Landmark of history
Ewan McDonald explores the history of one of Otago’s most scenic settlements
About now, the photographers for next year’s glossy calendars will be jostling one another for the best shot of Arrowtown’s golden autumn leaves. They used to have to fight for spots along the main street with the postcard and biscuit-tin illustrators, but times change.
This Tohu Whenua, 20 minutes’ drive from Queenstown, has a golden past as much as a gilded present. It is, literally, a tale of two villages: Buckingham St, the stately avenue where wealthy European banks and merchants lived and traded, and below it, the Chinese miners’ humble huts.
Gold built Arrowtown. Jack Tewa, a shearer, found it in the Arrow River in 1862. Soon 1500 miners were camped on the riverbanks; the first shipment of 340kg left the tent town in January 1863, worth $18 million in today’s money.
Most Pakehā miners decamped for the West Coast goldfields in 1865 and the Otago Provincial Government invited Chinese miners to Arrowtown (3500 by 1874, 5000 by 1881, only nine women). Picking over ground that had already been stripped, they were bullied and forced to live outside town. Few earned enough to go home.
Arrowtown is tiny, and the best — well, only — way to see its gems is to amble along the main street and down to the Chinese camp.
Buckingham St is a parade of heritage buildings, restaurants and boutiques, and one of the country’s best arthouse cinemas, leading to the tree-lined avenue of tiny miners’ cottages dating from the 1860s.
The Lakes District Museum is a good first stop, both for its displays of life in the gold rush town and its other role as the local information centre with maps and guides to walking and cycling trails.
As well as the shops and cottages crafted from local wood and chiselled schist, there are more than 70 heritage features within a 1km radius, including the recently restored 1876 stone gaol (key available from the museum, $10 deposit), the gorgeous yellow Mary MacKillop Cottage in the grounds of St Patrick’s Church, and the Mary Cotter Tree, named for the 2-year-old who danced around the sapling to entertain workers planting the avenue in 1867.
Central Otago had several Chinese settlements but Arrowtown’s is the best preserved. Studied extensively by archaeologists in the early 1980s, several huts have been restored, including Ah
Lum’s Store. As a Tohu Whenua, it is free to visit.
The Chinese Settlement is just a few steps from the main strip, across Butler’s Green, tucked beside the river, and a beautiful spot for an easy bush walk and picnic. The Police Hut and Dudley’s Cottage are also well worth a look.
Hey, you’re in Arrowtown, so you might as well try your luck because the gold rush might have been more than 150 years ago, but there’s still gold in them thar waters. Several places hire gold panning gear and show you the tricks of the trade. Tip: try panning after a good rain — gold is more likely to have been dislodged up-river.
Take one of the short walks into the hills behind the town for more reminders of the past: water races, tailings, scoured river faces, abandoned mining equipment and tumbledown remnants of stone buildings. Sawpit Gully has thousands of golden-leaved trees; Tobin’s Track offers panoramic views; a loop along the Arrow River is memorable.
One of the best options is Mahu Whenua Park, also entered from Butlers Green, part of a vast conservation area stretching from Arrowtown to Wanaka, the remarkable gift of music producer Robert “Mutt” Lange to Aotearoa.
Best known as the site of AJ Hackett’s bungy jump, Kawarau Suspension Bridge has a long and intriguing history that has also earned it Tohu
Whenua recognition. Built in 1880 to reach the goldfields, it’s withstood the notorious canyon’s winds for nearly 150 years.
For those who want to tick off all nine of Otago’s Tohu Whenua, the ultimate roadie is the 341km Central Otago Road Trip from Queenstown via Arrowtown to Dunedin (or vice versa), taking in the gold-mining villages, Earnslaw steamship cruise, eccentric inventor Ernie Hayes’ workshop, Larnach Castle and more.
Tohu Whenua: what is it?
Tohu Whenua are places that have shaped our nation and created our defining stories. Te Papa Atawhai DoC, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga created the programme to connect New Zealanders with their heritage and enhance a sense of national identity by promoting significant historical and cultural sites. Launched in 2016, the programme operates in Te Tai Tokerau Northland, Otago and Te Tai Poutini West Coast. The goal is to roll out Tohu Whenua in all 15 regions of Aotearoa.
For more, see tohuwhenua.nz
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