8 May 2023

Selfies from a ghost town: Jos

From Nine To Noon, 10:05 am on 8 May 2023

(PHOTO: https://www.jos-film.com/)

The story of lost gold and a ghost town kept alive by one man's photography is told in a new doco Jos - The Forgotten Photographer Who Saved A Town.

Waiuta is a dot of a place on the West Coast south of Reefton.

Bringing it back to life on film started three years ago, when Dave Kwant and co-producer Robyn Janes started work on a documentary about Waiuta Whispers of Gold.

But it soon became apparent who the star of the show really was. Photographs taken in the early 1900s by Czech emigre Jos Divis had kept the town alive, despite it being abandoned in the 1950s, with billions of dollars worth of gold still left underground.

The filmmakers were amazed to find Jos Divis had been overlooked - even though he is credited as being the "inventor of the selfie".

Jos - The Forgotten Photographer Who Saved A Town was made thanks to the Friends of Waiuta who commissioned it and helped find funding.

Kathryn speaks with Dave Kwant, geologist and biographer Simon Nathan and photographer Brian Scadden who has recreated some of Divis' photographs using early 20th C equipment.

Self portrait of Joseph Divis (right) and Bill Houghton deep in the Blackwater Mine. They are drilling shot holes in the quartz reef prior to blasting to break up the hard quartz.

Joseph Divis (right) and companion looking over the Blackwater mine site at Waiuta. The waste rock from the mine has been smoothed out to form a bowling green.

Crib time underground in the Blackwater mine. Can you see Divis at the back?

Tas Hogg (right) and Mick Brett surveying underground in the Blackwater mine.

Women were not allowed underground, but sometimes they were called on to assist in the small alluvial workings.

Miners gather for a union meeting outside the Miners Hall in Waiuta. Most wear a hat and jacket, but no ties – the symbol of a boss.

Families dressed in their best clothes awaiting the start of the jubilee parade in November 1931. The sign outside the hotel was produced by Divis, who could produce whatever art work was needed.

Peeling potatoes for the hangi at the jubilee dinner. Divis is seated on the far right.

The Dutch celebration of Sinterklaas was part of a play, “Jan of Windmill Land” by the Waiuta school in 1933. The costumes were provided by the Education Board.

Sir Charles Kingsford Smith landed his plane, “Southern Cross” at Ikamatua in 1934. Divis photographed the group from Waiuta that was there to greet him.

Joseph Divis outside his cottage at Waiuta, about 1934.

Cover of Through the Eyes of a Miner: the Photography of Joseph Divis, by Simon Nathan.