Reply · 5 hrs
Glenn Johnston
Glenn Johnston Ha ha Les Holmes Germanicus do you think this one is too far gone to do up then? These are the remains in 2017 of the 1903 Westland County Council Hut near the top of Mt Greenland. It was still usable in the early-mid 1970's.
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Laura Mills Detlaff

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Terry Corkran
Terry Corkran Boy what a find never new it existed, somone must know who used it and when.
Like · Reply · 4 hrs
Danny Breeze
Danny Breeze Found the remains of a pocket watch in the doorway of this hut a few years ago, was an eerie feeling in there, then a fantail flew in there so I bugger off an left them too it
Like · Reply · 3 · 1 hr
Danny Breeze
Danny Breeze Just love it up mt Greenland look at it every day from my front yard
Like · Reply · 1 · 40 mins
Neil Ensor
Neil Ensor I know there was an old guy known as The Colonel who lived in the house where John Manera is now. Peter Derwood owned it between these two. Peter told me that the colonel had a hut on Mt Greenland where he stayed and gold mined/ prospected. This is possibly it.
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Terry Corkran
Terry Corkran Hi neil just wondering where he got the materials to build the hut and where did the explosive boxes from

Kev Rasmussen
There is still an old bulldozer up there as well up one of the old side roads.

Anarchist History of New Zealand
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Sure enough..
"The path up is an abandoned road that used to connect the small gold mining settlement of Veronica to the township of Ross. An article in the West Coast Times in 1888 records Veronica as a promising settlement, complete with a hotel and two stores. Even then, the road from Ross was apparently atrocious—other newspaper accounts from the 1880s colourfully describe knee- and waist-deep mud on the way to Veronica.
"The mine near Veronica was abandoned in 1940, and the rainforest has been reclaiming the road ever since"
Ref. https://robinneweiss.com/2021/05/
May 2021 – Robinne Weiss
ROBINNEWEISS.COM
May 2021 – Robinne Weiss
May 2021 – Robinne Weiss

Gavin Davy
Went in to Mnt Greenland several times years ago, from memory the old boarding house was still standing but I'd say it will have fallen down since. There was also a stamping battery still standing and in pretty good condition for it's age. I'm pretty sure there had been a company investigating reopening the mine about thirty years ago, it never went ahead, I can't remember if this was due to politics or economics. I'm guessing this is the same location?
4h
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Glenn Johnston
Gavin Davy. Yes. The boarding house was at Veronica and that site is fairly close to where I took the photo. When I first visited the area in the early 1970's the boarding was partially collapsed and has been fully collapsed a long time. In the 1960's a company looked at mining in the area and issued shares. They put a road in which was on top of the old pack track part of the way from Ross. In the 1980's Consolidated Mining had a look at at the area and built a hut at Veronica next door to the boarding house site.

Warren Thomson
In the late 1940's Philip May, my neighbour, (author of Ross Goldtown) used to run up to Mt Greenland and back (via the track that started alongside Jones Creek) as a part of his stamina training. He became Canterbury 880 and one mile champion early 1950's. When visiting Laurie Jones one afternoon in Ross about 50 years ago I ran from her place up the bulldozed track to Mt Greenland and back - a tick on my bucket list.

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Hut at the former township of Veronica, Mt Greenland, near Ross

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