Boulder Lake (elevation ) is a lake in the Tasman District of New Zealand located within

Kahurangi National Park Kahurangi National Park in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand is the second largest of the thirteen national parks of New Zealand. It was gazetted in 1996 and covers , ranging to near Golden Bay in the north. Much of what was the ...

. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, water from the lake was used for gold mining purposes for which the lake level was raised by a low dam. British investors lost much money with the venture and large scale mining stopped in 1905 when a flood took out part of the flume. The dam was blown up in the 1930s by a farmer disgruntled with depression-era gold miners stealing his sheep. Boulder Lake is today a tramping destination, with the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

maintaining both a hut at the lake and a track to the lake.

Description

Several creeks, many of them coming from the Colosseum Ridge, flow into the lake. The outflow is the Boulder River.

Mining history

The Collingwood Goldfields Company built a dam in 1899 and although it was only high, it doubled the size of the lake. The lake water was used for mining gold through

sluicing In syntax, sluicing is a type of ellipsis that occurs in both direct and indirect interrogative clauses. The ellipsis is introduced by a ''wh''-expression, whereby in most cases, everything except the ''wh''-expression is elided from the clause. S ...

and of flume was built. As the site was above the tree line, the company purchased a large area within the upper Aorere Valley, installed a sawmill, and built a tramway of into the hills. The timber was punted across the

Aorere River The Aorere River is in the South Island of New Zealand. The headwaters are within Kahurangi National Park. The river flows generally northwards for before draining into Golden Bay at the town of Collingwood. The Heaphy Track's northeastern e ...

before the tram transported it towards Boulder Lake to build the flume. Sluicing started on 28 August 1899, but the yield of gold was much less than anticipated. The Collingwood Goldfields Company, headquartered in London, went into liquidation during 1900 and was refloated in the same year with new capital. Also in 1900, the sawmill in the Aorere Valley was sold to

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. The company remained in a difficult financial position and in December 1901, it sold its assets at auction; the purchaser was

Charles Fell Charles Yates Fell (5 August 1844 – 9 June 1918) was a New Zealand barrister, politician, watercolour artist, and photographer. Early life and family Fell was born in Nelson in 1844. He was the son of Alfred Fell, merchant and early settler ...

, who had been acting as the company's solicitor. When a flood destroyed part of the fluming in 1905, operations ceased. The dam was blown up in the 1930s by a farmer disgruntled with desperate miners stealing his sheep during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

Current use

The Golden Bay Alpine and Tramping Club formed in 1961 and in 1962, Boulder Lake Hut was built by its members. A second hut was built by the

(DOC) during the 1994/95 summer and the older hut has since served as a woodshed. DOC maintains a

tramping Tramping may refer to: Travel *Hiking *Trekking *Tramping in New Zealand, a style of backpacking or hiking * Czech tramping, a Czech outdoors pastime Places * Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380, Saskatchewan, Canada ** Tramping Lake, Sas ...

track from the road end near

Bainham Bainham is a settlement in the Tasman District of New Zealand. Originally called Riverdale, it is located inland from Golden Bay, southwest of Collingwood. Located in the Aorere valley, Bainham is situated on the northwestern side of the Aore ...

to Boulder Lake Hut. The walk to the hut takes between eight and ten hours (one way) and requires moderate fitness and moderate tramping experience. From a vantage point near the remains of the lake dam, a waterfall can be viewed; this is the beginning of the Boulder River.

References

{{Kahurangi National Park Lakes of the Tasman District Gold mining in New Zealand Kahurangi National Park