Welcome to this DigitalNZ resource story. 

Some images look boring but have fun and interesting stuff once you click on them -don't forget to click on the links too. 

Have fun exploring!

Gold and gold mining

by  Carl Walrond

In the 19th century discovering gold was a way out of poverty. From the 1860s gold rush followed gold rush, and thousands flocked to the fields. But the work was harsh, with days spent digging in cold creek beds. Only a lucky few found riches in the rock. However, the collective value of the gold that was discovered kick-started the young colony’s economy. Gold was the making of early New Zealand.

Ref: Te Ara https://teara.govt.nz/en/gold-and-gold-mining/print

THE ROUND HILL goldfield and its town Canton, named after the home province of most of its miners, boasted a population as high as 500. Visitors described the town as having a narrow street and alleyways flanked by a hotel and stores, tree fern, canvas and slab huts and fantan gambling halls and opium dens.

Thanks to Les McKay, some of this largely forgotten history is being recovered. The retired railways draughtsman, Labour Party candidate and restaurateur bought Midlands Farm near Colac Bay five years ago. He has painstakingly uncovered the workings of Chinese miners, turned a woolshed into a museum, and runs guided walks each weekend.

Midlands Farm is two kilometres east of the site of Canton at Round Hill, both on the lower slopes of the Longwood Range.

Tens of thousands of years ago, when sea levels were higher, fine, waterworn gold was deposited on the beaches. When the seas receded, a thin layer of gold-bearing black sand was left—now sandwiched between the clay bedrock and forest soils.

Ref NZ Geographic https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/southern-gold-rush/

Orepuki and Round Hill, Southland

In the 1860s patches of black sand on the beach at Orepuki, near Riverton on the Southland coast, were found to yield very fine gold and platinum. Sluicing soon won gold from coastal terraces. Other finds at nearby Round Hill proved even richer, and extensive sluicing operations continued until the 1950s. A distinct feature of Round Hill was the Chinese settlement of Canton, which housed around 300 Chinese miners in 1888.

Gold in Southland was also found in the Waiau catchment at Blackmount and the Mataura catchment around Waimumu, Waikaia and Nokomai.

Ref Te Ara https://teara.govt.nz/en/gold-and-gold-mining/print

Primary Source documents such as those found at "Papers Past" can shed light on local understandings of gold

There are many Non-Fiction texts held by the Aparima College library, the Invercargill Library and the Invercargill Library Archives.  Please ask if you need help finding the answers to your inquiry questions.

What machines and systems did they have to make getting gold easier?

At Round Hill they used the water from the Longwoods for sluicing.  Did they use dams, water races, pumps, hoses?

How do you use a gold pan?