Wedderburn is a community in

Central Otago Central Otago is located in the inland part of the Otago region in the South Island of New Zealand. The motto for the area is "A World of Difference". The area is dominated by mountain ranges and the upper reaches of the Clutha River and tributa ...

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 ...

. It is located 15 kilometres northwest of Ranfurly, and was at one time close to the centre of a thriving gold and coal mining area. The name of Wedderburn was given to the area by

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand. He lived the last 2 ...

, and is one of the names in his infamous " Thomson's Barnyard", wedder being Northumbrian dialect form of the word wether, meaning a castrated sheep. Wedderburn is on State Highway 85 close to the

Otago Central Rail Trail The Otago Central Rail Trail is a 150-kilometre walking, cycling and horse riding track in the South Island of New Zealand. A pioneering project for New Zealand, the successful rail trail joined the New Zealand Cycle Trail umbrella organisation i ...

. Originally a coaching stop, Wedderburn became a terminus on the

Otago Central Railway The Otago Central Railway (OCR) or in later years Otago Central Branch Railway, now often referred to as the Taieri Gorge Railway, was a secondary railway line in Central Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. Construction Construction of ...

in 1921 and was the headquarters for the

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

during construction of this section of the line. The section through Wedderburn was eventually abandoned due to a decline in traffic. The line was sustained during the 1980s carrying materials for the

Clyde Dam The Clyde Dam, New Zealand's third-largest hydroelectric dam, is built on the Clutha River / Mata-Au near the town of Clyde. It is owned and operated by Contact Energy. History There was considerable controversy when the dam was planned because i ...

, which inundated the stretch of the line between

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

and

Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

, but when the dam was finished, the traffic on the line was below sustainable levels and it was officially closed. Following the closure of the railway, the

Otago Excursion Train Trust Dunedin Railways (formerly the Taieri Gorge Railway) is the trading name of Dunedin Railways Limited, an operator of a railway line and tourist trains based at Dunedin Railway Station in the South Island of New Zealand. The company is a counci ...

and

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 ...

City Council bought the track through the scenic

Taieri Gorge The Taieri Gorge is located on the Taieri River, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is a deep canyon carved by the Taieri River on the middle stage of its journey from Central Otago to the Pacific Ocean, between the high plateau of the Maniot ...

up to

Middlemarch ''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by the English author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. It first appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midland town, ...

to form the

Taieri Gorge Railway Dunedin Railways (formerly the Taieri Gorge Railway) is the trading name of Dunedin Railways Limited, an operator of a railway line and tourist trains based at Dunedin Railway Station in the South Island of New Zealand. The company is a council- ...

Ltd. The remaining track was removed and this section became the 150 kilometres long

from Middlemarch to Clyde for recreational use by cyclists and walkers. This trail passes through Wedderburn and past the Wedderburn

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

. Artist

Grahame Sydney Sir Grahame Charles Sydney (born 1948) is a New Zealand visual artist, based in the South Island region of Central Otago. Since beginning his professional art life in 1974 he has worked as a painter (in egg tempera, oil and watercolour), prin ...

made the Wedderburn railway goods shed famous in his 1975 painting of the shed in an austere Otago landscape representing the economic and social changes brought about by railways. The shed was subsequently removed to a site five kilometres away but later returned following public protest. The shed is now being conserved and has been restored to its recognisable green colour.

References

{{Central Otago Populated places in Otago