Otago gold rush

Otago gold rush

Old gold workings, St Bathans, Otago
Other names	Central Otago gold rush, Clutha gold rush
Centres	Lawrence, on the Tuapeka River; Arrowtown; Kawarau Gorge; Naseby; Dunedin (nearest major port and city)
Discovery	20 May 1861, Gabriel's Gully
Duration	1861–64
Prospectors	18,000
Persons	Gabriel Read (discoverer) Bully Hayes (entrepreneur) William Gilbert Rees (settler)
Legacy	Historic precincts of Dunedin and Oamaru Dunedin Chinese community University of Otago Otago Goldfields Cavalcade
Current gold extraction	Macraes Mine, East Otago

The Otago gold rush (often called the Central Otago gold rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – many of them veterans of other hunts for the precious metal in California and Victoria, Australia. The number of miners reached its maximum of 18,000 in February 1864.

The rush started at Gabriel's Gully but spread throughout much of Central Otago, leading to the rapid expansion and commercialisation of the new colonial settlement of Dunedin, which quickly grew to be New Zealand's largest city. Only a few years later, most of the smaller new settlements were deserted, and gold extraction became more long-term, industrialised-mechanical process.