Kuaotunu’s Lower Township around 1900. The Royal Hotel is
front centre, along the Kuaotunu River, while the larger
two-storey Kuaotunu Hotel is shown above.
Back in the far valley is seen the school, the church (pointed
roof ) and some mining areas of the Mid and Upper Townships.
~ Photograph by Alexander McKay
BOOM!
BUSTLE !
BU S T !
T
he isolated valley of Kuaotunu, with its
sandy north facing beach front, did not
historically develop to the degree of
other Coromandel areas. The simple reason
was it did not offer a deep water harbour
for safe mooring to unload supplies and
equipment or export heavy kauri spars. There
was to the west, however, the Whangapoua
saw mill and wharves, which at one time was
one of the largest mills on the Coromandel.
There are not many compelling clues to Maori
settlements in the area either – a few signs of
forifications perhaps, and the word “kuaotunu”.
There are many differing opinions on the
meaning – ‘to inspire fear in young animals’,
‘roasted young’ – perhaps referring to the
feasting upon the plentiful eels or mutton birds
caught on the Great Barrier Island.
ALL’S QUIET ... UNTIL GOLD!!!
That isolation all changed when gold was
first discovered in the area, with traces of
the precious metal found around 1880 in the
Waitaia Creek. Most prospectors were more
obsessed with proven mining deposits in
the Thames and Coromandel areas which
peaked from 1868 to 1871. Official figures for
production of the Thames Mines recorded a
yield of 2,327,619 oz bullion with the value at
$845 million.
Author/historian R. A. Simpson (known as Alf)
reports in his book,
This is Kuaotunu
, the
more sensational find that happened in 1889
on what was to become known as the ‘Try
Fluke’, a reef (quartz vein) on the Bald Spur a
mile from the Waitaia Creek area. It was Maori
Charles Kawhine, “known locally as Coffin,”
who gave the area its name. Prospectors saw
him working away and called out to him “what
ya doing, Coffin?”
“Oh, Try Fluke,” was his reply. Or what they
thought they heard him say. Some think he was
just saying “tryin’ luck”, but the name stuck.
This outcropping was at an elevation of 650
feet, two-plus miles south of Kuaotunu Beach,
and about eight miles from bustling Mercury
Bay. When word got out of Kawhine’s rich find,
prospectors flooded into the area by horse
track or flat beach landing, staking their claims.
About the same time another gold prospector,
Alex Peebles, discovered his claim nearby. He
later managed two mines, the Great Mercury
and the Red Mercury. Peebles is also known for
bringing cyanide processing for the extraction
of gold from the pounded quartz ore slurry.
Before cyanide, mercury was used for the same
purpose; the cyanide allowed more of the gold
and silver to be recovered (about 90% of the
gold and half the silver) from the pulverized
quartz. When this was adopted on a large
scale, mines that were formerly not worth the
effort, now paid off handsomely.
The steep cliffs of the spur made tunnel-in
mining relatively easy. The mines and their
stamping batteries had colorful names:
Try
Fluke, Carbine, Mariposa, John Bull, Great
