A 100-year-old gold miner’s cottage at Waiuta will be opened in March after a $100,000 restoration by the Department of Conservation.
The West Coast cottage was the home of pioneering “selfie” photographer Jos Divis (1885-1967), who is the subject of a documentary Jos — The Forgotten Photographer Who Saved a Town, released in March.
The tiny wooden cottage lay abandoned for decades after Divis’ death and is one of the few buildings remaining in the ghost town of Waiuta, about a 36km drive south from Reefton.
But the small wooden cottage is a key fixture and one of the few buildings intact from the heyday of the ghost town of Waiuta, which was abandoned in 1951 due to the sudden closure of the area’s gold mine.
The Czech-born immigrant who came to New Zealand’s West Coast seeking a personal fortune, but instead captured a community – both with his friendly demeanour and photography skills.
There is a book on Joes Photos called “Through The Eyers Of A Miner”. I have a copy but can’t lay my hands on it. He always had himself in the background of his photos. Selfies for sure. Excellent quality & records from back in the day & how it was. Like they say, a picture tells a thousand words.
