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Story: King Country places

Endean's mill: workers' cottage, 2011

Endean's mill: workers' cottage, 2011

There are a number of workers' cottages and a manager’s house and office still standing at Endean’s mill, reminding modern visitors that Endean’s was not just a mill, it was also a small community of people who lived, worked and played on the site. In the 2000s all the cottages were empty.

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How to cite this page

Kerryn Pollock, King Country places – Benneydale, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/34689/endeans-mill-workers-cottage-2011 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Kerryn Pollock, published 6 December 2011, updated 1 March 2015.

Comments

Ngaire Turu
21 November 2012
The house in this picture was the house that I lived in my mum, dad, brother and me. Today this house is still standing with a few other houses. Growing up here in the mill I had all my family living here so I had lots of cousins to play with and enough mischief to keep us occupied. Always we were told not to go play down the mill on the weekends but we still did our favourite thing was playing on the trolley that the wood was pushed out on. Funny Uncle Barry always told us off, because we would run it off the rails and on monday, when he went back to work he would have to put it back on the rail and it was hard work to do that because it was very heavy. DON'T go down by that black pond dad would say, we use to play dare and see who could get the closest to it before you started sinking. Ae maori kids no ears. Love this site its awsum
Ngaire Turu
21 November 2012
The house in this picture was the house that I lived in my mum, dad, brother and me. Today this house is still standing with a few other houses. Growing up here in the mill I had all my family living here so I had lots of cousins to play with and enough mischief to keep us occupied. Always we were told not to go play down the mill on the weekends but we still did our favourite thing was playing on the trolley that the wood was pushed out on. Funny Uncle Barry always told us off, because we would run it off the rails and on monday, when he went back to work he would have to put it back on the rail and it was hard work to do that because it was very heavy. DON'T go down by that black pond dad would say, we use to play dare and see who could get the closest to it before you started sinking. Ae maori kids no ears. Love this site its awsum
Ngaire Turu
02 November 2012
Hi, my name is Ngaire Turu I lived in Endeans Mill all my childhood life. My mum was a mum and dad worked at Endeans Mill along with extended family members. My grandfather Phillip Rite was the saw doctor. My cousins Alex Tipene, Rubean Turu, Barry Kino and Sonny Kereopa (junior), cut the logs up and fed them to my uncles David Turu (senior), Eddie Kereopa and Sonny Kereopa (senior). They took off the rough edges of the log and cut them to size. Then they went to Jimmy Turu who worked the goose saw who cleaned and trimmed them then transfered the timber on to the trolley. The trolley was pushed out into the yard. In the yard was Barry Tepu and David Tepaea. All the houses in the mill were occupied by all the workers and their families. The greatest thing about growing up here was that us the kids got to work in the mill too. Gee I remember the days when we stayed at the mill all day on Saturday cutting up wood for our house. Dad Jimmy Turu was also the cleaner of the mill every weekend he would dig out all the sawdust from under the saws, throw it on the back of the bedford and go dump it down in the pond at the back of the mill. When I was 12 dad gave me the job cleaning the mill on the weekends he paid me $100 dollars a fortnight, back in those days it was like a $1,000 dollars; now its like spending $10 dollars. How life has changed but I still go back there for a visit with the family.