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Mrs C.M. King, Mrs F.A. Thompson, Mr and Mrs C.J. Morris and Mr W. Thompson of Wanaka discuss early Wanaka, the gold rush, saw milling, lake shipping, sheep farming, transporting wool by river rafts, gold mining, and smoking at age eleven.
Mrs C.M. King is prompted to tell her story first and begins with how her parents came to live in the area in the early 1860s. Her father, Caleb had been a sailor onboard the ‘Strathallan’ and had jumped ship at Port Lyttelton, her mother [not named] was twelve when she arrived in New Zealand.
King’s parents met at Waimate before moving to Makarora in the days before sealed roads. There, they raised twelve children in a hut. Her mother was said to be the first white woman in that area. King says she was born later following their move south of Lake Wānaka, to Albert Town.
As far as she can remember King says her father always worked in the timber trade. She tells how when supplies ran-out and rough weather prevented their father rowing the boat 40 miles south, they existed on bread and potatoes. It would take him three weeks to get to Lawrence where basic supplies of flour, tea, sugar, etc… could be purchased.
King says she and her siblings “knew no different”, they were healthy enough and although some supplies ran-out meat was always on hand as they shot wild fowl, including pigeons and Māori hens. She describes the hut her family lived in, and explains how her mother used to climb on to the roof to listen out for her father’s return. Back then it was so quiet, she says the oars of the boat could be heard from miles away.
King describes her father’s work pit-sawing and transporting timber on bullocks and rafts from the top of the river down the Makarora lake side. The timber was sold for fourteen shillings per hundred feet. King fondly remembers attending a little school in Hāwea Flat, though she understands it no longer operates.
Mrs Thompson talks about how her father arrived in Cardrona with the gold rush; he had several very successful claims including one called the ‘Gin and Raspberry’. He married a Tasmanian bride of 17 years. Thompson’s Aunty Belle was her father’s housekeeper until she married his friend, a Mr Russell. The couple started the first hotel in the 1860s. Thompson describes the original wooden structure which housed the post office.
She speaks of Harry Palmer and his wife who had a sail boat and lived on the lakeside. The group talk about the paddle steamer, the [S.S.] Theodore that was built by an American called Ashes Smith and laid in the bay for a year before its engine arrived from England. The engineer was Mr Walker from Scotland who had moved to Wanaka with his wife and three children.
Mainly used for general cargo, the Theodore transported firewood and sheep, running on wood and, when that was not available, coal at considerable expense. With the eventual decline in trade the Theodore fell into the hands of the mortgagee.
Mr Morris explains he was born in Victoria, Australia and arrived in New Zealand as a child in 1862. His father, although a butcher had originally joined the West coast gold rush before moving south. He explains that he grew up on a farm about three miles out of town.
In answer to the question of Clyde’s size at that time, he says it had seven or eight policemen - to which everyone in the group laughs. He describes the [Great Clyde Gold] Robbery in which Constable McLennan and a man named Rennie conspired to steel gold.
He says there were hundreds of Chinese living in Clyde, mostly camping along the river. Old miners were abundant and could be identified carrying a magnifying glass and hammer. Drinking amongst miners was heavy and lasted for weeks at a time. When he first came to Wanaka in 1880 there were about three houses and a store.
The group recall the names of various sailing vessels on the lake. Mrs Morris says she arrived in Wanaka in 1890 on a coach from Cromwell. The settlement was established initially with sheep farming and timber, the first churches were Union and Anglican, and the gold rush came later, lasting a fleeting five years.
The group talk about the timber rafting routes down the Makarora and Mātukituki Rivers to Lowburn, near Cromwell, and the difficulty of navigating through the whirlpool of Devils Nook. They talk about the Campbell family at Wanaka Station, a sheep station run by three sons and their sister, Miss Campbell who taught Sunday school.
Sheep and wool was originally transported to Dunedin by bullocks, then later by horse. Dances were held in the wool sheds accompanied by concertina and violin, and dresses home-made. The significant flood of 1878 is recalled by various members of the group and how “the flat was covered in water”.
Mr Thompson talks of the Blue Spur mine where he was born and its underground quartz formation from which everybody seemed to do well out of.
Mr Morris tells how one Sunday aged eleven, he was on his way to Sunday School with four other children when they stopped to watch men bathing in the sluicing dams. They did not make it to Sunday School as one of the men, Frank Grave pulled out a packet of cigars and offered half a crown to whomever could smoke the whole thing. Mr Thompson spent a day sick in bed before heading to town where he spent his winnings on a pipe and tobacco. He says he has smoked ever since.
Morris speaks of the Crawley brothers and an accident when Tommy was shot by his brother Jack pigeon shooting. The group agree Jack was a real character, and Morris notes people were different back then; when visiting someone’s home you were treated like family. He thinks people were more social.
Morris compares the price of gold back then with now and recalls how he sold his claim for 150 pounds to a company man who floated it for 32, 000 pounds. He remembers a high rabbit population that was nearly eliminated one winter in the 1880s due to an unusual snowfall. He says when he was rabbiting, he would get tuppence a skin.