MARTHA MINE PIT |
GOLD MINERS: courtesy Pictures.Nowl |
2000.Hello and welcome to my 'WAIHI POEMS ', my name is Grace Blomfield and I have lived in WAIHI MARTHA GOLD MINE TOWN for 35 years, I have grown to love this very unique little mining town of WAIHI over the years and been totally entranced by its colourful local mining history..I have explored the mining sites around Waihi, Karangahake and Waikino, and have been in awe of our hardy pioneer families who worked this country side, building roads , bridges, opening up the Karangahake Gorge, taming this rugged land and working the many mines dotted around this area....We in Waihi are very worried now at the present mining licences, being granted which are slowly but surely destroying what little mining heritage we have left, our world famous Cornish Pumphouse is under threat from the present Mining Company.The bottom line is GOLD, they want it and it's all around the town of WAIHI, through glib talking and publications, licences are granted , golden handshakes given along the line, and our town is slowing being eaten away.......but good news to date, Aucklanders getting away from the rat-race have bought into Waihi, so many previously rundown properties have been purchased and done up, and this is so good for the town, the furore over the mining appears to have taken a back seat for the moment there are some of my recollections written in 1985/86, a very humble tribute to our hardy gutsy forebears, I salute them all.... these are my own copyright poems, I have 60 copyright POEMS online at POETRY .COM, under HELENA BLOMFIELD, if you wish to use any of my work.....,please email me first..thank you. enjoy the site and please sign guest book |
2000.Hello and welcome to my 'WAIHI POEMS ', my name is Grace Blomfield and I have lived in WAIHI MARTHA GOLD MINE TOWN for 35 years, I have grown to love this very unique little mining town of WAIHI over the years and been totally entranced by its colourful local mining history..I have explored the mining sites around Waihi, Karangahake and Waikino, and have been in awe of our hardy pioneer families who worked this country side, building roads , bridges, opening up the Karangahake Gorge, taming this rugged land and working the many mines dotted around this area....We in Waihi are very worried now at the present mining licences, being granted which are slowly but surely destroying what little mining heritage we have left, our world famous Cornish Pumphouse is under threat from the present Mining Company.The bottom line is GOLD, they want it and it's all around the town of WAIHI, through glib talking and publications, licences are granted , golden handshakes given along the line, and our town is slowing being eaten away.......but good news to date, Aucklanders getting away from the rat-race have bought into Waihi, so many previously rundown properties have been purchased and done up, and this is so good for the town, the furore over the mining appears to have taken a back seat for the moment there are some of my recollections written in 1985/86, a very humble tribute to our hardy gutsy forebears, I salute them all.... these are my own copyright poems, I have 60 copyright POEMS online at POETRY .COM, under HELENA BLOMFIELD, if you wish to use any of my work.....,please email me first..thank you. enjoy the site and please sign guest book |
A TALL TAIL OF TAILINGS-1984 |
Big rocks, small rocks, and smaller than small, what can we do with the stuff? no one wants it at all! We can't dump it on the land the towns folk will go mad we can't shove the dratted stuff out to sea they'll say that's just as bad! Perhaps we can pile it up make another mountain grow? and if we do it in the dead of night no one will ever know! Or maybe ship it to the Japs now they're a clever race it could boost our overseas deficent and really save our face! The learned men of WAIHI, they thought they had a plan, it looked okay on bits of paper but now they're back where they began! These conservationists really are a pain! They'll always will have their say, for we only want to wreck the place but they won't let us have our way! Now we have just got to get that GOLD out! so if anyone had an idea of where to dump half a hill we would dearly love to hear! copyright H G Blomfield 2007 |
RAPE OF MARTHA-1984 |
Sprawled content, arrayed in Nature's cloth, a sleepy town, on a sleeping Hill, enclosed in dreamtime.... Deep beneath the streets, tunnels, tombs of long still waters, enclose the curse of MIDAS. Water oozes, glistening over putty coloured clay, seeking safety in the cold stygian depths..... Uneasy stir the shades of miners gone. Oldtimers shake their heads, reflecting memories of harsh days and harsher deeds., when blood stained gold.... Alas Martha, your quiet repose is once more shattered as drills knife the air with splintered sound and greedy MAN scrabbles to some primordial lust in search of El dorado, Gone is the dreamtime of Nature's lullaby and green tranquillity'... the dollar rules the day.... copyright H G Blomfield 2007l |
THE GOLDFIELDS TRAIN. 1984. |
In days of yore those stalwart men , they built a railway track, with pickaxe, shovel and sweat of brow , they tamed the KARANGAHAKE, Where the rains come down and the mist enshrouds, and pungas weep from the ridge... As mining boomed, WAIKINO AND KARANGAHAKE grew, they had butcher and baker and candlestick maker, and plenty of pubs there too! But no longer beats the stamper battery, FatherTime has erazed the lot, those mining towns have nigh disappeared, into Natures melting pot! Hark to the crack of the raw-hide whip, to the whistle of a ghostly train, to the creak of the bullock pulled wagons, they'll never be seen again! So they pulled up the old lines, they closed the tunnel lined with brick, trust not those politicans, they'll never miss a trick! Now restored at the Waihi Station, the Goldfields Train stands polished bright, eagerly she awaits her loyal crew, she's certainly a lovely sight, But a couple miles out from the station, it's almost the end of the story, for there's no more track for the Goldfields Train to show off her former glory! But in the dead of night, when the world's asleep, she rides a ghostly trail, with steam and smoke billowing wide, and her whistle a silent wail, a phantom soundlessly gliding, along a fern draped shiny track, once more the Goldfields Train steams up the old Karangahake, Where the rains come down, and the mist enshrouds, and pungas weep from the ridge..... copyright H.G.Blomfield 2007 |
THE OLD MINER'S SHACK..1985 |
Leaning into Time, a corrugated iron skeleton, a patchwork of rust and worm-eaten wood, forged and beaten by sun, frost and rain, bowing reluctantly under the entwining weight of an aged grape vine... The chimneys long gone, the soft mellowed bricks plundered for a garden path, there was glass in the window once, now a dark blank hole gapes, but every building has a soul she still sees thru the neatly manicured lawns the pig fern and sooty manuka scrub of long ago, she listens to her Miner coughing, the lethal dust corroding his lungs, as he curses the rain-sodden black hills of Ohinemuri.. We found those bottles too, green, blue and pearly clear, cough mixture, schnapps and chickory.. shes caught in Limbo now, just flotsam in Time, betwixt centuries, dreaming the Midas dreams of yesteryear, all dead history now, soon she will mingle with the fabric of nostalgia, woven into Eternity, just memories and dust...... copyright H G BLOMFIELD 2007 |
WAIHI STRIKE. |
WHEN IS A HILL NOT A HILL? |
Lament for Waikino ....1983 |
Gone are the little shops, down by the river, we once wandered through with curious delight... The old leather shop hung with ancient bridles and musty mementoes of the pioneer days. The beautiful handcrafted woodwork, silver and turquoise jewellery, hanging gleaming, in the gloom, a maiden fair, her smile of coloured leather set forever in polished wood... Past the little Post Office, toy-town facade, here hand made clothes to delight, fantasy in confectionery, a rainbow splash of pottery, inspiration in clay.... back to the Bakery, fresh scones and cream, country style..... Sit and listen to the gentle river, chattering of long ago..... Cruel river, soon to destroy and obliterate in one night of fury wiped as clean as a slate the little shops gone forever... one lone survivor hugs the bank, reprieved, the Waikino Pub..... copyright H.G.BLOMFIELD 2007 |
The shockingly disasterous WAIKINO FLOOD..WAIKINO HOTEL to the left of picture....and to far right the WAIKINO HALL. |
MARTIAN ODYSSEY |
GOLD MINERS: courtesy Pictures.Nowl |
Cornish Poppet Head. |
MARTHA MINE PIT |
COLVILLE'S DILLEMA! 1984 |
They have called in the constabulary to sanction the dastardly deed! They want to wreck our peaceful valley, for the GOLD they think they need! We had a little skirmish with some mining personnel, now we vehemently wish that they would go to Timbucktu! You would think your home is your castle, but in that you're sadly mistaken, for they'll sign a document offically, and from you it can be taken! We only want to live in Peace, in our beautiful bush clad valley, but these mining bods have news for you, wake up Coromandel and rally! It's a funny thing with these mining companies, they'll swear they're NZ grown, but you can bet your bottom dollar mate, the Mother Company's USA owned! So who has taken the JUDAS CROWN, and sold New Zealand up the creek? for thirty pieces of silver, or maybe several million sheep? Once we were a land of clean & green our mountains pierced the cloud, Our epitaph may one day read, "Land of the Long Dust Shroud" copyright H G BLOMFIELD 2007 |
ALL POEMS PUBLISHED IN USA- AND 60 POEMS ONLINE AT POETRY.COM |
MINER EVANS, KILLED IN THE BLOODY WAIHI MINERS STRIKE! |
2008 I have since shifted from Waihi, disilusioned by what is happening regarding the mining, the disregard for people etc., MONEY is the GOD!! The old WAIHI as I once knew it has nigh on disappeared and a sanitized cloned Waihi is rising in its place, a place of illusion, most countries keep their heritage but here we pull it down and raise up something sterile and souless, on my last trip a couple weeks ago I see now the OLD HISTORIC WAIHI CINIEMA THEATRE as been pulled down, where will it stop?, next to go would be the football field and its old grandstand building I would hazard a guess........Oh and yes now the Historical Cornish Pumphouse (only one in NZ) has been moved at the cost of nearly 4 million $ aha I hear you say, yes indeed shows what lengths they will go to to get the gold out of them thar hills pardner! Rosemount Rd was once a pleasure to walk or drive down, historic postoffice historic shops, all gone into the gaping maw of so called progress....... |
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BALLAD OF THE WAIHI STRIKE.... Bolt the door my lassie, and pull the shutters down the miners are out on strike tonight there'll be a rough time in the town, they're in the streets to protest, their grievances loud and clear and all the turncoat lackeys will be a trembling there with fear The company's large and powerful, we sweat to earn a crumb they've bled us miners dry my lass and the day of reckonings come! Bolt the door my lassie the mobs are out tonight, the companys bought in the Bluecoats the boys are spoiling for a fight! Just look around our township aye, its not so very grand so where has all that wealth gone? its very hard to understand the largest mine in the Southern hemisphere but there's nothing here to show they've shipped it overseas my lassie while we sweat our guts out below! Lets not forget who died today, who died a martyr's death whether he was right or wrong a legacy hes left and its the same old principal lass the same now as then, to stand up and be counted! to stand as honest men! So mourn not at a Martyrs grave, weep not for his sad demise, this fight is for the living the fight for human rights! And thus as in days of old it shall always be, the right of every man, to live with dignity....... copyright H G BLOMFIELD2008d your text. |
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