Arawata Pioneer Cemetery, Jackson Bay, West Coast

Date: 1862 [unknown]
Location: Jackson Bay, South Westland, West Coast, New Zealand.Geographical latitude: SOUTH 43° 58' 18.9 ;Geographical longitude: EAST 168° 36' 38.05

Jackson Bay / Okahu is a gently curving 24 km bay on the southern West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It faces the Tasman Sea to the north, and is backed by the Southern Alps.

The Arawata Pioneer Cemetery is located at the fishing village, Jackson Bay, which is the southernmost terminus of West Coast's roads. The cemetery is variously named Arawata or Arawhata as the Arawhata River is named. The sign at the entrance to the cemetery simply has Pioneer Cemetery.

Entrance to the Arawata Pioneer Cemetery

The Jackson Bay's first death, from pneumonia, was that of Claude Ollivier who was buried on the foreshore rather than in the pioneer cemetery. The plaque on his lone grave states: "Sacred to the memory of Claude Morton Ollivier who died in Jackson's Bay on board the schooner 'Ada" 27th August 1802. Age 22." Arum lilies fill the space within the iron fence surrounding his lone grave. He was the son of Elizabeth (Morton) Ollivier (1812 - 1892) and John Ollivier Esq. (25 March 1812 – 31 July 1893) who was a Member of Parliament in New Zealand, but was better known for his membership of the Canterbury Provincial Council. Claude was the second born of ten children, nine in England and one in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Grave of Claude Morton Ollivier, age 22 years.

A memorial to the 400 pioneers from Poland, Germany, Italy and a few from Britain of a failed settlement at Jackson Bay, a Government scheme to open up South Westland, has: "Jackson's Bay. Four hundred settlers from many countries landed in this Bay to found a special settlement which endured from 1875 to 1878." There are sixteen recorded burials in the Pioneer Cemetery.

Memorial to Pioneers of the failed Settlement at Jackson Bay.

There are more graves in the cemetery that are not marked than the those with headstones of some kind.

Unmarked Grave

A 20 year old man who died at Arawata has his grave among the trees and moss covered graves. The Wooden Board marking where he is buried is in Memory of James Heveldt, born July 4 1881, died July 31 1901.

James Heveldt Age 20

Accidental Death
Rosalia Witzki 29 June 1877
In a letter dated 27 July 1877, resident agent for Jackson’s Bay, Duncan Macfarlane told Westland superintendent Edward Patten: “I have the honor [sic] to report that on 29th June a settler’s wife at Smoothwater met with her death through the falling of a tree on his house.” He said that the accident threw quite a gloom on the settlement. Macfarlane’s official explanation omits to say that the tree was rotten, that he ordered Franz Witzki to cut it down, or that it was so close to the house.

The circumstances were as follows: Franz Fredryk Witzki, husband of the deceased was cutting down a tree in the neighbourhood of his house and told his wife to keep outside until the tree was down, as it could fall on the house. She expressed great fear about the tree, but went inside and before she could get out, the tree fell on the house and she was killed. The Witzki family of five arrived in Jackson’s Bay in July 1876. Franz left with his children, Julianna (8), Bernard (5) and Franz (3), six months after the accident.

If Mcfarlane discovered in the coroner’s inquest over which he presided that the names of the couple were Rosalia (Catherina) and Franz Witzki he did not name them in his report. The newspaper correspondent found out the family name, yet to Macfarlane they remained anonymous. The record of Rosalia’s burial: “UNKNOWN Polish settler’s wife, killed by falling tree, 29 June 1877, Polish Settlement, Jackson’s Bay.”

Another pioneer of Jacksons Bay who was ferryman for crossing the Arawhata River, William Frederick Burmeister, was born in Hamburg Germany in 1829 has a modern headstone. William died 26 November 1901 at Arawhata.

Ferryman William Frederick Burmeister

There are geographical features in Jackson Bay area bearing the name Burmeister.