![]() ![]() This was ground zero of the giant Ross goldmine. The crowd watching the event had gathered beside a large man-made lake that is 71m deep in the centre - deep enough to submerge the Beehive. It was part of the Ross Fireworks Festival, a thank you from Ross Birchfield Mining to a town that was once witness to one of New Zealand's biggest eyesores. "Then we swivelled the turret round and fired the cannon - and then the Spandau opened up - people were covering their ears and running away. "They were sneaking up, and in the end people were yelling at us to turn around," says Evan Birchfield, who was behind the wheel of his Chieftain tank bearing the Union Jack and well aware of the 3500 civilians gathered nearby. The Germans, backed by a Spandau machine gun, attempted to flank their colonial opposition. Soldiers dressed in German uniforms clashed with rivals dressed in New Zealand Army kit. ![]() On November 8, the West Coast town of Ross, population 300, was the scene of an ill-reported war. Now, as gold prices soar, the homes of Ross township's 300 residents stand in the way of the miners. The West Coast's mining towns were built by prospectors hungry for glittering ore.
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