Otago
This part of the coast was an important trade link between the pounamu (greenstone) sources in Westland and the main centres of Maori population further north and in the North Island – just as it was later to serve as a node in the goldrush days. While there were several whaling sites along the coast, mass European settlement occurred as part of the broad New Zealand Company programme, with the arrival of a Scottish Free Church contingent who settled Dunedin.
Dunedin was little more than 10 years old when gold was discovered in the south of the province at Gabriel’s Gully, near present-day Lawrence. An unprepossessing monument, depicting a pick and shovel, is all that marks the site of the event that irrevocably changed the course of history for the South Island and wider New Zealand.
Other finds swiftly followed, and a mass migration from the spent goldfields of Victoria ensued, with a range of nationalities pouring into Otago through Dunedin and Oamaru, every one of them in search of their fortune. Regardless of how the individuals fared, Dunedin and Oamaru prospered, as is reflected in their architecture. The magnificent ‘whitestone’ precinct of Otago, and some of the grand old civic buildings of Dunedin, were built with the proceeds of the sweat and toil of the miners.
Today, Otago is something of a cul-de-sac on the new road to riches, tourism. The bulk of the district is still in farm and forestry. Oamaru receives its fair share of visitors en route to the tourist Mecca of Central Otago, and is striving (with some success) to reinvent itself as a destination. Dunedin, however, remains first and foremost a university town; the vital student body breathing life into its old stone.
Dunedin was little more than 10 years old when gold was discovered in the south of the province at Gabriel’s Gully, near present-day Lawrence. An unprepossessing monument, depicting a pick and shovel, is all that marks the site of the event that irrevocably changed the course of history for the South Island and wider New Zealand.
Other finds swiftly followed, and a mass migration from the spent goldfields of Victoria ensued, with a range of nationalities pouring into Otago through Dunedin and Oamaru, every one of them in search of their fortune. Regardless of how the individuals fared, Dunedin and Oamaru prospered, as is reflected in their architecture. The magnificent ‘whitestone’ precinct of Otago, and some of the grand old civic buildings of Dunedin, were built with the proceeds of the sweat and toil of the miners.
Today, Otago is something of a cul-de-sac on the new road to riches, tourism. The bulk of the district is still in farm and forestry. Oamaru receives its fair share of visitors en route to the tourist Mecca of Central Otago, and is striving (with some success) to reinvent itself as a destination. Dunedin, however, remains first and foremost a university town; the vital student body breathing life into its old stone.
