Planning a trip on the Goldfields Trail (Photo: Roberta Laraman)

Take a trip back through a golden era of New Zealand’s history in the South Island’s scenic Otago region. The romance and adventure of the gold rush days is easy to recapture in this rugged landscape which still bears the signs of the goldminers’ struggles to win their fortunes by striking it RICH. Many New Zealand families can trace their first connection with New Zealand from these early endeavours.

Over 140 years ago the young province of Otago was excited with the news of the discovery of gold. The first find was in the Lindis River early in 1861, before the much better known discovery in Gabriel’s Gully at Lawrence in May 1861. In July there were about 150 men at work in Gabriel’s Gully and by September 1861 about 6,000 people in total were on the diggings. Many of these people had deserted their work, homes and families in search of fortune. Otago became a scene of social turmoil, the likes of which had been experienced in the earlier rushes of California, New South Wales and Victoria.

The Molyneux Dredge at "The Junction" - Cromwell (Photo: Jeff Connelly)

Rich finds in the Dunstan (Cromwell Gorge) further fuelled gold fever in Otago. The rush to the Dunstan started in August 1862, and by November of that year, miners had worked their way up into the Arrow and Shotover Rivers. Goldmining transformed the Otago province and Dunedin became the commercial and industrial centre of New Zealand during this time. A known total of 2 million ounces of gold was taken out of Otago by June 1867. This phase of history had a major impact on the young New Zealand economy as first alluvial, then hard rock goldmining and river dredging thrived.