# Appos Creek

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Creek in New Zealand; site of first payable gold discovery in South Island

Appos Creek Appos Creek as seen from Devil's Boots Road Route of Appos Creek Location Country New Zealand Physical characteristics Source • location Appos Flat • coordinates 40°43′41″S 172°39′51″E / 40.7281°S 172.6643°E / -40.7281; 172.6643 • elevation 120 m Mouth • location Aorere River • coordinates 40°44′15″S 172°37′54″E / 40.7374°S 172.6318°E / -40.7374; 172.6318 • elevation 19 m Basin features Progression Appos Creek → Aorere River → Golden Bay / Mohua → Tasman Sea Bridges Devil's Boots Road

**Appos Creek** is a small waterway in the hills behind the [Golden Bay / Mohua](/source/Golden_Bay_%2F_Mohua) township of [Parapara](/source/Parapara%2C_Tasman) in New Zealand. The creek is notable as the site of the first gold discovery—in 1856—in the [South Island](/source/South_Island), and this started the [Golden Bay gold rush](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_Bay_gold_rush&action=edit&redlink=1). This gold rush, which lasted for three years, triggered a name change of the area, from Massacre Bay to Golden Bay.

## Location

Appos Creek is a waterway in the hills behind Parapara.[1][2] The creek begins at Appos Flat.[3] Appos Creek discharges into the [Aorere River](/source/Aorere_River).[2]

There is legal access—mostly via [paper roads](/source/Paper_street)—from Plain Road: a corridor accesses Appos Flat, then descends along Appos Creek to its confluence with the creek coming out of [Lightband Gully](/source/Lightband_Gully), with the paper road then following up the gully and beyond it along an unnamed tributary.[4]

## Naming

According to *Place Names of New Zealand*, the creek was named after [Appo Hocton](/source/Appo_Hocton) from [Nelson](/source/Nelson%2C_New_Zealand),[5] but Hocton's entry published in the *[Dictionary of New Zealand Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_New_Zealand_Biography)* is silent on him having ever been involved in gold mining.[6] Local writer [Enga Washbourn](/source/Enga_Washbourn) published a family history in 1970 titled *Courage and Camp Ovens*, with her great-grandfather William Washbourn intimately involved in the resulting gold rush. In the book, she talks of Appoo's Creek and Appoo's Flat being named after a "Cingalese[a] digger whose name appears on a passenger list in February 1857".[7] The passenger list she refers to was published in *[The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle](/source/The_Nelson_Examiner_and_New_Zealand_Chronicle)* on 25 February 1857, reporting that Appoo was returning from Massacre Bay.[b][9] Jacobus Appoo was a hairdresser in Nelson.[10] Nelson geologist and historian Mike Johnston, in his scholarly work on the gold rush titled *Aorere Gold*, concurs with Washbourn that Jacobus Appoo is the person after whom the creek and flat are named.[11]

## History

Appos Creek where it flows into the [Aorere River](/source/Aorere_River)

John Ellis and John James found gold in 1856 at the point where Lightband Gully's creek flows into Appos Creek.[12] [William Lightband](/source/William_Lightband) was told about the find by Ellis and James.[13] From 1851 to 1853, Lightband Jr. had been on Australian gold fields.[14] Lightband Jr. and William Hough did some further prospecting at the original claim, and after a week they moved further up Lightband Gully. By February 1857, they found a location that gave good returns.[13]

The wider area proved to hold gold, and over the following three years, some 2000 miners came to the Aorere gold field. Finding gold triggered the change of the area's name: in 1642, [Abel Tasman](/source/Abel_Tasman) had called the area Murderers ("Moordenaers") Bay, which later became Massacre Bay, but this became Golden Bay in the 1850s.[15]

## Footnotes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Cingalese is an archaic spelling of [Sinhalese](/source/Sinhalese_people), i.e. a person from Sri Lanka; Hocton, on the other hand, was Chinese.[6]

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Massacre Bay was an early name of the area; it was renamed to Golden Bay as a consequence of the gold rush.[8]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Place name detail: Appos Creek"](https://gazetteer.linz.govt.nz/place/15562). *New Zealand Gazetteer*. [Land Information New Zealand](/source/Land_Information_New_Zealand). Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-topomap_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-topomap_2-1) ["Appos Creek, Tasman"](https://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz44536/Appos-Creek/Tasman). NZ Topo Map. Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Place name detail: Appos Flat"](https://gazetteer.linz.govt.nz/place/15563). *New Zealand Gazetteer*. [Land Information New Zealand](/source/Land_Information_New_Zealand). Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Untitled"](https://maps.herengaanuku.govt.nz/Viewer/?map=9cd99517a0db4d18a894c3839df4d3a3). [Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa, the Outdoor Access Commission](/source/Herenga_%C4%81_Nuku_Aotearoa%2C_the_Outdoor_Access_Commission). Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Place_Names_5-0)** Reed, A. W. (2010). Peter Dowling (ed.). *Place Names of New Zealand*. Rosedale, North Shore: Raupo. p. 26. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780143204107](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780143204107).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-DNZB_Hocton_6-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-DNZB_Hocton_6-1) Malone, C. B. ["Appo Hocton"](https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1h31). *[Dictionary of New Zealand Biography](/source/Dictionary_of_New_Zealand_Biography)*. [Ministry for Culture and Heritage](/source/Ministry_for_Culture_and_Heritage). Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** [Washbourn, Enga](/source/Enga_Washbourn) (1970). *Courage and Camp Ovens: Five generations at Golden Bay*. Reed Publishing. pp. 37–44. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-589-00429-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-589-00429-8).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Walrond, Carl (22 April 2015). ["Nelson Places – Eastern Golden Bay"](https://teara.govt.nz/en/nelson-places/page-9). *Te Ara*. Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** ["Shipping intelligence"](https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NENZC18570225.2.3). *[The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle](/source/The_Nelson_Examiner_and_New_Zealand_Chronicle)*. Vol. XV, no. 95. 25 February 1857. p. 2. Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["List of persons"](https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NENZC18570214.2.11.1). *[The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle](/source/The_Nelson_Examiner_and_New_Zealand_Chronicle)*. Vol. XV, no. 95. 14 February 1857. p. 4. Retrieved 9 May 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Johnston, Mike (2023). *Aorere Gold*. p. ?.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-NZ_Geographic_14-0)** Hindmarsch, Gerard (July–September 1995). ["Kahurangi; Our newest National Park"](https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/kahurangi-our-newest-national-park/). *New Zealand Geographic* (27).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-gold_bonus_15-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-gold_bonus_15-1) ["The gold bonus"](https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NENZC18580210.2.10). *[The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle](/source/The_Nelson_Examiner_and_New_Zealand_Chronicle)*. Vol. XVII. 10 February 1858. p. 3. Retrieved 25 January 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-NZETC_Westland_16-0)** "Brightwater". [*The Cyclopedia of New Zealand : Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts*](https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20210104000423/http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc05Cycl-t1-body1-d1-d2-d5.html#Cyc05Cycl-fig-Cyc05Cycl130a). Christchurch: [The Cyclopedia of New Zealand](/source/The_Cyclopedia_of_New_Zealand). 1906.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-The_Prow_17-0)** Stephens, Joy (12 October 2021). ["Aorere gold"](https://www.theprow.org.nz/enterprise/aorere-gold/). The Prow. Retrieved 25 January 2025.

v t e Tasman District, New Zealand Seat: Richmond Populated places Golden Bay / Mohua Aorere Bainham Clifton Collingwood East Tākaka Ferntown Ligar Bay Motupipi Onekaka Pākawau Parapara Patons Rock Pōhara Port Pūponga Pūponga Rockville Seaford Tākaka Tarakohe Tata Beach Upper Tākaka Waikato Waitapu Motueka Brooklyn Kaiteriteri Lower Moutere Mārahau Motueka Riwaka Moutere-Waimea Brightwater Bronte Dovedale Mahana Māpua Ngātīmoti Ruby Bay Tasman Upper Moutere Wakefield Woodstock Richmond Aniseed Valley Appleby Hope Richmond Lakes-Murchison Murchison Rotoroa Saint Arnaud Tapawera Tophouse Geographic features Buller River Dun Mountain–Maitai terrane Hope Saddle Lee River Mārahau River Maungakura / Red Hill Newton River Ngārua Caves Roding River Sams Creek Tākaka River Waimea Plains Waimea River Golden Bay / Mohua Appos Creek Archway Islands Cape Farewell Cobb Reservoir Druggans Dam Dry River Farewell Spit Harwoods Hole Lake Killarney Lightband Gully North-west Nelson Forest Park Rawhiti Cave Slateford Tākaka Hill Tata Islands Te Waikoropupū Springs Wainui Bay Whanganui Inlet Wharariki Beach Abel Tasman National Park Armchair Island Awapoto River Awaroa River Ballon Rock Falls River Fisherman Island Motuareronui / Adele Island Simonet Creek Torrent Bay Tata Islands Tinline Bay Tonga Island Torrent River Tōtaranui Wainui River Falls Tasman Bay Bell Island Best Island Moturoa / Rabbit Island Tokangawhā / Split Apple Rock Waimea Inlet Kahurangi National Park Brown River Bulmer Cavern Ellis Basin cave system Kahurangi Point Lake Matiri Mount Arthur Mount Burnett Mount Owen Nettlebed Cave Wharepapa / Arthur Range Nelson Lakes National Park Braeburn Range Lake Rotoiti Lake Rotoroa Maniniaro / Angelus Peak Mount Franklin Pourangahau / Mount Robert Rotomairewhenua / Blue Lake Rotopōhueroa / Lake Constance Sabine Valley Saint Arnaud Range Spenser Mountains Facilities and attractions Abel Tasman National Park Coast Track Inland Track Monument Appleby railway station Brightwater railway station Cobb Power Station Ferntown Bridge Gowanbridge railway station Heaphy Track Hope railway station Karamea Aerodrome Kawatiri railway station Langford Store Memorial Park Milnthorpe Model Motueka Aerodrome Moutere Inn Mussel Inn Nelson Lakes National Park Onekaka Ironworks Onekaka Power Station Onekaka Wharf and tramline Proposals for a road through North-west Nelson Pupu Hydro Power Scheme Richmond railway station RNZAF Dip Flat Rutherford memorial Stafford Place St Michael's Church Stoke railway station Tākaka Aerodrome Tākaka Pioneers' Memorial Takaka Tramway Great Taste Trail Tonga Island Marine Reserve Tophouse Tour de Vineyards Wai-iti Dark Sky Park Wangapeka Track Westhaven (Te Tai Tapu) Marine Reserve Wharariki Ecosanctuary Administration Historic Nelson Province (1853–1876) Collingwood County (1877–1956) Waimea County (1877–1989) Richmond Borough (1891–1989 · mayor) Motueka Borough (1900–1989) Takaka County (1904–1956) Murchison County (1909–1965) Golden Bay County (1956–1989) Nelson-Marlborough Regional Council (1989–1992) Current Council Mayor Organisations Golden Bay Air Golden Bay-Motueka Rugby Union New Zealand Energy Richmond Athletic FC Talley's Group Schools Collingwood Area School Golden Bay High School Motueka High School Waimea College Waimea Intermediate

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Appos Creek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appos_Creek) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appos_Creek?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.