
Gabriel's Gully is a locality in
Otago
Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, 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; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
at Gabriel's Gully by
Gabriel Read on 25 May 1861
led to the
Otago gold rush.
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 ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...
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. It has a Heritage New Zealand Category 1 designation.
References
Further reading
*
*McCraw, Ernie (2011). ''Gabriel Read of Gabriel's Gully'', Tuapeka Goldfields Museum Society. viii, 152 p. A comprehensive history of Gabriel's Gully and Gabriel Read
External links
Gabriels Gully Historic Reserve
Populated places in Otago
History of Otago
Otago gold rush
Clutha District
Lawrence, New Zealand
{{Otago-geo-stub