Waipori’s stories are reaching a wider audience thanks to collaboration between the Waipori Goldfields Charitable Trust and Clutha District libraries.
The trust is working to protect the heritage of Waipori, and collect and tell the fascinating stories of this area. The libraries operate the Clutha Heritage website, a digital heritage hub for the Clutha District.
The first products of this collaboration are now available for anyone to read: two ledgers from Margaret Cotton’s store for 1901 and 1909–1910, and the 1900 accounts book for her husband Robert Cotton’s farm (Waipori Station).
The store ledgers are a veritable who’s who of Waipori at that time, as they record who purchased items through the store, what they purchased and how much they paid for the items.
The farm accounts book records the business transactions of the Cotton farm at Waipori mostly for the year 1900, however, there is brief reference to 1899 and 1912. It portrays the farm in detail, including things like how many ewes were sheared, how many lambs dipped, sales, purchases and employee wages.
Thanks to Clutha District Council and its community heritage coordinator Tiffany Jenks for making this possible. The farm accounts book was donated to the Waipori Goldfields Charitable Trust by a member of the Cotton family, and the store ledgers are on long-term loan to the Trust.
You can see these valuable documents here: