The Central Otago Goldrush (often simply called the Otago goldrush) occurred during the 1860s in Otago, New Zealand.
Gabriel Read, an Australian prospector who had hunted gold in both California and Victoria, Australia, discovered gold in a creek bed at Gabriel's Gully, close to the banks of the Tuapeka River near Lawrence on May 20, 1861. Within a year, the region's population swelled greatly, with prospectors swarming from the dwindling Australian goldfields. A second major discovery, close to the modern town of Cromwell in 1862 did nothing to dissuade new hopefuls, and prospectors and miners staked claims from the Shotover River in the west through to Naseby in the north.
The city of Dunedin reaped many of the benefits, briefly becoming New Zealand's largest town, and many of that city's more stately buildings date from this period. The rapid decline in gold production from the mid 1860s led to a sharp drop in the province's population.
References
Oliver, W.H. (ed.) (1981). The Oxford history of New Zealand. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-558063-X
The rush started at Gabriel's Gully but spread throughout much of CentralOtago, leading to the rapid expansion and commercialisation of the new colonial settlement of Dunedin, which quickly grew to be New Zealand's largest city.
The presence of gold in Otago and on the West Coast during this time was known, but the geology of the land was different from that of other major gold-bearing areas, and it was assumed the gold would amount to little.
Māori had long known of the existence of gold in CentralOtago, but had no use for the metal, as they relied on greenstone for weaponry and tools, and used greenstone, obsidian and bone carving for jewellery.
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