Tiwai Point - Bluff, New Zealand
Posted by: 
BruceS
S 46° 36.715 E 168° 21.579
59G E 297820 N 4834573
Historical marker giving history of a point opposite Stirling Point now occupied by an aluminum smelter. Marker located near the Stirling Point Signal Station.
Waymark Code: WMG7PN
Location: South Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 01/25/2013
Views: 3
Text of plaque:
Tiwai Point
Ancient Quarries To Modern Factories
Tiwai Point (meaning dug-out canoe) has been the location of a wide variety of activities spanning hundreds of years. The first Maori settlers identified the argillite outcrops here to be an ideal source of stone for making adzes. Over the eyars the site grew in size to the point where archaeologists described it as one of the biggest prehistoric adze-making "factories" in New Zealand.
From the mid 1800's early European settlers used the area for sheep, cattle, and wheat farming. However the stormy coastal weather made agriculture at Tiwai difficult.
The beaches of Tiwai had several small gold rushes from 1860's until the 1930's. However the gold was never in any quantity to produce a permanent mining settlement.
In 1861 Tiwai Point became the site of a quarantine ground for cattle coming from Victoria, Australia. In 1900 the area had a jetty and quarantine hospital for migrants on a 46 hectare reserve. At the time Australia was undergoing a plague scare. However the plague was never to eventuate and Bluff locals used the jetty for picnic excursions and empty hospital wards as a dance hall. The only plague at Tiwai was rabbits in the mid 20th century.
In 1969 work began on the 215 acre aluminium smelter site at Tiwai. Opened in 1971 the Tiwai smelter has become one of the largest industrial facilities in New Zealand.