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Open Ground · Open ground

The Public Fossicking Areas of the West Coast

19 free goldfields · no permit, Goldsborough & the West Coast, South Island, NZ
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Public Fossicking Areas of the West Coast: still unexplained.

Alluvial gold from the rivers of the 1860s rushes

The law of this ground: DOC public fossicking areas, free, no permit; non-motorised hand tools, active streambed only.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
Alluvial gold from the rivers of the 1860s rushes
The account

New Zealand set aside nineteen stretches of its old goldfields where anyone may fossick free, no permit, no fee, nine of them on the wild West Coast. At Goldsborough the diggings of 1865 are now a quiet bush valley where the creek still runs colour. Hand tools, the active streambed, and whatever gold your pan keeps: the law asks nothing else of you.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Alluvial gold from the rivers of the 1860s rushes. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Goldsborough & the West Coast, South Island, NZ. DOC public fossicking areas, free, no permit; non-motorised hand tools, active streambed only.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • What you can keep: Alluvial gold from the rivers of the 1860s rushes. Confirm the site's current rules and any day fee before you go.
  • Where: Goldsborough & the West Coast, South Island, NZ. DOC public fossicking areas, free, no permit; non-motorised hand tools, active streambed only.
  • Best practice: record anything notable, leave the ground as you found it, and check the latest access notices before you travel.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position -42.680°, 171.070° (approx.) View on the Map