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An interview with Mrs Catherine Dudley of Arrowtown who describes her father's experiences and her own memories of Arrowtown, especially her friendship with the Chinese miners: their behaviour, beliefs and lifestyle. (The interviewer is possibly broadcaster Leo Fowler.)
Born in 1886 she grew up in Cardrona, coming to Arrowtown at the age of 12 in 1899. Towards the end of the interview Mrs Jane Reid joins Mrs Dudley to tell one or two stories that she had forgotten to give in her own interview.
She begins talking about a miner Ah Lum and then moves onto her own family - her father James Austin came to the district in 1861. her mother was working as a cook at Bluespur when she met her father and they then walked to Cromwell and over the Crown Range to Cardrona.
She says when she was a child there were hundreds of Chinese miners at Cardrona and Macetown. They used to get their supplies from Sew Hoy in Dunedin. She reminisces about European miners drinking and celebrating Christmas with the Chinese miners, who invited them for a meal and potent Chinese brandy.
She recalls the names of miners she remembers: Jack or Johnny Reid, Jimmy Reid, his brother who died through smoking opium, Chung Lum, Ah Hi, Ah Pat, Kong Kai, Ah Ji, Say Yook, Ah Gong, Nui, Ah Noon, Ah Sup.
She fondly recalls how helpful the Chinese miners were and how she looked after several of them in their old age. She was with Ah Lum when he died. Nui was nearly 100 when he died - he was a cousin of Ah Lum. She talks about the death of other Chinese miners named Troy and Old Gong and their beliefs about death.
When her children were small her husband was ill and couldn't walk and the Chinese miners came and dug her vegetable garden and harvested the vegetables for her, so she always looked after them in return.
She talks about Chinese food and their preference for black chickens over white ones, and some details about their hairstyle and the traditional pig-tails. She mentions Reverend Don who used to visit the miners.
She talks at length about Chinese gambling, the use of opium and alcohol, with a tale about Ah Lum drinking with her father. She describes how the miners would garden according to the moon and would sing outside when it was a full moon.
She tells a story about Ah Sup winning a raffle and then describes Chinese cooking and their humour. She says they never made any big strikes but they were not 'greedy miners' and were content to just make a fair wage.
Mrs Jane Reid then joins the interview and talks with Mrs Dudley about several women on the goldfields who were known as The Chestnut Filly, Opium Meg and The Bulldog. They discuss the miners' reaction to Halley's Comet and more discussion about Chinese food and cooking.
They both fondly remember the honesty of the miners and Mrs Reid notes that Old Nui almost raised her oldest child, and was very kind to children.