Queenstown, New Zealand - History

The Wakatipu Basin offers some of the most spectacular scenery in New Zealand. Within a short distance of Queenstown one can enjoy a variety of natural features. The region is also rich in early gold mining and settlement history. A number of walks follow the early goldfield trails, enabling you to explore the history of the era while taking in some outstanding scenery.

Natural History

The spectacular Remarkables Range (Kawarau) seen beyond Frankton was formed by faulting and folding of schist rock to the extent that many of the rock faces are near vertical. During the last ice age about 15,000 years ago, glaciers covered most of this region. A glacier coming down from the north-west was responsible for gouging out the lakebed (maximum depth 380 metres). Evidence of the glacial action can be seen on Cecil Peak in the form of deep "scratches" (striations) along the mountain slopes. The lake initially drained out through the terminal moraine at Kingston at the southern end. The Kawarau River outlet at the end of Frankton Arm is of comparatively recent origin. Gorge Road now runs through a dry valley, which was once the bed of the Shotover River when it flowed into Lake Wakatipu.

Human History

Maori overlanders first came to this area via the valley systems of Southland and Otago in search of food, fibre and stone resources. They hunted the large, flightless moa and they discovered sources of pounamu (greenstone) at the head of Lake Wakatipu. Expeditions into the area continued up until the middle of the 19th century, but permanent settlement was generally limited to seasonal occupation. A few groups stayed two or three years before returning to the coast.

The Gardens Peninsula was the site of a Moari Pa occupied by the people of the Katimamoe tribe. Maori tradition tells of the first woman to swim across Lake Wakatipu -- a distance of some 3km. Hakitekura, daughter of Tuwiriroa, a Katimamoe chief, asked for a kaueti (firestick) and a dry bunch of raupo. She bound them tightly in flax to keep them dry. Early the next morning, determined to out-swim all the girls in the village, she set out across the Lake. Hakitekura navigated by keeping an eye on Cecil and Walter Peaks whose tops, touched by dawn's first light, "twinkled and winked" at her; hence their name Kakamu-a-Hakitekura (the twinklings seen by Hakitekura). She landed on Refuge Point (Te Ahi-a-Hakitekura) and lit a fire, which is why, so the tradition goes, the rocks there are black to this day.

In 1860 William Gilbert Rees and Nicholas Von Tunzelman came to the area to develop its pastoral potential. They burned much of the beech forest and shrubland to open up grazing land. Later, trees such as Douglas fir, larch, sycamore, willow and poplar were planted to "enhance" the "barren" landscape. Fir has been favoured by local conditions and is now rapidly invading the alpine tussock lands. Today, wilding tree control is necessary to protect the natural landscape.

Thomas Low and John MacGregor discovered gold in the Arrow, which led to other discoveries in the Shotover in 1862. The goldrush peaked in 1863 with the pastoral lease of W.G. Rees being cancelled and a goldfield declared for which he received £10,000 compensation. But by 1865, the Westland goldrush had begun and this saw an exodus of miners, which left two-thirds of the buildings in Queenstown vacant.

Advancements in mining methods led to quartz crushing and by the 1870s gold was being mined from the quartz reefs of Macetown, Mt Aurum and the Shotover River. Up to this point, mining had been of the alluvial deposits. The 1930s saw another revival of gold mining as a result of hardships of the Depression. Modern mining has seen the use of heavy machinery.

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