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ALBUM - Kopara sawmill . late 1960's.
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Location (city or town)Kopara Organisation (eg business) Kopara sawmillEventDisused sawmill
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Category TagForestry
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Date Created2nd March 2025CommentsElinor Tibbles
Joanne Swaine that was well before 89. After the mill closed it was black powder property, after that a commune, and after that glorivale bought it. We bought the hotel in 80 and the mill was still going then but sold not long after that to black powder army people. We sold the hotel in 94 and glorivale had owned it sometime round then. Clem Egan would be able to tell you as he was farming in the Kopara then as was Willie Coates.
Val Paterson
I don't believe that is Kopara the road didn't run past the front of huts when my parents owned the farm adjacent & that was as late as the mid 1970s
John Patrick Ward
Val Paterson I was always hanging out with Napp on his tractor or in the shearing shed I can even remember him letting me drive his tractor on my own when I was 4 it was in low range and he said any gear and I would have to stand on the clutch to engage a gear , awesome memories and not forgetting the old grey mare which I used to coax him/her to the shearing shed stairs so I could hop on and ride bare back and no reigns , living the best life
Colin McKinney
That’s right Arnie, called in again a while ago and drove into Gloriavale for a looksee, was quietly watched and followed out the gate… but of a giggle. One thing we noticed none of their vehicles were registered?? No number plates on them
Neil Burrell
I remember coming over with the Pioneer motorcycle club at show weekend, no earlier than 76 and we stayed at the mill and it was our base, my first thought was kopara
Nicky Kenny
Looks very much like Kopara village.
Dean Hetherington
Looks like the old mill up Karamea way
Jude Norman
Dean Hetherington
Definitely not Karamea
Raeleen Sara
Dean Hetherington that's what I thought even before I read the post
Bob Broadhurst
Not Kopara, it was still working when I first seen it around '76, and for a few years after that into the 80's
Brian Thomas
Bob Broadhurst it is the kopara village and mill
Bob Broadhurst
Ah yip, well the date of late 60's must be wrong on the pic, because it was still milling in 76 as i said, and it don't look like that mill would turn out timber
And the huts don't look right
The Kopara school was still going in the late 70's
EDIT: just done a google, and it says mill closed 1974, so it must have been the early 70's I can remember it going
Haha I can remember spotlighting deer so close to the mill, that we were worried about some irate sawmiller rocking up while we were retrieving them
And I don't remember there being a hill right in behind the huts, but I could be wrong
Elinor Tibbles
Gaylene Wallace can you confirm if it's Kopara, to me that's what I remember it as in Black Powder days.
Gaylene Wallace
Elinor Tibbles it is part of the Kopara Village
Elinor Tibbles
Gaylene Wallace thanks Gaylene.
Alan Smith
Cool place it’s now a black power gun club
John Patrick Ward
If the date is accurate to the photos it’s definitely not the Kopara and I don’t even recognise those huts as the same ones Lou and lorry lived in
Olwyn Witton
Kopara Village/ sawmill
Sure looks like it to me. And I lived there for about fifteen years. Very changed now though. A lot of renovation since the early nineties.
Kelvin Mahuika
I agree Donaldson's I worked at the kopara a as a teenager doesn't look like it to me also worked at Donaldson's looks more like. them
Jude Norman
Koparara sawmill 1956. Photo taken from the book Silent Land by .Les Cleveland.
May be an image of lumberyard and text
Craig Jarden
could be donaldsons at deadmans near ngahere
Johannes Debreuk
I have got a video of the mill in action! So cool
Craig Cunniffe
I thought Kopara didn't close untill the early 80s?
Chris Bensemann
I can remember this place. Kopara Sawmill just past Lake Haupiri. I was doing live capture possum TB monitoring for FRI . NZFS 1977. On the hills where Gloriavale is.
Diane Mary Rossman
Looks like kopara village. Past Nelson creek
Wendy Donald
Sorry wee bit off track but is there anything remaining from the Stratford and Blair sawmill. I know it’s a long shot but looking for any family history clues before I travel to the coast in search of my family history.
Jim Munden
looks like haupri
Barbara Fitzsimmons
Kopara .
Craig Smith
Kopara. About Nicki Thain
I've partied there back n the day
Joanne Swaine that was well before 89. After the mill closed it was black powder property, after that a commune, and after that glorivale bought it. We bought the hotel in 80 and the mill was still going then but sold not long after that to black powder army people. We sold the hotel in 94 and glorivale had owned it sometime round then. Clem Egan would be able to tell you as he was farming in the Kopara then as was Willie Coates.
Val Paterson
I don't believe that is Kopara the road didn't run past the front of huts when my parents owned the farm adjacent & that was as late as the mid 1970s
John Patrick Ward
Val Paterson I was always hanging out with Napp on his tractor or in the shearing shed I can even remember him letting me drive his tractor on my own when I was 4 it was in low range and he said any gear and I would have to stand on the clutch to engage a gear , awesome memories and not forgetting the old grey mare which I used to coax him/her to the shearing shed stairs so I could hop on and ride bare back and no reigns , living the best life
Colin McKinney
That’s right Arnie, called in again a while ago and drove into Gloriavale for a looksee, was quietly watched and followed out the gate… but of a giggle. One thing we noticed none of their vehicles were registered?? No number plates on them
Neil Burrell
I remember coming over with the Pioneer motorcycle club at show weekend, no earlier than 76 and we stayed at the mill and it was our base, my first thought was kopara
Nicky Kenny
Looks very much like Kopara village.
Dean Hetherington
Looks like the old mill up Karamea way
Jude Norman
Dean Hetherington
Definitely not Karamea
Raeleen Sara
Dean Hetherington that's what I thought even before I read the post
Bob Broadhurst
Not Kopara, it was still working when I first seen it around '76, and for a few years after that into the 80's
Brian Thomas
Bob Broadhurst it is the kopara village and mill
Bob Broadhurst
Ah yip, well the date of late 60's must be wrong on the pic, because it was still milling in 76 as i said, and it don't look like that mill would turn out timber
And the huts don't look right
The Kopara school was still going in the late 70's
EDIT: just done a google, and it says mill closed 1974, so it must have been the early 70's I can remember it going
Haha I can remember spotlighting deer so close to the mill, that we were worried about some irate sawmiller rocking up while we were retrieving them
And I don't remember there being a hill right in behind the huts, but I could be wrong
Elinor Tibbles
Gaylene Wallace can you confirm if it's Kopara, to me that's what I remember it as in Black Powder days.
Gaylene Wallace
Elinor Tibbles it is part of the Kopara Village
Elinor Tibbles
Gaylene Wallace thanks Gaylene.
Alan Smith
Cool place it’s now a black power gun club
John Patrick Ward
If the date is accurate to the photos it’s definitely not the Kopara and I don’t even recognise those huts as the same ones Lou and lorry lived in
Olwyn Witton
Kopara Village/ sawmill
Sure looks like it to me. And I lived there for about fifteen years. Very changed now though. A lot of renovation since the early nineties.
Kelvin Mahuika
I agree Donaldson's I worked at the kopara a as a teenager doesn't look like it to me also worked at Donaldson's looks more like. them
Jude Norman
Koparara sawmill 1956. Photo taken from the book Silent Land by .Les Cleveland.
May be an image of lumberyard and text
Craig Jarden
could be donaldsons at deadmans near ngahere
Johannes Debreuk
I have got a video of the mill in action! So cool
Craig Cunniffe
I thought Kopara didn't close untill the early 80s?
Chris Bensemann
I can remember this place. Kopara Sawmill just past Lake Haupiri. I was doing live capture possum TB monitoring for FRI . NZFS 1977. On the hills where Gloriavale is.
Diane Mary Rossman
Looks like kopara village. Past Nelson creek
Wendy Donald
Sorry wee bit off track but is there anything remaining from the Stratford and Blair sawmill. I know it’s a long shot but looking for any family history clues before I travel to the coast in search of my family history.
Jim Munden
looks like haupri
Barbara Fitzsimmons
Kopara .
Craig Smith
Kopara. About Nicki Thain
I've partied there back n the day
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West Coast New Zealand History (8th Mar 2025). ALBUM - Kopara sawmill . late 1960's. . In Website West Coast New Zealand History. Retrieved 20th Mar 2025 18:33, from https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/34553