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 coun ...

, three kilometres from Lawrence township and close to the Tuapeka River. 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 ...

at Gabriel's Gully by Gabriel Read on 25 May 1861 led to the Central Otago goldrush. 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