Menu
Aerial over Karoro Abattoir on Shelley Street. May 1951.
Expand/collapse
About this image
DescriptionAerial over Karoro abattoir on Shelley Street. May 1951Date of Photo1953Map[1] ContributorJade De Goldi
Shown in this image
Location (city or town)GreymouthLandmark (Place)Felix Campbell StreetChesterfield StreetHamilton TerraceOrganisation (eg business)Karoro abattoir abattoir EventAriel over Karoro abattoir on Shelley Street. May 1951
Category Information
Category Tagaerial
From Facebook
Date Created17th July 2021CommentsKaren Potter
Remember riding horses round there. It smelt so bad.
Susan Barlow
I remember my father using the gut of a sheep that he had killed (for us to eat) to attract eels so that he could kill them as well ... for us to eat. He used to hook it onto a log ... MAN! There were some big eels that came to "investigate". It gives me the willies now when I think that we, as kids, used to swim nearly every day during the summer in that same "hole" that the eels came from.
Geoffrey King
Heather Newby wouldn't have a clue me thinks before my time just out of nappies hadn't ventured that far. lol
Brian McIntyre
I wonder if it was a stone crusher
Michael James Keating
Laura Mills Detlaff wasn't it the manager's house . could be the one that was rebuilt by the boy of Williams. Was at the end of Hamilton terrace?
Sandra Arnott
Houses!
Sandra Arnott
I remember sneaking down to ride horse called danger!,
Ian Murch
I remember it well, used to go there often as a child and help push the sheep in
Brian McIntyre
Ive no idea sorry Laura Mills Detlaff
Jim Webber
I think the neatly fenced paddock opposite became the bowling club, and the cleared ground in the top left corner looks like the playing fields at the High School Hostel.
Percy Billett
Use to wagg school & watch them slaughter the animals. The pipe line going out to sea was a good place to catch snapper.
Neil Williams
I was standing in the front of our house in Preston rd when a sheep came running down Preston rd and straight into our back yard. It stayed there till we found where it came from and someone from the abattoirs came and got it.
Roger Howell
Can’t see the outfall pipe?
Heather Newby
i think the stone crusher is at the bottom right of the photo
Peter Forrest
Just a thought, are we sure this is 1951? We moved into our place in Hamilton Tce around 1956/57 and I’m sure it wasn’t new. Also there are NO houses built behind at all in this photo and when I started school (58), there were a lot.
Diane Baird
Our house second in top right. Can remember the houses being built in the paddock opposite.
Doug Sail
that must be the start of the Karoro Bowling Club across the road and I think that was established in the 1930s..
Heather Newby
Author
Admin
Doug Sail yes.. i think we have a photo of that
Des Kennedy
Kotuku Surf Lifesaving Club use to do our dry land training with belt and reel in that paddock on a Saturday morning in the early 1960s.
Bill Garth
Wasn't Mr Binnie the manager or the abaittor and they lived on the corner of Nelson st and Main road
Brian Beban
The narrowing paddock top L is the end of the grassed area of the Old People's Home, part of Grey Hospital. The large paddock, top R was developed by the mid 50's as a new housing area.Bill Garth
Amazing photo. There doesn't appear to have and beach nearby. Looks like a cliff
Wayne Leckie
Loaded many a body of beef on the old open deck morris truck to take to high street butchery when I worked for Charlie James . Great memories.
Anne Mcmillan Miller
Wayne Leckie Remember u workin there when len and i lived in a little cottage just along from butcher shop
Wayne Leckie
Anne Mcmillan Miller yes I remember you living there also
Corinne Ord
Wayne Leckie I remember those days ,you were just a little fellow lol,
John Kelly
Remember wading around in the "guts" room as a kid and watching them killing with John Nolan I think . I remember the horse called danger.. not for me to ride. Think my brother got throw off him/ her.
Graham Schaef
A tin of blood from the Abattoir taken by Boys (not Girls) to Sawyers Creek, poured into the water to attract Eels!!
Colin Skates
can see karoro bowling green in the background but no runway for the aerodrome
Bill Garth
Amazing photo. There doesn't appear to have and beach nearby. Looks like a cliff
Sandra Arnott
Bill Garth no near beach!
Reply21h
Wayne Leckie
Loaded many a body of beef on the old open deck morris truck to take to high street butchery when I worked for Charlie James . Great memories.
Reply2d
Anne Mcmillan Miller
Wayne Leckie Remember u workin there when len and i lived in a little cottage just along from butcher shop
Wayne Leckie
Anne Mcmillan Miller yes I remember you living there also
Corinne Ord
Wayne Leckie I remember those days ,you were just a little fellow lol,
John Kelly
Remember wading around in the "guts" room as a kid and watching them killing with John Nolan I think . I remember the horse called danger.. not for me to ride. Think my brother got throw off him/ her.
Sandra Arnott
John Kelly we used to go catch him and ride around paddock he was loverly!
Karen Potter
John Kelly is this John Kelly from Ida st greymouth?
Graham Schaef
A tin of blood from the Abattoir taken by Boys (not Girls) to Sawyers Creek, poured into the water to attract Eels!!
Colin Skates
can see karoro bowling green in the background but no runway for the aerodrome
Sandra Arnott
Colin Skates it was shorter way back!
Colin Skates
For sure and the photo shows by how much
Ken Tomlinson
Carted cattle in there late sixties
Annie Van Looy
We used to play in the guts room to as kids, kinda gross really, but didn't think anything of it, and the smell was... Well not nice
Noel Marie Batty
I remember as a kid during the school holidays going there and standing on the side of the cattle crate as they spiked the cattle, pulled a lever and the beast rolled out to be processed. No OSH rules those days.
Irene Quy Merv Pascoe
The stuff we used to do as kids and think nothing of it
Ken Tomlinson
Used to cart a lot of cattle into there.
=
Bill Garth
Celtic Rugby used to train on the paddock of the Archery
Rosealie Robinson
I was not aware of that.
Malcolm Howell
Great photo. I am surprised at the photo date. I would have thought earlier than 1951-53. For example Shelly Street has virtually No Housing. The old Stone Crusher plant can be seen lower right. It was a substantial structure. The Karoro Beach was all "stones" in those days. Archery Club Pavillion on the field in middle of photo which bordered the outfall drain from the Abbatoir. No camping ground then or houses on the ridge of Hamilton Terrace.
Tony Western
Malcolm Howell I concur with you as had 2 mates live virtually opposite abattoir and there houses weren't new from memory.
Spent a lot of time in the abattoir, it was never locked and was just part of our playground, the workers would get us working by stamping carcasses.
In the seventies was used as a dog pound, would not get away with conditions today and the constant barking during the day and I would assume would continue thru the night, the days when few complained and just got on with life.
Malcolm Howell
Tony Western - Yes the Abattoir was like a 2nd home to us as kids. The Binnie Bros were the Meat Inspectors and in charge in those early 50's days.
Remember riding horses round there. It smelt so bad.
Susan Barlow
I remember my father using the gut of a sheep that he had killed (for us to eat) to attract eels so that he could kill them as well ... for us to eat. He used to hook it onto a log ... MAN! There were some big eels that came to "investigate". It gives me the willies now when I think that we, as kids, used to swim nearly every day during the summer in that same "hole" that the eels came from.
Geoffrey King
Heather Newby wouldn't have a clue me thinks before my time just out of nappies hadn't ventured that far. lol
Brian McIntyre
I wonder if it was a stone crusher
Michael James Keating
Laura Mills Detlaff wasn't it the manager's house . could be the one that was rebuilt by the boy of Williams. Was at the end of Hamilton terrace?
Sandra Arnott
Houses!
Sandra Arnott
I remember sneaking down to ride horse called danger!,
Ian Murch
I remember it well, used to go there often as a child and help push the sheep in
Brian McIntyre
Ive no idea sorry Laura Mills Detlaff
Jim Webber
I think the neatly fenced paddock opposite became the bowling club, and the cleared ground in the top left corner looks like the playing fields at the High School Hostel.
Percy Billett
Use to wagg school & watch them slaughter the animals. The pipe line going out to sea was a good place to catch snapper.
Neil Williams
I was standing in the front of our house in Preston rd when a sheep came running down Preston rd and straight into our back yard. It stayed there till we found where it came from and someone from the abattoirs came and got it.
Roger Howell
Can’t see the outfall pipe?
Heather Newby
i think the stone crusher is at the bottom right of the photo
Peter Forrest
Just a thought, are we sure this is 1951? We moved into our place in Hamilton Tce around 1956/57 and I’m sure it wasn’t new. Also there are NO houses built behind at all in this photo and when I started school (58), there were a lot.
Diane Baird
Our house second in top right. Can remember the houses being built in the paddock opposite.
Doug Sail
that must be the start of the Karoro Bowling Club across the road and I think that was established in the 1930s..
Heather Newby
Author
Admin
Doug Sail yes.. i think we have a photo of that
Des Kennedy
Kotuku Surf Lifesaving Club use to do our dry land training with belt and reel in that paddock on a Saturday morning in the early 1960s.
Bill Garth
Wasn't Mr Binnie the manager or the abaittor and they lived on the corner of Nelson st and Main road
Brian Beban
The narrowing paddock top L is the end of the grassed area of the Old People's Home, part of Grey Hospital. The large paddock, top R was developed by the mid 50's as a new housing area.Bill Garth
Amazing photo. There doesn't appear to have and beach nearby. Looks like a cliff
Wayne Leckie
Loaded many a body of beef on the old open deck morris truck to take to high street butchery when I worked for Charlie James . Great memories.
Anne Mcmillan Miller
Wayne Leckie Remember u workin there when len and i lived in a little cottage just along from butcher shop
Wayne Leckie
Anne Mcmillan Miller yes I remember you living there also
Corinne Ord
Wayne Leckie I remember those days ,you were just a little fellow lol,
John Kelly
Remember wading around in the "guts" room as a kid and watching them killing with John Nolan I think . I remember the horse called danger.. not for me to ride. Think my brother got throw off him/ her.
Graham Schaef
A tin of blood from the Abattoir taken by Boys (not Girls) to Sawyers Creek, poured into the water to attract Eels!!
Colin Skates
can see karoro bowling green in the background but no runway for the aerodrome
Bill Garth
Amazing photo. There doesn't appear to have and beach nearby. Looks like a cliff
Sandra Arnott
Bill Garth no near beach!
Reply21h
Wayne Leckie
Loaded many a body of beef on the old open deck morris truck to take to high street butchery when I worked for Charlie James . Great memories.
Reply2d
Anne Mcmillan Miller
Wayne Leckie Remember u workin there when len and i lived in a little cottage just along from butcher shop
Wayne Leckie
Anne Mcmillan Miller yes I remember you living there also
Corinne Ord
Wayne Leckie I remember those days ,you were just a little fellow lol,
John Kelly
Remember wading around in the "guts" room as a kid and watching them killing with John Nolan I think . I remember the horse called danger.. not for me to ride. Think my brother got throw off him/ her.
Sandra Arnott
John Kelly we used to go catch him and ride around paddock he was loverly!
Karen Potter
John Kelly is this John Kelly from Ida st greymouth?
Graham Schaef
A tin of blood from the Abattoir taken by Boys (not Girls) to Sawyers Creek, poured into the water to attract Eels!!
Colin Skates
can see karoro bowling green in the background but no runway for the aerodrome
Sandra Arnott
Colin Skates it was shorter way back!
Colin Skates
For sure and the photo shows by how much
Ken Tomlinson
Carted cattle in there late sixties
Annie Van Looy
We used to play in the guts room to as kids, kinda gross really, but didn't think anything of it, and the smell was... Well not nice
Noel Marie Batty
I remember as a kid during the school holidays going there and standing on the side of the cattle crate as they spiked the cattle, pulled a lever and the beast rolled out to be processed. No OSH rules those days.
Irene Quy Merv Pascoe
The stuff we used to do as kids and think nothing of it
Ken Tomlinson
Used to cart a lot of cattle into there.
=
Bill Garth
Celtic Rugby used to train on the paddock of the Archery
Rosealie Robinson
I was not aware of that.
Malcolm Howell
Great photo. I am surprised at the photo date. I would have thought earlier than 1951-53. For example Shelly Street has virtually No Housing. The old Stone Crusher plant can be seen lower right. It was a substantial structure. The Karoro Beach was all "stones" in those days. Archery Club Pavillion on the field in middle of photo which bordered the outfall drain from the Abbatoir. No camping ground then or houses on the ridge of Hamilton Terrace.
Tony Western
Malcolm Howell I concur with you as had 2 mates live virtually opposite abattoir and there houses weren't new from memory.
Spent a lot of time in the abattoir, it was never locked and was just part of our playground, the workers would get us working by stamping carcasses.
In the seventies was used as a dog pound, would not get away with conditions today and the constant barking during the day and I would assume would continue thru the night, the days when few complained and just got on with life.
Malcolm Howell
Tony Western - Yes the Abattoir was like a 2nd home to us as kids. The Binnie Bros were the Meat Inspectors and in charge in those early 50's days.
Editing is temporarily disabled
Cancel EditClick on the image to add
a tag or press ESC to cancel
a tag or press ESC to cancel
West Coast New Zealand History (22nd Nov 2025). Aerial over Karoro Abattoir on Shelley Street. May 1951.. In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 9th Apr 2026 21:28, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/29657