Reefton stories retold

• Published date: 18 October 2023
• Author: Rose O Connor
• Publication title: West Coast Messenger, The

The book launch for 'Reef Town - as Remembered by Edgar Elliston,' is planned for 7pm on Friday, October 27, at the Reefton Community Cinema. The date was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the passing of Mrs Lockington's husband, Harry, when a 'tribe' of Lockington relations would be descending on the village

In 1973, and as a busy mother of four young children, Mrs Lockington attended a Reefton Anzac memorial service, where she caught up with local man Edgar Elliston, on whose recollections of early Reefton the book is based.

"I just made a comment to Edgar if he would like to tell me about the early history of Reefton. He was 83 then and he turned up a few days later and said he was ready!" Harry Lockington fully supported his wife's efforts.

"He would come home from work on a Wednesday and take the kids out and get them off to bed so I could continue to interview Edgar." What ensued were three years of meeting up each Wednesday, accumulating books full of handwritten notes and spool tapes of recordings...