On the 14 August 1862 Hartley in Riley deposited 87lb weight in gold in the Dunedin receiver’s office and the dynamics of inland Otago changed irrevocably. Discovered near present-day Cromwell this initial find brought a flurry of miners into the region. Many miners trekked up to Wilkins to get a safe ferry across the Clutha. On around October 9, Fox and party claimed the gold discovery at the Arrow River.
Associated claimants, McGregor, West and Low claimed the discovery date was October 7 as they had been mining the area for some days prior. Regardless of the date, the discovery spread Gold Fever through the pioneer miners and soon many were on the hunt for Fox’s location. It is known that some who found the secret Gorge on the Arrow River came down Brackens Gully; this would have required an approach via the Cardrona.
It was not until November 9 that any of the passing miners noticed the Cardrona Valley was gold bearing. Michael Grogan and J. Mullins reported the find to Warden Jackson Kindle at Dunstan. On November 21 1862 Grogan’s report appeared in the Otago Witness.
It read…
“On the 9th, while a group of diggers were camped on the banks of the Cardrona, about 10 miles from Wilkins’ station, this young man and myself took a walk to see how that part of the country looked. On walking along the bank of the river upon which I call a slide, where there had been a track formed by the cattle, I being a little farther up the creek, sat down until he came up and he immediately told me that person must have lost some gold, and produced about four pennyweights he had found on this cattle track. We still continued on, and much more about it to return to our camping ground, and the way he showed me though it must have been dropped we could get none. By the appearance of the black soil both of us certainly however, when we came home, and after supper, the matter being well discussed, it was the opinion of all, with one exception, which is by my mate, his name is Patrick May. Then he remarked that he had got gold in California in such black soil; and I also remarked the same, that I had worked ground in California that was very barren.
“On Tuesday the 11th, after receiving some information as to whereabouts Fox was working, myself and mates were ahead of the others. On coming to this place I took my swag and laid it on the bank. There is where the gold was got, said I. Then I walked to the spot and in breaking up the surface the first thing I discovered was a bit of about 3dwt., and that afternoon we nuggeted out 9oz 12 grains, which all hands that were there could see, and I believe all hands were looking on after I showed them the gold.
As soon as they came up, Gentlemen, said I, I wish to get a prospecting claim and here is my authority. So I started on the following morning and acquainted the Commissioner at the Dunstan of it.”
(signed) Michael J Grogan
Grogan added to his report:
“The appearance of the country: It certainly looks remarkably well for creeks and gullies, and I do not know but there is gold in abundance in all those sides. There may be, and there may not be. It is very hard to try the gullies and the gravel is very loose and water very plentiful.”
Dr Hector, the Otago provincial government geologist, whilst conducting an exploratory journey, happened on this party, and soon afterwards encountered the first miners at the Arrow River. He was able to give an eyewitness impression in his report when he returned to Dunedin. The result of Grogan’s announcement was that within seven days approximately a thousand miners were fossicking in the Cardrona Valley. It was a time when men were displaying lemming type behaviour, any rumour or announcement of another gold strike resulted in a headlong rush to be first on the scene. This often had men leaving payable claims on the chance that something better was in the offing. This behaviour also followed through in Cardrona where within a short time the majority had moved on to the Arrow and Shotover goldfields.
The Queenstown Warden’s report made in early 1863 estimated that around 300 miners were making an adequate living in the Cardrona Valley the population was large enough to warrant its own police constable.
The early alluvial surface mining occurred largely in the vicinity around and above the present township, the ground being considered capable of paying wages, but unable to provide the glamour returns that the early Arrow or Shotover fields had given. By the following year the Cardrona was considered to have great potential but requiring considerable work to reach the gold bearing gravels. The Warden warned that unless the miner had sufficient funds to sustain himself for at least six weeks they would be unlikely to be successful.
However, the agitation of the Cardrona miners complaining about the travel difficulties over the Crown Range saw the appointment in August 1864 of the gold receiver at Arrowtown, Mr Schaw as a resident Warden at Cardrona. This was not a victory for the Cardrona residents because government withdrew Constable Morton whom had been serving in Cardrona for the previous fourteen months and left the new Warden without any assistance.
By the following year, Cardrona was once again being serviced from the Arrow. In 1865 the number of miners had collapsed to around sixty who, with good organisation, were able to make above average earnings. The ground was difficult to work, considered futile to attempt mining without proper machinery for drainage and driving. At this time the successful claims had three powerful wheels and pumps, and a large investment in timber and other materials required for blocking out the tricky ground. The Cardrona had attracted large numbers of men, an estimated several hundred during the preceding two years, who opened up claims. Unable to bottom them without machinery these men gave the claims up for duffers and moved on.
The Otago Daily Times in May 1865 reported:
“There is probably no locality on the gold fields that offers so large an area of known auriferous ground as the Cardrona provided always that miners coming there are prepared to undertake heavy preliminary operations, and do not expect even to knock out tucker with a pick and a tin dish.”
It was the realisation that the valley contained a rich lead under ground in the area just below the township that provided Cardrona with a more sustainable future than the initial rush to the surface gold had provided. To reach this gold a more sophisticated form of alluvial, largely underground, mining was required. It needed both capital and labour investment before a return could be made. This was now the basis for Cardrona’s prosperity until the big floods of 1878.
Much of what is known about the early periods of Cardrona is from the writings of two men Richard Norman and the Dane, George Hassing. The former, a son of Henry Norman, became the head of the Norman family, the longest established family in the Wanaka district. Richard arrived with his parents in June 1860. His father gained employment at Roy’s Station. After the gold discovery the Norman family opened a store and hotel on the north side of the Clutha near the present day Albert Town.
George Hassing initiated the timber industry in the upper Clutha in 1860. After the start of the gold rush in the Arrow and up the Cardrona, instead of going mining he created a business ferrying prospectors across the Clutha near Wilkins woolshed at Albert Town. From that time on he lead an interesting and entrepreneurial life around the goldfields, until in 1874 he arrived at Cardrona having purchased a claim near Tuohy’s Gully. In 1903 Richard Norman paid a visit to Hassing at Hendon Bush where he had been teaching at the school for the past 15 years. One imagines the rambling reveries of two adventurous and industrious friends whose lives had been enriched by settling in the early days of the Upper Clutha district.
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First published in “Cardrona – 150 Years in the Valley of Gold” by Ray O’Callaghan.