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This recording contains edited cuts of interviews recorded in 1986 with elderly West Coast residents which were played as part of a radio history series "Looking Back at Westland" produced at Radio Scenicland, Greymouth.
[Each track is preceded by an announcement of a track number and date. The numbers do not relate to the track numbers below.]
Many of the speakers are unidentfiied
Track 1 - 5. A man named "Dave" talks about taking over the hotel at Wallsend and anecdotes about hotel patrons.
Track 6 - 13. A man talks about experiences on West Coast railways; running a butcher's shop during the Depression; penny-farthing cycles and first cars being chased by dogs; bad beer in a Kokiri hotel.
Track 14-19: Jim Jamieson on swilling and bullfights.
Track 20: Frances Hunter recalls her childhood home at Waiuta [recorded on-site in Waiuta] and names some of her former neighbours.
Track 21: Two women [Noeline and Joan MacGee?] recall the noise of Waiuta's battery stampers and the long distances children walked to school
Track 22: A man [Alf Banner?] recalls gathering fruit at Blackwater to sell at Waiuta and blackberries for Italian residents to turn into wine. He got a job at Waiuta at 17.
Track 23: A woman talks about life at Waiuta [Vi Thorn?] - entertainment and outings for children.
Track 25: A woman [Ena Schroder?] talks about a hotel being moved to the top of the Prohibition mine in Waiuta in 1914. Her grandmother lived there from 1914 to 1934. She says the St Anne Church at Waiuta was named after her grandmother and she was also the first woman to be admitted to a Hibernian Society. The family ran the Empire Hotel with her aunties working as cooks, waitresses and barmaids.
Track 26-31: [all poor sound quality] An unidentified man talks about working in transport on the coast during World War II and a near collision; recalls the school at Lyell made of three Public Works huts joined together and the terrible sandflies at the school where there were 11-15 students. A story about discovering an overgrown cemetery.