Sams Creek (New Zealand)

Sams Creek, previously known as Rogers Creek or incorrectly as Roger Creek, is a stream in Golden Bay / Mohua in the Tasman District of New Zealand. Since the 1980s, the creek has had prominence due to gold mining proposals, and the area around Sams Creek was subsequently not included in Kahurangi National Park when it was formed in 1996.

Sams Creek is located on the south side of the Lockett Range.^[1][2] The lower reaches of the waterway is located on land that belongs to North-west Nelson Forest Park, with the land classed as conservation park under the Conservation Act 1987. The upper reaches are located in Sams Creek conservation area, with the land classed as "specially protected area".

Where Sams Creek originates, the Kill Devil Track follows the ridgeline of the Lockett Range. The track is located just outside of the boundary of Kahurangi National Park.^[3] A major tributary is Sams Creek Middle Branch.^[4] Sams Creek crosses the Cobb Road under a 14-metre (46 ft)^[5] long bridge just before flowing into the Tākaka River.^[1]

The original name of the creek was Rogers Creek, after the Rogers family who owned land and farmed at Upper Tākaka. The original settler was John Rogers (1829–1898), who was born in Shropshire and known as "Shropshire Jack". Rogers bought 495 acres (200 ha) of land, and the southwestern boundary of his land was formed by a creek that became known as Rogers Creek.^[6][7] His grandson, Fred Rogers, cut the track in 1936 on the true-left of the Tākaka River gorge from Upper Tākaka towards the Cobb River that became the Cobb Road.^[8]: 95

Early maps of Golden Bay show the creek named as "Rogers Creek" and sometimes (incorrectly) as "Roger Creek". A late instance of this name is on the Tākaka cadastral map from 1953, prepared by the Department of Lands and Survey, with its tributaries labelled South, Middle, and North Branch.^[9]

An early use of "Sam's Creek"—at the time still with an apostrophe—was in 1887, when three people applied for an occupation license.^[10] Thus, the names "Rogers Creek" and "Sams Creek" were in parallel use for many decades. When Fred Rogers had cut the Cobb Road, the tender for a 14 m-long (46 ft) bridge referred to Sam's Creek in February 1937.^[5]

Beginning in 1920, forest parks were gazetted north of the Buller River. In the end, there were thirteen separate forest parks. The northernmost eight of those parks were gazetted as the North-west Nelson Forest Park in 1970.^[11][12][13] From the 1970s, mining companies explored within the forest park and that led to public requests to give the area the higher protection of a national park.^[11] The area around Sams Creek was one such area excluded from Kahurangi National Park when it was formed in 1996. Macraes Mining had their 4,000 ha (9,900 acres) gold prospecting claim acknowledged and national park status was not applied. Eugenie Sage, who at the time worked for Forest & Bird, commented that "it's not appropriate to have this kind of development on the park's front door".^[14]