A parade to mark Shantytown 10th anniversary.1981.

About this image

DescriptionThe idea of Shantytown arose out of a meeting in Greymouth in 1968, when a group of railway and vintage car enthusiasts discussed the possibility of forming a society for the car and preservation of such relics, and the creation of a tourist attraction.
Presenting at this meeting was the late A. L. Sutherland MBE, known to everyone as “Barney”. Barney was a watchmaker and jeweller, with an interest in gold panning as a tourist attraction. He was at the time involved in the Marsden Sluicing and Gold Company, a working gold claim, situated amid the splendour of native bush at Rutherglen (near the present site of Shantytown) and already attracting many visitors. Barney’s idea of re-creating an old West Coast town of the 19th century were presented to this meeting and accepted with enthusiasm. This led to the formation of the West Coast Historical and Mechanical Society.

The West Coast community rallied behind this venture and an amazing total of 10,367 work hours, over a period of eighteen months, were donated, along with goods and building supplies. Notable among these donations was the offer by the Minister of Mines, Tom Shand, to make available building materials and other equipment without charge, as the economy of the region was at a low ebb after the closure of the Dobson Mine. This donation helped to get Shantytown underway, with Shantytown officially opening on 23 January 1971.Shantytown is almost entirely self-supporting and receives no operational funding from central or local government.
From the Shantytown website( see external link below)Date of Photo1981Map^[1]External LinkShantytown HistoryContributorBruce Keddie

Shown in this image

Location (city or town)GreymouthLandmark (Place)ShantytownEvent A parade to mark Shantytown 10th anniversary.1981.

Category Information

Category TagCelebrations

From Facebook

Date Created23rd July 2020CommentsJohn Rosanowski
A terrific community project.
Daphne Mckay
Kevin Voigt
can remember when barney 1 st started it lot folks didnt think it would work
Pauline Burrows
A wonderful Place and Venue to Celebrate Weddings etc
Brian Hope
Saturday working bees when in Jaycees ( building the hotel).
Gypsy Rover
Been there many times a wonderful project
Graham Messenger
Spent a few Saturdays there working as an apprentice electrician - installed the lights in the church and wired some of the shops.
Heather Cullington
And I went to Opening Day. Such a great day out.
Tania Newman
Dad was a member of the Gem and Mineral club & I remember running around Shantytown as a kid whilst it was being built. Dad, Barry Gilbertson, still has items on exhibit in the G&M hall
Arlene Hutcheon
I've been there lots of times. In the home panning area, one of my grandparents has a mention, our family once owned a small Gold Claim at what was once Stafford.
Arlene Hutcheon
Gold panning area, sorry.

Shanty Town in on dads old bull paddock when he had a farm in Rutherglen, which he sold about 1951. He also kept 2 horses in the paddock
Roger Howell
Spent many a weekend here in the late 1950’s picking blackberries with Mum and Dad.
Suzanne Silvester
rutherglen
Alex McDougall
Dad and John Burford built parts of shanty town as members of the Greymouth Rotary Club. I think they built the Chinese Hut.

OCR Text Transcription Edit Edit +-Close

Editing is temporarily disabled

Cancel Edit

Start typing here to find a location	Latitude	Longitude	Zoom	Actions

loading google map....

Save Cancel

Menu

A parade to mark Shantytown 10th anniversary.1981.

Editing is temporarily disabled