Category: Cardrona River
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The mysterious appearance of bras on a fence
Very few people who have driven through the Cardrona Valley during the last quarter century could have missed the collection of bras on a fence near the distillery. The “bra fence” at is is affectionately known has an interesting history, and an unknown beginning. John Scurr tells the story of spending the night of 31st…
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The crippling flood of 1878
1878 – Jack McDougall senior told his grandson Jack, that before the flood the river was quite a defined, deep river within the valley with spacious river flats. After the floods the river levelled out, rumbled and rumbled over rocks and boulders particularly around Shot’s Creek. The Cardrona Valley had been reshaped by nature and…
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The gold mining years: 1864 – 1910
When passing through the Valley to the West Coast for greenstone, the Maori referred to the Cardrona Valley, as the “Dry Valley”. They travelled along the ridgeline because matagouri and speargrass were so thick in the valley and then they descended where there was less matagouri and more manuka at the dryer Mt. Barker end.…
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The discovery of gold at Cardrona
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.…
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Early European explorers arrive at Cardrona Valley
In the Scottish Borderlands on the banks of the River Tweed lies a small estate called Cardrona. Picturesque and pretty this Scottish vale, three miles from Peebles, is the namesake of the somewhat more dramatic Cardrona Valley in New Zealand’s stunning Lakes District. A wild and mountainous landscape liberally endowed with majestic ranges and deep,…
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Gallery: The gold rush
After the discovery of gold in the Cardrona Valley, hundreds of people flocked to the valley to try their luck. There are very few photos of this era and the gold mining activities which followed it, but below we share a few.