Blacks Point Museum is a museum in

Blacks Point Blacks Point is a locality near Reefton on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Blacks Point is located south-west of Reefton on State Highway 7 (New Zealand), State Highway 7 adjacent to the Inangahua River. The settlement is one ...

, near

Reefton Reefton is a small town in the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast region of New Zealand, approximately northeast of Greymouth, New Zealand, Greymouth, in the Inangahua River valley. Ahaura is south-west of Reefton, Inangahua Junction is to ...

on the West Coast of the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

of New Zealand.

Building

The museum building is a former Methodist/Wesleyan church, which was built from pit-sawn timber in 1876 and led as a non-denominational church by a Methodist minister. The church formerly overlooked the town, but 1912 it was moved back and rotated 90° on its section. As the population of Blacks Point declined, worship shifted to Reefton, and the church closed in 1960. The church building was sold to the community for the purposes of a museum, and Blacks Point Museum opened on 1 October 1966. The building was extended in 1976, and the working Golden Fleece stamper installed in the 1980s. In 2008, a $135,000 purpose-built archive and research room was added. In 2009, a display building and lean-to was constructed, and in 2013 the museum building was re-roofed. The exterior of the museum hosts a mural by cinematographer and local resident

Alun Bollinger Alun Robert Bollinger (born 1948) is a New Zealand cinematographer, who has worked on several Peter Jackson films, and many other films in New Zealand. He has also been a Director of Photography, including the second unit for Peter Jackson's tril ...

Collection

The museum contains a collection of memorabilia relating to life in a mining town in New Zealand, including records from the school, the cemetery, genealogical material, a historical photograph collection, town directories, and a range of mining paraphernalia. Next to the museum the still-functional Golden Fleece Battery, which was used by prospectors to crush quartz to extract gold. The battery is a water-driven stamper battery built and used in the 1870s.

References

{{Reflist History museums in New Zealand Buildings and structures in the West Coast Region Mining in New Zealand Reefton Churches completed in 1876 Former churches in New Zealand Methodism in New Zealand 1870s churches in New Zealand Wooden churches in New Zealand