The access road to Gillespies Beach begins from the Cook River / Weheka flats, before passing over moraines of the Fox Glacier dating from 14,000 years ago.

The direct view of Aoraki / Mount Cook from the beach is also significant because it provides a visual link to the whakapapa (origin story) of Ngāi Tahu.

At its height, Gillespies Beach was the third-largest settlement on the West Coast: only Ōkārito and Five Mile were larger—the Okarito Gold Warden reported 500 miners working the sands.

With the construction of two water-races, sluicing sand for gold became feasible, and the population increased again, with men returning from Five Mile to Gillespies.

Charlie Douglas was particularly forthright: The law which prohibits people from murdering each other ought in my opinion to be modified in the case of the Okarito and Gillespies district.

In 1886 Henry (Harry) Williams arrived to teach—he later became Assistant Master at Hokitika District High School and moved to St Patrick's College in Wellington.

[22] The difficulties of working claims at Gillespies Beach included a hazardous journey of 20 mi (32 km) to the nearest port at Ōkārito, requiring travel along the sea coast beneath dangerous bluffs.

[23] There were no roads, no medical care – the nearest doctor was at Ross, 80 miles to the north – and supplies often cost double the Ōkārito price.

[24] Miners built a tunnel through Gillespies Point at the north of the beach, to avoid the bluffs and enable passage along the coast even at high tide.

[25] Inhabitants were confined to the coastal strip by dense forest and suffered under heavy rain, westerly gales, and clouds of sandflies and mosquitoes.

It now contains a few diggers huts, a store & school house, with of course the usual pub, but its life cannot last long as the beach is nearly worked out.

[29] Two water races, one five miles long, were constructed to enable sluicing: this entailed "stripping", or removal of surface vegetation and sand to depths of 6–30 feet, to expose seams which could be washed to extract the gold dust.

The equipment was manufactured in Christchurch in 1891 and used two wood-fired steam boilers as a power source, with the machinery installed on a hull supported by wooden piles.

[14] There are five walking tracks from the Gillespies Beach campsite and car park, ranging in length from 270 metres (300 yd) up to 6.8 kilometres (4.2 mi).