Shantytown Heritage Park
Gold Panning is our speciality!
Catch gold fever and pan for your own gold. Our gold panning team will tutor you to find your own piece of ‘colour’. Or you can try your hand at ‘wild’ panning, grab a pan and haul your own shingle out of the sluice area, then pan in the ponds – try your luck, nuggets have been found in them thar hills.
Ride the Steam Train
All tickets to Shantytown include a ride on one of our vintage steam or diesel trains. Our first train departs from the railway station at 11:00am, followed by a second trip at 12:30pm and our final journey of the day at 2:00pm. On either the 1877 L-Class, 1896 improved F-Class Kaitangata or 1957 TR 107 Diesel, you will take a short trip through lush native rain forest along the Infants Creek Tram line which follows an original sawmill tram track of the 1800’s
Old style steam-driven mill
Experience the sights, sounds and smells of a milling operation, as well as social life of workers and their families. You’ll find real life stories of West Coast characters, photos and other nuggets of information in our interpretation space.
Follow a boardwalk through the mill itself, which seems to be working. Hear the screeching machinery and see some of those century old artifacts as the past echoes through historical film footage that plays continuously on a giant screen.