Reefton’s main street is made up of an interesting range of businesses in heritage buildings. PHOTO CREDIT: TOURISM WEST COAST
THINK COLLECTIVELY
Case Study 2.2 Reefton
The revival of historic Reefton has been cast in the mainstream press as an overnight success due largely to the verve of one well-disposed investor. In truth it’s been 30 years in the making and has drawn heavily on community efforts and a couple of crucial outside alliances – very much a case of ‘united we stand’.
lobbied Development West Coast (DWC) for funding to rehabilitate historic shop fronts on the main street, most of which had been modified over the years. DWC was a trust established by the Government in 2001 to offset the loss of income from milling native timber on the coast.
Located in the Inangahua River valley north-east of Greymouth, Reefton was briefly a gold-rush-era boom town. In 1888, it became the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to be lit by electricity. Forestry and coal subsequently sustained the town, but by the late 20th century Reefton was battling the same issues that afflicted other West Coast townships, including a declining population, unemployment and shuttered stores.
Driven by a hard core of committed locals, the initiative was a response to two significant obstacles to a heritage-led revival: reluctance by lenders to invest in a town in decline; and a sentiment among some in the community that progress for Reefton would be about new buildings, not old ones.
By contrast, contemporary Reefton has become a destination town and is increasingly attracting entrepreneurial and creative people to put down roots. A key factor in that turnaround has been the rehabilitation and repurposing of its Victorian buildings, along with the restoration of sites connected to its historical industries. Registered as a Heritage New Zealand historic area, with a handful of listed buildings, Reefton was awarded Tohu Whenua status in 2018. There were various heritage-focused community efforts to re-animate Reefton in the 1980s and 1990s. The transformational initiative was the ‘Reefton Shop Front’ project of the early 2000s, when a community group known as Inangahua Tourism Promotions
The Reefton Distilling Co. has been a core business in revitalising the town. PHOTO CREDIT: REEFTON DISTILLING CO.
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SAVING THE TOWN
