Gabriel's Gully is a locality in

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, three kilometres from

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

township and close to the

Tuapeka River The Tuapeka River is located in Otago in the South Island of New Zealand. It is a tributary of the Clutha River, which it joins at Tuapeka Mouth between Roxburgh and Balclutha. The Tuapeka's main claim to fame is as the centre of the Central Ot ...

. It was the site of New Zealand's first major gold rush. The discovery of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

at Gabriel's Gully by

Gabriel Read Thomas Gabriel Read (21 August 182531 October 1894) was a gold prospector and farmer. His discovery of gold in Gabriel's Gully triggered the first major gold rush in New Zealand. Life Read was born on 21 August 1825 in Tasmania, Australia. Th ...

on 25 May 1861 led to the

Central Otago goldrush The Otago Gold Rush (often called the Central Otago Gold Rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – ...

. While gold had been found in Otago before, this rush was beyond expectation, with the population of the gold field rising from almost nothing to around 11,500 within a year, twice that of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

at the time.''Whykickamoocow - curious New Zealand place names'' - McCloy, Nicola, Random House New Zealand, 2006 It also stimulated overseas interest in the new colony. In May 1911, the jubilee of the discovery of gold in Gabriel's Gully was held in Lawrence, with around 2,000 people attending, including surviving miners. Gabriel's Gully today is now part of the Gabriels Gully Historic Reserve, and is managed by the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

. It has a Heritage New Zealand Category 1 designation.

References

External links

Gabriels Gully Historic Reserve
Populated places in Otago History of Otago Otago Gold Rush Clutha District Lawrence, New Zealand {{Otago-geo-stub

References

Further reading

External links