The Greenstone - Historic Goldmining Settlement - Deceased.

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DescriptionGreenstone has a resident ghost. The miner who never made it back home. The solitary Chinese miner suffered from leprosy with its telltale disfiguring scars. He was shunned by the community and forced to live in a lone cabin. He was barred from crossing the Taramakau bridge to Kumara and lived on food scraps left by locals. His death was miserable and he was cremated in his final resting place. His life, his shelter became a pile of ashes.

Greenstone with its shabby timber framed shacks, pop up tented pubs and earthen streets has physically disappeared. The instant town was the result of payable gold discovered in Greenstone Creek, tributary of Taramakau River in 1864. Chinese miners, along with the cosmopolitan band of prospectors quickly followed. Chinese miners were forced to live on the outskirts of the settlement in the area now known as Greenstone Red, at the northern end past the Kumara Cemetery.
Built on the Greenstone Creek bed - the police camp was built on the terrace above. Pretty wild place in its day - until a flood came down the creek and washed it away.

From West Coast Ghosts, Cemeteries and Quirky personalities.Map^[1]External LinkWest Coast GhostsContributorNZ Jane

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Location (city or town)GreenstoneEventThe Greenstone - Historic Goldmining Settlement - Deceased.

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CommentsBrent Ammon
The above tale seems a little confused - Chinese Miners working at The Greenstone would not have resided in the outskirts of Kumara, 7 kilometres away in rugged bushland, accessible only on foot or by horse. The Chinese of The Greenstone were kept at bay, but camped upstream of where the old Town was situated. In the Flood that took the original Township - the Chinese encampment was washed away, approximately 80 lives gone in a flash...

The Police were in fact situated in the original Town on the riverbed - the issue that arose was in times of heavy rain, the river rose, and the tent town opposite, where The Greenstone now is situated, got a bit wild and woolly with the Constabulary unable to ford the river! After the flood, the Town was re-established where the canvastown had stood, and a gaol built there, near where the Cemetery exists.
May be an image of tree and nature

James Piner
There was just ask James Neame

Monica Harvey
How sad to be treated that way

Bryan Fitzgerald
In Kumara the Chinese lived down the bottom end of Greenstone Road ,opposite the old Kumara Hospital next to the Tram Shed and Managers House ,you can still see Bamboo near the old site(Chinatown)

Bryan Fitzgerald
They did not live up near the Cemetery

Bryan Fitzgerald
Brett Ammon you are very much correct

Bryan Fitzgerald
I have a ledger from Greenstones Old Shop with all the Chinese names recorded in it

Bryan Fitzgerald
The shop was Keech and Molloy ,Greenstone

Bryan Fitzgerald
Later moved the Business to Kumara

Phyllis Aberhart
Thanks for sharing. About 20 years ago I found the cemetery, and had a look round the general area

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The Greenstone - Historic Goldmining Settlement - Deceased.

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