Athol is a small town in
Southland, New Zealand. It is located on , 55 km south of
Queenstown, halfway between
Lumsden and
Kingston on the
Southern Scenic Route
The Southern Scenic Route is a scenic route, tourist highway in New Zealand linking Queenstown, New Zealand, Queenstown, Fiordland, Te Anau and the iconic Milford Road to Dunedin via Riverton, New Zealand, Riverton, Invercargill and The Catli ...
. Farming has always been very important in the district, though in earlier times gold mining, centred on nearby
Nokomai, was also significant. In recent decades tourist numbers have grown. The
Mataura River
The Mataura River is in the Southland Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is long.
Description
The river's headwaters are located in the Eyre Mountains to the south of Lake Wakatipu. From there it flows southeast towards Gore, New ...
is well known for the quality of its
brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a species of salmonid ray-finned fish and the most widely distributed species of the genus ''Salmo'', endemic to most of Europe, West Asia and parts of North Africa, and has been widely introduced globally ...
fishing, and the
Around the Mountains Cycle Trail, opened in November 2014, has further boosted visitor figures.
Name
There is some uncertainty over how Athol received its name. The first record of it is when the township was surveyed in 1863. Several suggestions have been made. One is that it was named after Harry Athol, the proprietor of the first hotel. There is no early record of a person of this name and there may be a confusion with Harry Arthur, who ran the Athol accommodation house in the 1860s. Another is that it was named after the home district in Scotland of early landowner W. B. Rogers. As Rogers was born in New Zealand and his father came from Cumberland, England, this is not likely to be the case.
It seems probable it was named after
Atholl in Perthshire, Scotland and this might be because the Superintendent of
Southland Province at the time of the survey,
Dr. James Menzies, came from there.
Geography
Athol is 275m above sea level. It lies on a small plain surrounded by mountains, including the Mid Dome (1478m) to the south and Flagstaff (1037m) to the east.
To the west of the township flow the
Eyre Creek and smaller Quoich Creek, and these join the
Mataura River
The Mataura River is in the Southland Region of the South Island of New Zealand. It is long.
Description
The river's headwaters are located in the Eyre Mountains to the south of Lake Wakatipu. From there it flows southeast towards Gore, New ...
about 2 km to the south.
Notable people
*
Patrick Caples ( – 1904, explorer and gold prospector, who mined on Paddy's Alley in the mid 1860s
*
Adam Hamilton (1880–1952), first leader of the
New Zealand National Party
The New Zealand National Party (), often shortened to National () or the Nats, is a Centre-right politics, centre-right List of political parties in New Zealand, political party in New Zealand that is the current senior ruling party. It is one ...
, was the Presbyterian home missionary in Athol in 1910
*
Ack Soper (1936–2020), New Zealand rugby union player
References
External links
Athol - Homeprovides more information on the Athol community (archived)
{{Southland District
Populated places in the Southland Region