The 1860s goldrush transformed provincial life

INthe early1850s, Dunedin wasasober andquiet little town wherehardworkand thriftwereconsidered the all-important virtues. Stories of an interior rich with gold might be told in thehalfformedstreets, butthiscanny Scottish population refusedto listen to them. Theyhad not migratedtoa newcountry to stakeeverythingonawild goosechase into an unknown hinterlandaftergoldwhich might or might notbethere Deliberately shutting their ears to thesereports, they went about their normal work resolutely discouraging anytalk of goldmines, whichdid notenter into their plans for thenew province

Butwithevery year,the rumoursgrewmorepersistent andfrequent; so much so that they couldnolongerbeignored

In 1861 GabrielRead, ashrewd andstraightforward Tasmanian digger, translated rumoursinto realitywhenhediscovered, near Lawrence,after10hours work with inferiortools,seven of gold.

At first,Read’snews wasdisbelieved, but when it wasconfirmed by an advance-guard of more credulous adventurers—always thefirst on anynew field —the rush began in earnest.

From beingan insignificantdot on the map, Tuapekabecame, for themomentatleast, themostimportant place in Otago. Even whileeyeswere focusedonGabriel’s Gully, otherparts of theinteriorhad been attracting attention. Earl in 1862 twoAmericans setout for theUpper Clutha Valley where, in thevicinity of what is nowCromwell, they kept their cradles at work from dawn to dusk.From the outset,theyattempted to keep their location a secret and, as they learnedmore aboutthe riches embeddedinthe Molyneux, they became all the more anxiousthatno-one should discover theirgood fortune

When, at theend of sixmonths’ hard work in thelonelygorges near Cromwell,Hartley and Reillydeposited 87lbs of gold in theTreasuryinthe middle of 1867, excitementinDunedin reachedfever pitch

Clerks left their desks, shopmen their counters,businessmen their offices, andtogetherthey jostled alongonthe roughand difficulttracktothe Dunstan, an impetuousand motley procession, equipped in most caseswithnothingmoretangible than an optimistic spirit.The severity of thewinter—the worst within European experience,the lack of provisions andtimber, theinaccessibility of theDunstan —not even theseobstacles dampened their enthusiasm in thosefirst days of therush.

Discoveries such as thosemade in Otago in theearly 1860s soon transformedprovinciallife.

Over theface of CentralOtago, formerlyadesolatewaste known only toafew runholdersand surveyors, dozens of canvas townshipsappearedalmost overnight.Roads andbridges were built, trade expandedby leapsand bounds,and wealth beyondthe wildestdreamsof thefirst immigrantspouredinto theprovincialcoffers.Dunedin waschangedintoanew city; handsomestone buildings sprang up everywhere,the streets were improved,entertainment facilities were providedand last, andperhaps most far-reaching, thedistinctScottishatmosphere of thecitywas lostunder the cosmopolitan veneer broughtby thehordes of invadingdiggers. Such prosperityasOtago experiencedinthe mid-1860s couldnot continue indefinitely Within adecade,the returns begantodiminish andfor a time thegold-fieldswerealmost forgotten. Their fall from popular favour wasmerely temporary, as events were soon to show As earlyasthe mid-1860s, a developmentingold-mining techniques had been taking place whichwas to bring, for a time at least, somethingoftheir oldglory to theOtago fields. This wasthe evolutionofthe gold dredge which, towardsthe turn of thecentury,brought CentralOtago into thelimelight once again. Driven mostly by steam, thesedredges were so successful in reclaiminggold that aboomofunprecedented proportionsset in.

Hundreds of companies, some efficient, others lessso, were floated.Possiblythe best known of thesewerethe ‘‘Electric’’ and ‘‘Hartleyand Reilly’’, whose dredges wonanextraordinary amount of gold.Many, however, failed dismallyand thenumber of bogusconcerns whichflooded themarketsooncausedthe bubbleofprosperitytoburst, so that graduallythe gold-fields fadedfrom theforegroundofthe provincial picture.

In this subordinate position theyremain today. There is littleleft nowofthe days when the pioneerdiggers flocked so hopefully to theinterior. Here aruined pipe-line, there aderelictsod cottage, hillsides scarredbytwistingwater-races, conglomerationsoftailings marring thecountryside thesealone remain, signposts of thedayswhenthe gold-rushes instilleda newvigourinto provincial life

In May1861, Gabriel Read collected sevenounces of gold from the TuapekaRiver, Central Otago. The area became known as Gabriel’s Gully and the discovery led to NewZealand’sfirst major gold rush. By the end of 1861, morethan 200,000 ounces of gold, valued at750,000, hadbeengathered from the Otago Goldfields.

The first coal-mine in Zealand wasopened at SaddleHill in 1849. The first discovery of coal in NewZealand had been made fiveyearsearlier in 1844, by Frederick Tuckett at Coal Point, Kaitangata. In 1876 the KaitangataCoal Co. constructed abranch railway linetoStirling andthe first consignment of coal from Kaitangata reached Dunedin on June 19.