Central & Western Archive - Murihiku Southland

01/06/2026

Annual Fundraising, thanks Lions Club! $3 Cafe is thanks Clifden Rural Women & Helen Todd!
CWA Community & Heritage Hub Archives is
OPEN this week, Tues-Thurs 1-4pm, Booksale 10-2 Friday & Saturday. Please drop your items off for Book Sale Galore at Pipe Band Hall from 10.30am on Weds & Thurs. Thanks everyone. Or call us for a pickup (local only sorry). Your generosity helps fund the CWA Community & Heritage Hub to preserve more district history.

NOTE: This year we have exciting collections on offer at our Book Sale Galore: Movie Stars memorabilia books thanks to Ted McDowell family, Pottery Craft books thanks to Margaret Thomas family, and some fabulous Art & Royal Prints ex the Grand Hotel in Invercargill. 😍🤩

Plus there's much more, as per poster below:

27/05/2026

OPEN 1-4, Tues to Fri Saturdays now on-call only. Goodness, what a busy time we've been having here! It's been non-stop, especially with most of our usual volunteers on a break for personal reasons, and others away as its cold and winter time. If YOU can help us with visitor hosting or any other volunteer jobs, please let us know. There are computer jobs or non-computer jobs. 🥰

This last week we have printed over 60 Display Posters for the new Railway 'The Station' Cafe opening next week (previously Boundary Creek General Store); we transferred 3 old VHS tapes of old historical video onto a USB for a local community member to take to family, copies of these files are now protected and safely stored. We have finished publishing a new book on Ohai for their Centenary (now taking pre-orders at $70 - it's a huge book!) and have now just received the final draft changes on another book of the McIntyre's Sawmilling operations which spanned from Orepuki, to Tūātapere, to Preservation Inlet! These projects help us fundraise to keep preserving district history.

We completed a research resource gathering mission of all the files in our Archives on the Acker family, and are about to start on on the Te Au family. It was quite surprising how many photographs and records we hold on most early families to settle in the districts we cover. We have also helped visitors with information on Port Craig, the Tūātapere township, Orepuki, Monowai and Papatotara. We have printed pamphlets, signs, forms and emails for the community, and we have also helped other non-profits with funding and administration. We are very happy with everything we have achieved for our community, but are also tired!

And we have many more similar tasks to still undertake as soon as we are able. We could really do with more volunteers right now, even for just the winter, if that's a quieter time for you. Can YOU help to research, or scan, or write an index? If you think you would like to be involved, please come and see us, be part of our friendly helpful team and we provide you with hot drinks, cookies and a fuel allowance if you meet the criteria. Then we have got the prep-work for our upcoming 'Ore In Orepuki' Display to get ready for, and we need the community's help to get that all happening. Don't forget to bring in your additions for our Orepuki display, this one is truly interactive.

Then next week we are setting up for our Annual Fundraising Book Sale Galore, where we receive donated books, games, art pieces, craft items and more, and sell these to raise funds to help with all the hidden costs to keep our CWA Community and Heritage Hub going for another year. It is all go, go, go around here, so if you have any hours to spare, please come down to the Lion's/Pipeband Hall on Weds/Thurs the 3rd/4th June from 10am, to help us out. Our Book Sale Galore starts at 10am on Hay Day, Friday 5th June, until 2pm, same on Saturday 6th. We have our $3 Cafe again too.

CWA Community & Heritage Hub Archives at:
48 Main Road, Tūātapere - next to the restored Railway Station. Open Hours this week: 1-4 Tues to Fri, Saturday on call. Open Hours next week, 1-4 Tues-Thurs, Fri/Sat (Booksale), 10am-2pm. Don't forget our FREE Wi-Fi, FREE Public use computers and FREE charging. We can also sort all your administration work too, emails, printing, scanning, creating, laminating, binding, stapling & copying + more. Android phone and computer/printer IT help as well.
Call us on: 027-2114675 or message this account to make contact, or you can email us on: [email protected]

23/05/2026

!
Reminder, Saturday openings are now On-Call only sorry, we are currently short of volunteers to do visitor greeting. Can you help?
If you wish to visit on Saturday, please just give us a call, as below:

We also have good news however, we have received part of our requested funding for the 'Ore in Orepuki' Display we planned for our 3rd Birthday in October 2026. So the show is going ahead, just reduced in capacity, unless anyone from Orepuki or related to the township can help us fund the shortfall. Details at this stage are:

A large town and district map of Orepuki and surrounds will be permanently fixed onto our wall at the CWA Heritage Hub, along with maps of the original Orepuki at Monkey Island, Garfield and Hirstfield (now known as Orepuki), plus the Longwoods Goldfields claims and Land Grant maps of Orepuki in its various forms as it moved around. On the walls around these. we are asking Orepuki residents of past and present, to come and attach memento's of the town and district, or to please send these in to us. Anything related is acceptable - photos, news snippets, small art or craft creations, small items or ephemera. We can also copy your photos and records and return originals to you if you would like. Our aim is to make this display as interactive as possible, so put your creative thinking caps on and bring us some awesome Ore in Orepuki items to display for this! Businesses, families, mining, schools, farms etc.

We will also be putting together a video of earlier days in Orepuki and surrounds, so are calling for people to send in a video clip of anything to do with this they would like featured, or we can visit you if you are in the area, and do the video for you. Kura/Schools and ākonga are also welcome to contribute to our kaupapa/project please get in touch. We'd also love help with identifying photos of Orepuki residents, buildings and district surrounds if you can help. The second most requested history at our CWArchives Heritage Hub is Orepuki! Whether that be gold or shale mining, the timber industry or the many businesses that supported these industries. It is also notable that when Tūātapere really opened up around 1910, most of the businesses there at this time, came up from Orepuki!

Alongside all this, we will be creating a model of the Shale Works, and hope that some other creative people might like to make or create something to do with the Gold Mining as well, hence the tagline of, "Ore in Orepuki". So if anyone at all can help with this, or could contribute photos or more info on these, please get in touch, or drop this off, thank you very much. And if you would like more information on what we are doing, or how you can help, please contact us on any of the ways listed below. We'd also love the Orepuki Community Promotions to be involved as well if possible, and we thank them for their support of our funding application. We also thank Creative Communities funding for the grant we received.

48 Main Road, Tūātapere, next door to the recently restored Railway Station (where you can park), Ph/Txt: 027-2114675 or Email: [email protected] or message this account.

20/05/2026

OPEN 1-4pm; it's the third Thursday so that means, Family History Group Day!! If you have a Family History or Whakapapa Research inquiry you'd like help with, come on down. We have an experienced genealogist/researcher. If you are just beginning and don't know where to start, we can help you out with that as well! You can also use our paid subscription records to research your Family Tree, so come on down. Bring your own laptop or use ours. We also have literally thousands of research records with finding aids, family files, plus a historical research library & other resources. $ Gold Coin donation please, includes cuppa and cookies.

We have a range of office equipment available too, so you can scan, copy, print, staple, bind or even laminate your material as you go. We do not charge for these services, they are by Koha. And we have a community kitchen, so you can bring lunch with you and store or heat it here.

Find us at 48 Main Road Tūātapere next to the Railway Station where you can park if you don't need the disability access parking out the front of our building. We have full wheelchair access and an adjustable height wheelchair table too. To contact us, Ph/Txt: 027-2114675, or email:
[email protected] or you can also message this account on Facebook.

We are currently OPEN 1-4pm Tues-Fri with our Saturday openings now on-call only, due to a current lack of volunteers available for duty. If you can help us out with this, we'd love to hear from you. We have need of visitor hosts as well as researchers, and many other jobs, some that don't require the use of computer skills!

Below are just some of the families that have been researched at our CWA Community & Heritage Hub facility since we opened in 2023. (Each families details are listed under photos.)

20/05/2026

We're starting to get ready for our Annual Book, Game & Craft Sale (with cafe) again! 10-2 on Hay Day - 5th June and the 6th as well (Saturday), make time to come and check out all the items on offer!

We have had some generous donations of books and other items again and if you have more to add to this to help us fundraise to keep the CWA Community & Heritage Hub open for another year, to help our community with FREE Wi-Fi, Power charging, Phone and Computer/Printer IT, Office tasks and Heritage information, along with Family History/Whakapapa Research, give us a call, text or email: [email protected] 027-211-4675 or flick us a DM on this account, to find out where and when to drop off any books and other items, or to arrange a pick up by us.

Once again we will be running our Community Cafe both days, with a Soup & Savoury or Cuppa & Cupcake for just $3, to help with the cost of living crisis being felt by many. So come and browse for some cheap reading/entertainment and eat/drink affordably at the same time, while supporting our CWA Community & Heritage Hub. Thanks to both the Tūātapere District Lions Charitable Trust for use of their hall and the Clifden Rural Women for catering for the Cafe, as well as our indomitable Helen Todd for agreeing to run the CWA Community kitchen at our Book Sale Galore once again, as well as being the master of scrumptious soup making, we thank you all, plus anyone donating books, craft materials, and time to help us.

We would also love some book helpers to set up on Weds/Thurs 3rd/4th June, as some of our main volunteers are away this year from health and family issues, so community help is most essential. Find us on these days at the Lions/Pipe Band Hall from 10am, we will provide hot drinks and some lunch for any helpers these days.

Usual hours for the CWArchive Community & Heritage Hub are:
1-4pm Tues-Fri open to Public, and Saturdays 1-4pm On-Call only.
OPEN 48 Main Rd, Tūātapere, next to the restored Railway Station.

18/05/2026

OPEN Tues-Fri from 1-4pm until 30 Sept, Saturdays On-Call only:

Four Years ago now, we created an Online Museum, to showcase our local district Community Archives. This was so successful, that the following year, we were kindly gifted a community building for a nominal sum, and after extensive work on this, opened up our CWA Community & Heritage Hub to the public! Thanks to initial grants from Meridian Energy Power Up Fund, and Community Trust South and initial plus ongoing funding from the Lotteries Grants Board and Tuatapere Humpridge Track alongwith great support from the Tuatapere Te Waewae Community Board we have grown so much. We now have a table and chairs, computers, laptops, free unlimited wi-fi, a very comfy couch and a height-adjustable disability access table. We aim to be an approachable, accessible and friendly place to research and find stories of the past from our district & surrounds, with an experienced researcher and archivist.

We now have over 555,000 digitially preserved images of local and district history stored safely for the future, and continue to work on the preservation of many more records, maps and photos from our districts past. We also have a huge amounts of research records, these are available at the Heritage Hub, for all sorts of projects - which have been used by Researching Professors, Uni Students, local clubs and societies, visitors with curiosity, book writers, locals with questions, and for Family History/Whakapapa Research - with our monthly workshops to help you search elusive family members, on the 3rd Thursday of the month, from 1-4pm, for a gold coin donation, including afternoon tea. Bring your laptop or use ours. We can also help you out where to start if you are just a beginner, please get in touch if you wish to attend, or just turn up on the day. Our DigiHub is also available to be booked by individuals/groups.

While working on getting more of our digitally preserved images into our Online Museum, we have lost some of our most amazing volunteers so now could really do with more volunteers who have computer skills, to help facilitate this. If you are at all interested, we can offer in-house or online training, and space to do this mahi/work at our Heritage Hub, or in your own home at your own pace. It is a widespread issue with volunteer groups, that older helpers pass or move on as health conditions become more commonplace. Please contact us as below if you would like to help out. Distance help positions would suit anyone with access to larger libraries and research records, or with an interest in the local and surrounding districts, with the ability to use a computer with wi-fi. To view the hundreds of entries we have online already, just click this link:
https://ehive.com/collections/202139/central-western-murihiku-southland-archive

With a number of our current volunteers taking time off due to family and personal needs at this time, it would also be great to have some more volunteers for our Heritage Hub during opening hours, which involves greeting the visitors (and offering to help them if they need anything - training given to people with the right skills), or you can just say hi and make drinks for those who would like them, and guide people to the resources available. We provide IT, computer, phone, practical and heritage support to those who need it, we have a large range of office equipment that the public can use, or we will use these for you, or even show you how to use them if you would like to learn, so if you would like to use or gain volunteer, work and social skills, please get in touch as below:
Ph/Txt: 027-2114675, message this F/book account or email us: [email protected] to learn more. We are also searching for a new Archives Librarian, someone who likes books and/or history, call in and see what this entails. Be part of our awesome, friendly and supportive small team of locals who gift their time as important volunteers to help the local community.

Find us at: 48 Main Rd, Tūātapere, next to the Railway Station, you can park there unless you need disability access at the front of our building. If you are coming to volunteer or do research, we have a fully functional community kitchen with a fridge, toaster, bench-top oven, sandwich press, microwave and hot jug and supplies, so you can feel free to bring food with you to heat and eat, and make use of the hot drinks and biscuits available. Our only rule is that you do not eat or drink with any original archives on the table. Thank you!

PUBLIC OPENING HOURS: Our CWA Archive - Community & Heritage Hub, is now open to the public as follows: Summer Hours (Oct-May) are Tues-Sat each week, 10am-4pm Note: except Stat Hols & Xmas break (check online to see our holiday hours/days) Winter Hours (June-Sept) are Tues-Fri each week from 1-4pm,...

13/05/2026

We have made the decision to go onto winter hours early this year, so 1-4pm Tues to Sat. We have a number of volunteers away currently, it's got cold and less people are visiting. We don't want to put too much pressure on our current Volunteers, so this seems like the best option. Our Saturdays remain "On-Call" currently too, so if you need to visit, give us a yell and we'll let you in. And if you've ever thought of doing volunteering and like to chat to people, or love local history, please come and see us or get in touch. We need more visitor hosts to welcome people, when others are away. If you live out of town, we can usually reimburse fuel costs.

Today we were fortunate to host these lovely Geography ākonga or students University of Otago undertaking study on the Waiau River. We were able to collate a large number of written texts, archives and photographs for them to peruse, which they found very helpful.

We have a great collection of archives from all over the town and district at CWA, including many not yet up online, for those of you who can visit in person. We are now also putting together files on all of our district history, so if you have any that you'd like preserved for the future, can you please consider sharing these with the CWArchives, both to keep them protected for future generations, and to help others in their search for past connections, or like these students, to help educate others.

You can find us at 48 Main Road, Tūātapere, next to the restored Railway Station, where you can park. Contact us on: 027-2114675, Email: [email protected] or on this account, if you wish to visit us outside of Public Opening Hours, if you wish to bring a group of people to visit, or if you want to use the DigiHub. We also appreciate if you can pre-arrange visits with us if you wish to do in-depth Family History or Whakapapa Research. Thank you.

12/05/2026

Apologies, volunteers are still recovering from being away sick so we're only OPEN 1-4pm (Weds-Fri), during this week (13-15 May). It would help if we had more visitor host volunteers to call on or to have on roster. If you are able to chat to people about local/district history, or even take messages, just give us a call, send us your details or pop in to see if you help out your community. We can also usually reimburse your fuel expenses if you live out of town.

Here are some awesome photographs of the first church in the township of Tūātapere, the Methodist chapel on Ōrawia Road. This served as a place to teach the towns children as well, until the new schoolhouse was opened in 1914. These photos came in on a large display board, gifted from history collected by our wonderful first Patron, the late Margaret Thomas, but we are not sure what they were made for. Perhaps they were at the 2006 Centennial? If you have any idea or have seen it somewhere, please let us know. To see the poster board photos and read more history, click the blue link here, or click on the photo below, to take you to the entry:
https://ehive.com/collections/202139/objects/2418087/tuatapere-history-first-township-church-methodist

We have a great collection of archives from all over the town and district at CWA, including many not yet up online, for those of you who can visit in person. We are also putting together files on all of the district Churches, especially as most families used to attend Church, and these buildings are important places in many Family Histories. If you have any photos of local or district Churches, most especially those with people in them, or with named parishioners, can you please consider sharing these with the CWArchives, both to keep them protected for future generations, and to help others in their search for their past and those connected to them from there.

You can find us at 48 Main Road, Tūātapere, next to the restored Railway Station, where you can park. Contact us on: 027-2114675, Email: [email protected] or on this account, if you wish to visit us outside of Public Opening Hours, if you wish to bring a group of people to visit, or if you want to use the DigiHub. We also appreciate if you can pre-arrange visits with us if you wish to do in-depth Family History or Whakapapa Research. Thank you.

Tūātapere history - First Township Church, Methodist: IMAGES: Page 1- 1. First known photo of the earliest Church in town, Methodist, opening day. 2. The photo of those people involved with the Methodist Church opening in Tūātapere is labelled: "Back Row: P Pearce, Jas Millar, A Millar, Rev SJ C...

11/05/2026

?
So sorry, volunteers are still away sick so we're only open 11-3 tomorrow (Tues 11th May), the rest of the week we will be only OPEN 1-4pm (Weds-Fri) and we apologise for this. There's some nasty bugs going around out there and we are doing our best to keep everyone safe. It would help a lot if we had more visitor host volunteers to call on. If you are able to chat to people about local/district history, or even take messages, just give us a call, send us your details or pop in to see if you help out your community. We can also usually reimburse your fuel expenses if you live out of town.

Shown today is a photo we'd love to get identified. All we have at the moment is this:
"Ōrawia - District Events, group of men, possibly Racing Meeting?

About this object:
Photo of 30 gentlemen, most have hats on, outside a wooden building. It appears one of the gents on the right has two wooden legs, and it looks as if some of the gents on the left might have been horse racing? Jim Laurie was a member of local racing groups, so this is possible. If anyone recognizes these people, the place or event, please comment.

This photo was in the Laurie Family Collection, but other than a label on it with "Harry Laurie" written on it, denoting ownership of photo, there are no names with it. We have no idea where this building was. It is possible that Harry Laurie's father James Nelson (Jim) Laurie may be standing at left hand side, on a date before his face disfigurement."

We have a great collection of archives from all over the town and district at CWA, including many not yet up online, for those of you who can visit in person. To view online collections, start your search by clicking this blue link below, that relates to the photo shown here:
https://ehive.com/collections/202139/objects/1600752

You can find us at: 48 Main Road Tūātapere, next to the Railway Station where you can park if you don't have disability access needs. Our email: [email protected] or you can ph/txt: 0272114675 or message us.
We appreciate advance notice of visits if doing family history research, wanting to visit out of public opening hours, or bringing through a large group, or if you want to use the DigiHub.
Our usual OPEN hours are: 10-4 Tues-Sat until 30 May, then winter hours of 1-4 same days. On 5/6 June for our annual book sale opening, our hours for both buildings will be 10-2 only.

10/05/2026

Hari Rā Māmā - Happy Mother's Day! To all the different kinds of mothers out there, whether you are a birth mum, step mum, angel baby mum, foster mum, adoptive mum, whānau mum, 'aunty' mum or fur baby mum, and most especially if you've lost your mum, wishing you the best day a mum could have. Hari Rā Māmā or Happy Mother's Day to each & every one 💐

This year we are featuring early services to the mums in our local town district. These started with the Waiau Welfare League, which got the Tūātapere Plunket going among other things, and both Dr Rita Gillies for her role in setting up the original Maternity home and Dr Eric Elder for continuing this work in new premises as well as delivering thousands of babies to mums from across the town and surrounds.

"During her time at Tūātapere, Dr Gillies was most renowned for having the old nurses home at 16 Bridge Street, altered and turned into a maternity home, a modern one at that time, during her tenure. This facility was used for some years. When Dr Elder came, he got a new one rebuilt where the Waiau Health Trust operates from now, our old Maternity Hospital."

Enjoy this collection of early services to the mum's in the district that we have on record at the CWArchives Community & Heritage Hub. And remember, if you'd like your mum or your community service for mum's commemorated in the Community Archives, please get us some info and photos or records of their life, or work and any community services involved. Email: [email protected]
Ph/txt: 027-2114675 or message this account. To call in, find us at 48 Main Rd, Tūātapere.

We open 10-4 Tues to Sat until 30 May, then our winter hours start, but 1-4, same days. Currently our Saturday openings are 'On-Call' only and every 3rd Thurs is Family History & Whānau Research Days, 1-4. If you need to visit after hours, with a large group, or to use the DigiHub, please contact us in advance, thanks