Shantytown, Heritage park and open-air museum in Grey District, New Zealand

Shantytown is a heritage park and open-air museum 10 km south of Greymouth, with 30 historic buildings along two main streets. Most are original structures moved or rebuilt on site, including a church from 1866, a two-storey coronation hall, a bank, hotel, butcher, shoe shop, barber, carpenter, blacksmith, hospital, train station, fire station, Masonic Lodge and jail. A separate Chinatown area depicts Chinese gold miners' living conditions.

Local enthusiasts formed the West Coast Historical and Mechanical Society in 1968 to preserve West Coast gold-mining history, and the park opened to the public on 23 January 1971. Most of the work creating Shantytown has come from volunteers and donated labour. The collection spans roughly 1850 to 1940, with thousands of artefacts donated by local people and businesses.

The site honors Chinese immigrants who came during the gold rush through a dedicated area showing how they lived and worked. These spaces help visitors understand how different communities shared the settlement during that era.

Plan to spend at least 90 minutes exploring all the areas on the grounds, as there is much to see throughout the site. The property is accessible year-round and easy to navigate on foot.

The narrow-gauge line follows a 19th-century sawmill tram track for 1.5 km into the rainforest, ending at a photo stop. Passengers can get off at Infants Creek Sawmill, where a sluice gun is fired up to four times a day and tutored gold panning is offered. The carriages are pulled by Gertie, an 1877 L-class steam engine from Avonside Engine Company in England, or by an 1896 improved F-class Kaitangata engine.