Page:Gillespies Beach Beginnings • Alexander (2010).pdf/76

 Services began in South Westland in 1936. The daily arrival of this bus, carrying mail, passengers, and supplies, was an exciting event in small communities. Drivers were assured of a warm welcome after negotiating the narrow gravel roads from Hokitika down. When the bus was late, there would usually be a story to tell - a wash-out, an accident, a mechanical breakdown or puncture, or a tree across the road, in which case passengers had to lend a hand.

Names remain important in identifying those descended from old families in South Westland, not because of blue blood but because of association. Names like Nolan, Gunn, Northcroft, Butler, McBride, Purcell, Thomson, Scott, Cron, Condon, Graham, and many others, were part of a great pioneering era. Because of intermarriage they appear in many family histories. At the time religion also played an important part in close social interaction, although in emergencies, neighbour helped neighbour regardless of religious affiliation.

My own memories of my grandparents, Fred and Julia’s homestead, in the 1930s, are of the concrete-encased swimming pool filled with crystal clear water from the nearby stream, and the water-wheel nearby which had originally been used as part of a mill established to cut timber for the first Williams cottage after the bark hut. A water race several feet off the ground, ran some considerable distance down to the cowshed and stock yards. This second water-wheel generated power for lighting the house making it, in 1910, one of the first homes on the Coast to have electricity. The experience gained in building fluming for carrying water at Gillespie’s to wash out black sand was utilised here for a different purpose. As children we loved to climb up into the water race and make our way between slats all the way down to the cowshed. A water-wheel also existed near the Sullivan abode in the early days, used to power the cutting of chaff for the horses. Camelia trees lined the fence in front of the Williams house and out the back a small glass-house housed geraniums. Her vegetable garden had catered