On Yer Bike! is situated just out of Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand in an area previously known as the town of Camp is now known as Coal Creek. A small railway station existed along State Highway 6 opposite On Yer Bike! and the train carried passengers between Greymouth and Runanga.
Where the train track is, there was a flax mill, which once processed flax into rope. Three houses existed there, and the occasional bottle is dug up as a reminder of this.
Around 1910, Michael’s Great Grandmother, Louisa Harris lived in a small hut with her brother Jack, husband and two daughters Violet and Mary. Violet married Charlie Roper and they bought property in Coal Creek in 1917. They raised nine children in a house on a southern part of the farm. The trees that surrounded the house are still there.
During Charlie’s ownership, many Rimu trees were milled and recovered using a steam tram. This was the only one of its kind around at the time. Not much remains of the tram site today. Charlie also hand milked 12 cows to raise his family and broke in a lot of the land or farm, mostly by using the method of slash and burn.
During the 1930’s depression, the Europeans prospected for gold towards the back of the farm. They did this to create employment and paid a shilling a week. Rumour has it that one of the prospectors collected himself a bag of gold and buried it somewhere to hide it and it still hasn’t been found since. Tailings (stones left behind as a result of the mining)and dug out mining races can be found in a couple of places.
Just beyond the farm up McLean’s Creek a waterfall can be found that is taller than – but not as wide as Coal Creek Falls. The only access to it is by walking up alongside McLean’s Creek.
In the 1970’s the Grey District Council decided to raise the adjacent portion of State Highway 6 out of flood reach. What they didn’t realize was that in doing this it would bring disaster to the Roper home and it was severely flooded several times from then on. There are stories of Charlie waking to find his slippers floating around his bedroom after a good rainfall!
They then moved on to Wellington and their house was let to somewhat undesirable tenants who trashed it and painted rainbows all over the outside of the house. It was finally demolished in 1985. Violet and Charlie’s son, Tony bought the family farm and raised a family of 8 children with his wife Betty, in a two storey house. Tony and Betty opened and operated the farm for 15 years as a poultry farm, building to a maximum of 5000 laying hens. They supplied most of the coast with eggs, but in 1978 were forced to close as the poultry board introduced unrealistic levies that they just weren’t able to afford. The levies have since been dropped.
Tony died in 1988. So his son Michael and his wife Sue bought and built on the 400 acre property. After struggling to try and make beef farming viable, Michael thought about the idea of tourism and ATV tours. So these days Michael still gets to play with all of his machinery and show people around this wonderful farm land that he loves so much. 100 acres were sold and the remaining land was developed to become what we have today – ‘On Yer Bike!’
