In 1866 ditching along the hillsides was the cheapest and quickest way to get water to the gold miners.
Quick Facts about this walk
- Location: South Island NZ
- Distance: 1.00 km
- Time needed: 2 Hours
- Difficulty: Easy
- Wheelchair Access: No
- Route: Round Trip
- Elevation: 66m
- Wet Feet: No
- Toilets: Yes
- Dogs: No
- Mobile Coverage: Yes
- Last Updated: November, 2019
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Summary points about this walk
Points of interest along the walk
Point 1: Ross Information center
Driving south into Ross drive straight through the intersection, the information centre
is 200mt on your right.
The best place to start from is the information centre, while you are there you can buy a map of the Water Race Walk and the people there will help you out with history of the town.
Point 2: The Start Of Water Race walkway
The track to the Water Race Walkway start at the end of the Information Center car park all you have to do is follow the sign post.
You start off walking along a service road for the first 15 minutes.
The first relic you see on this walk will be the water wheel followed by the water canon.
On our walk we watched a gentleman panning for gold in the creek he had a small amount of gold in his pan but not enough to buy lunch.
Point 3: The Old Geordie Wiltshire Hut
From the turn off you will make your way up hill to Old Geordie Wiltshire Hut.
on the way you will see what is left of the water races,Flumes and water tunnels. In the winter time the bush walk can be a little on the damp side and cold so take some warm cloths.
Now Old Georide was a hatter, a Hatter is a man who lives a solitary live and carried there wordy goods around in a tin box which was hidden behind the fire place. Some say it is because he kept his whole word under his hat. Or he washed in his hat. What ever there must have been as mad as a hatter to live out in the bush having damper and bacon for breaky, damper for lunch, bacon and damper for dinner. Some Hatter were lucky, for breaky they had Damper,bacon and beans Lunch was Damper and beans. Dinner was Bacon, Damper and Beans.
Point 4: Ross Historic Cemetery
From the Hatters Hut to the cemetery is just a short five minutes walk. One grave stones I read was for Miles Rogan who died in November 1875.
One grave stone might have been around 1868 but it was so badly batted by the weather to read clearly.
Point 5: Back to the carpark
In four minutes you will be standing at the front door of the de Bakker cottage, A miners cottage built in 1885 for Henriett and Baziluis de Bakker
The cottage has been restored to it’s original condition. Take a look at the old photos and documents in side the cottage.
