Little Earth was Alan Hunt’s outdoor model attraction near Greymouth on New Zealand’s West Coast.
The attraction included a 1/12-scale recreation of the former Waiuta mining settlement, built using historical photographs, alongside miniature versions of Reefton, an English village and a Māori marae.
Visitors were documented there by April 2007, and the attraction continued to appear in visitor and tour material through 2010. By 2013, its models were abandoned, overgrown and weather-damaged. Its exact opening and closing dates are unknown.
History
The attraction included a 1/12-scale recreation of the former Waiuta mining settlement, built using historical photographs, alongside miniature versions of Reefton, an English village and a Māori marae.
History
Visitors were documented there by April 2007, and the attraction continued to appear in visitor and tour material through 2010. By 2013, its models were abandoned, overgrown and weather-damaged. Its exact opening and closing dates are unknown.
Significance
At one-twelfth scale, the Waiuta streets turned historic photographs into a place visitors could walk around and use to connect buildings with the people who had lived there. Hunt also encouraged visitors to continue to the real town site.
The attraction later became part of the history it interpreted: Caroline McQuarrie’s 2013 photographs recorded a handmade model of an abandoned mining town falling into disrepair itself.
Site and Scale
- Little Earth stood in a paddock at or beside the On Yer Bike attraction, south of Runanga and between Runanga and Greymouth.
- Waiuta was the mining town represented by the models, not the location of Little Earth itself.
- Alan Hunt described Little Earth as a collection of 1/12-scale models, including Waiuta, 1960s Reefton, a traditional English village and a miniature Māori marae..
Documented Years
- Alan Hunt’s blog documents visitors, completed Waiuta streets and continuing construction in April 2007, but this was not necessarily the opening year.
- Friends of Waiuta promoted visits in December 2008, and Hunt recorded school and group visits during late 2009.
- A July 2010 mining-history conference programme listed Little Earth as a possible tour stop; it does not confirm that the proposed visit occurred.
- Hunt reported that a Prime TV crew filmed there in April 2007, but the proposed broadcast has not been confirmed.
Decline and Surviving Models
- One Little Earth model, the Red Hut, was photographed at the real Waiuta site in 2012; this does not show that the complete attraction was moved there.
- Caroline McQuarrie photographed Little Earth in 2013, when its models were abandoned, overgrown and damaged by West Coast weather.
- The attraction is closed, but its final operating date and the present location of most models remain unknown.
Key facts
**Region:** New Zealand
**Associated With:** Alan Hunt - creator and operator
**Defining Feature:** A 1/12-scale recreation of 1930s Waiuta built from historical photographs
**Status:** Closed - exact closure date unknown
Region
New Zealand
Associated With
Alan Hunt - creator and operator
Defining Feature
A 1/12-scale recreation of 1930s Waiuta built from historical photographs
Images are included for historical and archival reference.
Rights holders may contact Forgotten Archive through the publishing account to request a credit correction or removal.
Alan Hunt — published on his blog; photographer not explicitly identified
Licence
Historical Ephemera
Displayed for commentary, criticism, research and historical documentation where permitted by applicable law. No permission for reuse is granted.
Caption
Visitors to Little Earth entered a miniature world painstakingly recreated by Alan Hunt, where New Zealand's vanished mining communities could be explored on a much smaller scale.
Displayed for commentary, criticism, research and historical documentation where permitted by applicable law. No permission for reuse is granted.
Caption
Built to preserve the memory of a vanished mining town, Little Earth's miniature buildings eventually began falling into disrepair themselves, creating a second ghost town in the New Zealand landscape.
