Events In History
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7 September 1909NZ’s heaviest ever gold nugget discoveredNew Zealand’s heaviest recorded nugget was found at Ross on the West Coast. Weighing 3.09 kg, the nugget was named the 'Honourable Roddy' after the minister of mines, Roderick McKenzie. Read more...
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29 March 1901Skippers Bridge openedAt 96 m long and 91 m high, the suspension bridge over the Shotover River near Queenstown in Central Otago is one of the most spectacular bridges in New Zealand. Read more...
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26 July 1863Floods kill 25 miners in Central OtagoApproximately 25 gold miners died on the Arrow diggings, north-east of Queenstown, as a result of flash floods after 24 hours of heavy rain that also melted much of the snow from the surrounding ranges. Read more...
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11 October 1861First Cobb & Co. coach service runs to Otago goldfieldsIn its first venture from Dunedin to Gabriels Gully in Central Otago, Cobb & Co. reduced the time for the trip from two days to nine hours. Read more...
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23 May 1861First major gold rush in Otago startsTasmanian Gabriel Read claimed a £1000 reward after finding gold ‘shining like the stars in Orion on a dark, frosty night’ near the Tuapeka River. Read more...
Articles
Maungatapu murders, 1866
The 'Burgess gang' murdered and thieved their way around the South Island during the 1860s. Their most notorious crime was five killings over two days in June 1866, on the Maungatapu track near Nelson. Now you can read their story in a virtual comic book.
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Page 2 – The Burgess gang
Richard Burgess, the gang's ringleader, originally known as Richard Hill, had been transported from London to Melbourne for theft at the age of 16, arriving in 1847
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Page 3 – The crimes
In May 1866 the Burgess gang embarked on a crime spree on the west coast of the South Island that would culminate in the murder of five men on the Maungatapu Track.
Waiuta
Today Waiuta is a West Coast ghost town. But from 1906 to 1951 it was the company town for the South Island's largest gold mine and home to 600 people. The superb photographs of Czech immigrant Joseph Divis provide a fascinating glimpse of Waiuta in its heyday.
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Page 2 – The Blackwater mine
A small prospecting group discovered a gold-bearing quartz reef in the upper reaches of Blackwater Creek, a tributary of the Grey River, on 9 November 1905.
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Page 3 – The town of Waiuta
As more houses were built, Waiuta started to look less like a mining camp. It always had the appearance, though, of a frontier town dominated by wood and corrugated iron.
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Page 4 – From boom to bust
The outbreak of the Second World War led to a gradual decline in the number of miners.
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Main image: Provincial Hotel
The Provincial, Dunedin’s oldest hotel, has witnessed much of the city's history.
