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Gold, Gold, Gold

© Philippa Jane Ballantine

Much of New Zealand's early wealth was based on a few raw products, kauri gum, flax, and of course gold. Like the California and Australia, Otago was on the goldminers' map in the late 1800s, a magnet to those who nurtured dreams of instant wealth.

This sudden influx of people and resources into New Zealand, created and broke both men and towns, and made the South Island of New Zealand the powerhouse of the country. Dunedin, the capital of Otago region, experienced a massive boom time, that has never been equalled, and which pumped so much money into the economy that everything else flourished. You simply have to go to modern Dunedin and look up to the architecture to see the legacy of the goldrushs. But most of the smaller towns are gone now, victims of their own success.

Two of the most famous strikes in New Zealand gold mining history were made in Gabriel's Gully in 1861 and Skippers Cannon in 1862.

It was 20 May 1861, Gabriel Read found gold in a gully in Otago, a spot that was to become internationally famous, and would drawn miners from all over the world. He was obviously a fair-minded man, because he was kindly enough to place an ad in the Otago Witness, letting everyone know what he had found. By the 6th of July The Witness was writing

Gold, gold, gold, is the universal subject of conversation. The fever is running to such a height that if it continues, there will scarcely be a man left in the town.

Soon the five kilometres of what was now known as Gabriel's Gully was packed with those come to seek their fortune. And almost overnight towns sprang into existence; ones made of canvas and corrugated iron. By September there were over 4,000 miners at the gully. They were divided amongst two settlements, one halfway up the valley, the other at the foot of the rise called Blue Spur. They were not pleasant places to be through, one miner describing the situation as 'plenty of gold and not much tucker' (food).

Their usual fare was boiled bacon, damper (made of flour and water) washed down with tea. And after dinner, the miners would amuse themselves, with card games, and playing musical instruments; trying to mitigate the boredom and misery. But it was never the less a climate in which social boundaries dissolved. Like mines everywhere, you might find a duke's son rubbing shoulders with an escaped criminal.

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