Gabriel Read & the Otago Goldfield

Gabriel Read landed in Otago in 1861, and soon went prospecting, making for the Tuapeka Stream where, he had heard, gold had previously been discovered by a man named Edward Peters, or ‘Black Peter,’ a native of Bombay. In the evening of a day in May 1861, Read came to a place opposite the Blue Spur, and prospecting there saw the gold ‘ shining like the Stars in Orion on a frosty night.’ He continued his investigations sufficiently to assure himself that he had dis­covered a rich and extensive goldfield, and then returned to Dunedin to make his discovery public through a letter to the Provincial Superintendent.

The news acted like magic on the city. Men left every kind of occupation at the call of gold. Pro­visions and mining materials were in such keen demand that the shopkeepers themselves scarcely knew how much to charge for them. Cartage to the diggings cost for a time about £90 a ton. Ordinary work in the city was completely disorganised, and some commodities, such as fire-wood, were practically unobtainable.

Major Richardson, the Provincial Superintendent, himself set out for ‘Gabriel’s Gully,’ as the goldfield was called, to maintain order among the diggers, taking with him a mounted armed escort, who returned to Dunedin a few days later, bringing with them 500 ounces of gold. Tidings of these riches quickly spread, and men flocked to Otago from other parts of New Zealand and from Australia. In the months following Read’s first discoveries, he and others found gold at various places near the Waitahuna and Tuapeka Rivers.