Phillips Bakery and Store (249 Dairy Flat Highway)

Matthew and Sarah Phillips arrived in Auckland from England aboard the Empress in 1865. After only a few years, they relocated to Lucas Creek where they built their home above the Upper Landing alongside the main west road. They began selling baked goods, grain, and wares from their home. Soon, their casual business became a formal store, the second in the village after the Wharfside Inn. Matthew died in 1883 and his son, Mark, took over running the store.

The Phillips’ store became the major trading point for gumdiggers in the 1880s and 1890s. There were thousands of acres of gum fields in the area, and this lured many prospectors to Lucas Creek, who made camps in the gullies and on the riverbanks. When a new digger came to try his luck, a gum store would supply him ‘on tick’: a tent, spade, gum spear, and a week’s food. He would then give any kauri gum he found to the store until his account was cleared.

The Phillips and Stevensons gave Lucas Creek a good name for hospitality. Many gumdiggers were sailors who had jumped ship and hid until their ship sailed away. Conditions in a gumdiggers’ camp were primitive: a bed consisted of four stakes in the ground and a split sack, which would then be covered with dried fern. There were strict camp laws about keeping all surroundings neat and tidy and anyone arriving after dark had to announce his arrival and what he wanted. Diggers left their spade and gum on the spot they were working, and no-one dared jump their claim.

A replica of the Phillips’ store is situated on the Dairy Flat Highway near the site of the original structure. It currently hosts the State of Grace North funeral home. Remains of the original house can be found in Kell Park at the western end of the Kell Drive carpark behind the Art in the Park building.

Continue along Dairy Flat Highway. Stop just after crossing the bridge and then look across the road.