[3][4] Ross was established in the 1860s, during the West Coast gold rush, and became an important centre for miners.

[5] At its largest, the town had around 2,500 inhabitants, but the population declined after local goldfields were depleted in the early 1870s.

[6] Quartz was occasionally mined on Mount Greenland, a nearby ridge, but little more gold was found until two miners discovered a large 3.1-kilogram nugget in 1909, which was later named the "Honourable Roddy Nugget", after Roderick McKenzie, the Minister for Mines at the time.

[21] In winter 2020 a slip in Jones Creek blocked the outlet of the lake, and the pavilion was flooded and thousands of dollars worth of trees and shrubs were killed.

[8] Fully repairing the lake outlet would require a resource consent, so in the meantime WRENIS volunteers dug a small channel by hand to divert some of the flow of Jones Creek to a culvert, allowing lake levels to stabilise; work done by hand did not require a consent.

[8] Their work was repeatedly vandalised, however, for months and on an almost daily basis, causing the lake to rise and drown the gardens again.

[21] The Westland Regional Council, which manages waterways, was called in to support WRENIS's efforts.

[22] After two rounds of public consultation involving the Department of Conservation, the Westland District Council, and the Ross Community society, all parties agreed in March 2021 to lower the lake levels and prevent future flooding, with the District Council covering the cost of the resource consent.

[30] From the 1940s until 9 October 1962, a Vulcan railcar service operated directly from Christchurch to Ross twice a day.

A lack of traffic and expensive maintenance costs meant the line was closed beyond Hokitika on 24 November 1980.

Much of the old track bed between Ruatapu and Hokitika can be driven as it serves as an access road for local farmers, and a disused truss bridge still stands north of Ross.