, Legend Heading
LegendHeading
Open Ground · Goldsborough & the West Coast, South Island, NZ

The Public Fossicking Areas of the West Coast

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

◆ Evidence tier: Tradition19 free goldfields · no permit – present◎ Recently discovered — still growing

The Story

What is claimed · what is sourced · what is still disputed

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.

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

The lure: Alluvial gold from the rivers of the 1860s rushes

Evidence & Corroboration

Distinct evidence classes that independently agree — never a single score

Historical tradition
Newspaper mention
Scholarly support
Archival evidence
Official map/chart
Corroborated
Verified fact

? Open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

Historic Maps

Period cartography · Library of Congress & DPLA via IIIF · deep-zoom

◇ No period cartography on file yet. The IIIF map adapters (Library of Congress, David Rumsey, DPLA) fill this automatically when they find charts of this place.

Period Newspaper Coverage

Dated OCR mentions · Chronicling America / loc.gov — a mention proves circulation, nothing more

◇ No dated newspaper coverage yet. Chronicling America runs against this legend automatically and lands dated clips here.

Archival Documents

Manuscripts, government records, company filings · NARA · IIIF · registries

◇ No archival documents on file yet. NARA and national-archive adapters attach primary records here as they surface.

Timeline

Every event source-backed · unsourced events are dropped, never invented

◇ No dated, source-backed events yet. Timeline entries are built only from evidence with a confirmed date -- nothing is estimated or invented.

Sources & Citations

Typed, first-class citations with retrieval provenance

◇ No typed citations compiled yet -- check Historic Maps, Newspapers, and Archives above as they fill in.

From the archive

← Back to the Map