Floods kill 25 miners in Central Otago

Approximately 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. It was the worst day of a brutal winter during which an estimated 100 miners were drowned, buried by mudslides or died of exposure.

The worst single tragedy occurred on the upper Shotover River, where mudslides had blocked a creek in the middle of the night. When this temporary dam burst, about 15 miners were swept away in the deluge along with their huts; 12 of them drowned.

On the lower Shotover, near Moke Creek, seven men were killed by a landslip. Three drowned near Arthur’s Point, and another three in a raging creek 3 km from Arrowtown.

Newspapers lectured the authorities on the need for stricter regulation of rushes and an official inquiry into the loss of life. But in reality, little could be done to constrain the thousands of men who had been surging across sparsely inhabited areas of Central Otago for two years now. Winter brought lower river levels that might expose new seams of gold; raging floodwaters promised to do the same. And no one wanted to live a metre further from his claim than he must.

The floods were followed in August by snowstorms that overwhelmed unwary travellers on high-country trails, literally freezing some in their tracks. Central Otago’s rudimentary hospital facilities were soon overwhelmed, and many of the survivers lost fingers or toes to frostbite.

In his official report for 1863, Otago Gold Fields Secretary Vincent Pyke claimed that the loss of life during the winter had been ‘grossly exaggerated’. He did express the hope that in future miners would take ‘more precaution in their movements’ and build their huts ‘in positions of greater security’.

Although Pyke extolled the Shotover as ‘incalculably rich’ and ‘a second Ballarat’, some of the diggers there had already moved on. In August 1863 Captain  Anderson toured the goldfields recruiting military settlers for Taranaki. The promise of a land grant after three years’ service was tempting – and the weather would be warmer.