Daily Photo – Lake Dunstan from the Clutha River Lookout

I was heading for Lake Pukaki via Cromwell and the Lindis Pass when I came across Lake Dunstan. It was a mix of dry, barren rock covered hills and lines of trees along the shore in the throws of autumn colour. The contrast really was quite lovely and all along the lake there were inlets and bays where people could launch boats, swim and picnic. Just before arriving at the town of Cromwell, I called in to one of these rest areas to take in the view. It also gave me a chance to read about two fellows from local history named Horatio Hartley and Christopher Reilly. Both seeming to have a restless spirit, the pair met on the California goldfields and by the time they landed in New Zealand, the gold rush party was well underway. Gabriel Read had kicked off the rush in the Tuapeka a year earlier, and while the rest of the world was frantically scrambling over worked claims, Hartley and Reilly were drifting quietly, almost invisibly, up the Clutha River.

As time ticked on, they pushed further into the hinterland, looking for something the others had missed, and It wasn’t until they hit a stretch of the Clutha River that their luck changed.  A brutal, bitter winter had dropped the Clutha River to levels rarely seen. It exposed the black sand, the shingle bars, and deep, rocky clefts where the gold liked to hide. Working quickly, while the rest of Otago were moaning about the “end of the gold era,” Hartley and Reilly were washing six ounces a day (about NZ$14,000 per day) out of the river. They kept it quiet of course. You don’t find a fortune and immediately go shouting about it. Eventually discovered by a prospector with the same idea, stories began to spread of the search for gold up the Clutha River.  

A few days later, the door to the Chief Gold Receiver’s office in Dunedin swung open and two dusty miners strode in and dumped 1,000 ounces of gold on his desk. For a reward of £2,000, they’d reveal the location and on September 23, 1862, the Dunstan goldfield was officially proclaimed, triggering an avalanche mayhem! Suddenly, names like Cardrona, Arrow, Whakatipu, Shotover, and St. Bathans were on everyone’s lips.

As for Hartley and Reilly, neither stayed to see the chaos they’d unleashed, they quietly drifted into the pages of history.