The tiny town of Clyde is typical of the many gold mining settlements, another story of “boom and bust” once the gold had all gone. Originally called Dunstan, gold was discovered in 1862 in the nearby Cromwell Gorge, and 40,000 miners started digging for their fortunes along the banks of the Clutha River. The name of the town was changed to Clyde (Gaelic for Clutha) in 1864 and many of the original buildings still remain. The Dunstan Hotel started life as a wood and canvas building on this site in 1863. Replaced in 1899 by this two storey stone building, it was a handy stop for Cobb and Co coaches on their run from Dunedin to Cromwell. The hotel has been restored, renamed Dunstan House, and is open for accommodation.
Mr Vercoe offered the services of both a builder and an undertaker. No doubt he was kept very busy with both sides of his business.
Benjamin Naylor’s Store, built in 1870, has survived almost intact all these years. Benjamin served as Mayor of the Clyde Borough for four years, and often entertained the Prime Minister Richard Seddon, who was known as “King Dick”.
Geoff followed Robin on an off-road trek up to the Lookout, which gave us glorious views over the Clyde township, the Clutha River, Clyde Dam with Lake Dunstan behind. We walked across a carpet of wild thyme which released such a pleasant aroma.
Back down the dirt track again and along the road to the dam, checking out a freedom camping spot on the way, which looked promising for a later trip. The Clyde Dam is the largest concrete gravity dam in the country, and is 490 metres wide and 100 metres high. It took a massive one million cubic metres of concrete in it’s construction, and the power-house took a further 200,000 cubic metres.
After all this sightseeing we travelled the short distance back to Alexandra, commonly known as “Alex” . We spent a little time in the Central Stories Museum which had an interesting display of local gold mining and dredging history.
These gold ingots represent the 6.5 tonnes of gold taken from the Clutha River by dredging companies working between Alexandra and Clyde from 1895-1923. Each one of the ingots weighs approx 15kg and at 2011 prices is valued at $900,000.
We are enjoying learning more about the gold mining history of Central Otago. So much of the Central Otago area was mined for gold in the early days, a few made it rich but most miners had a hard, cold, miserable life on the goldfields with little to show for their endeavours.
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