Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Dunstan gold rush has captured the imagination of the wider district, with a year-long "party" already under way to mark the occasion.
Promotional groups, community organisations and schools throughout Central Otago, Queenstown, Arrowtown and Cardrona have joined forces to arrange a wide range of activities which recognise the impact of the gold rush on the district.
In return for a reward of 2000 from the provincial government, American Horatio Hartley and Christopher Reilly, an Irishman, revealed it was found in the Cromwell Gorge, near the junction of the Clutha and Kawarau Rivers.
They were reported as saying they found gold wherever they tried and one said "an old woman could scratch more gold out with her fingers than all the miners in the Province could get elsewhere".
The rich find on the Dunstan gold field fuelled more gold fever in Otago, after earlier excitement about the discovery of gold in Gabriel's Gully at Lawrence in 1861.
The Dunstan gold rush began in August 1862 and by November, miners had worked their way to the Arrow and Shotover Rivers.
Preserving and promoting the legacy of those miners is the aim of the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust.
Trust president Martin Anderson is delighted by the enthusiasm for marking the 150th anniversary.
"It's been encouraging to see how many communities want to be involved and the range of activities that have been planned.
"This anniversary is important to us and we want to get the next generation enthused about it too," he said.
The initial gold find by Hartley and Reilly, over two or three months, would be worth $2 million today, he said.
"The Clutha was unusually low that year. It was very cold and they were able to go right out and pan areas that normally were inaccessible. You can imagine the excitement and all those people flooding into the Dunstan gold field, and of course by the time they got here the rivers had thawed and risen."
The Otago gold rush was relatively short-lived, lasting two or three years, but at the peak, in 1863, the gold field's population was 24,000, he said.
"One of the legacies of that time was vestiges of towns, founded on the gold rush, spread out across the area to cater for miners. But of course, the main legacy of the gold continues on, with gold mining still carrying on today."
Many of the gold miners who stayed here and raised families settled on farms.
Julie Hughes has been appointed Gold 150 celebration co-ordinator by the gold fields trust, thanks to a grant from the Central Lakes Trust, which has devoted $400,000 to marking the anniversary.
Mrs Hughes said events planned around the anniversary spanned a year and were gaining momentum, with more added regularly.
"There is a whole new gold fever. This is a special year and it's becoming a huge community celebration. It's obvious how important our history is to the wider community."
Events continue through until March next year, and range from free, low-key activities such as picnics, through to dinners, musicals, balls and the unveiling of sculptures and plaques to mark the occasion.
Schools had also embraced the anniversary and many had adopted a gold theme for work this year, she said.
The trust is teaching pupils the art of gold panning and is also staging a school gold-panning championship, with the final in Arrowtown at Labour Weekend.
