Bella Street Pumphouse contains gold mining artefacts, working models, historic photo displays, waterworks, electrical turbines and much more.

It has been nearly one hundred years since the Bella Street pumphouse engines last operated, but history lives on through working scale models, the original massive counterbalanced pumping quadrants that are still in place over the main mineshaft, the recreated five-metre diameter flywheels and the recently unearthed fourteen-tonne crankshaft. The comprehensive photographic displays and the very informative narrative delivered by museum volunteers will help take you back through all those years.

This is a great place to take curious children with an engineering mindset – there’s so much for them to take in! But even the adults will be in awe of the engineering involved, the boilers to generate the steam for the engine, the mechanics of the pumps, the volume of water they were able to lift from such an extraordinary depth, the built-in extra capacity that was never required,  all presented in a personal and knowledgeable way by our volunteers.

The museum is located at the north-eastern corner of Thames, in an area known as Grahamstown. It’s one of many museums in this town celebrating our history. Also check out Thames Museum Te Whare Taonga o te Kauaeranga, and the School of Mines.