'Now, when the Shotover rose that night, so had all the other rivers throughout Otago. Molyneux came up twenty feet, and every ragamuffin
stream became a stampeding torrent. The waters spread out over that haunted land, and God knows how many diggers lost their lives. For
there was no counting the hordes that spread over Otago, and no one to name the corpses as they rolled up on the shingle bars, some of
them with gold flakes in the folds of their clothing. But most died on Shotover, which had risen thirty-five feet in one bound.' Ruth Park
Photograph taken in 1890 by Charles Kerr. Click to enlarge the photo.
Methods used to obtain gold in the Gold Rushes of the 1800s.
Looking for color.
Panning for alluvial gold
(called placer gold in California)
Found in rivers or alluvial soil, especially in Otago, New Zealand.
Click to check the pan for gold.
The gold can be picked up from the pan by disolving it in mercury. The mercury is then put into a spoon and burned off to leave behind the pure gold.
Trip over a nugget.
and carry it away to the bank.
Click to enlarge the image
Dig for quartz gold
Usually found underground
in 'reefs' or 'viens', especially in Thames, New Zealand.
A Cradle
Click to enlarge the image.
More efficient than a pan, a cradle relies on the prinicple that the heavier gold will fall to the bottom and be caught on a blanket as the cradle is rocked.
A steady stream of water ensures the gravel is washed through, hopefully leaving any colour behind.
A quartz mine at Shotover, Thames, New Zealand which shows how the miners followed a gold-bearing reef as it plunged towards the center of the earth. It required a
considerable outlay to start a mine like this and the individual miners
of the 1800s did not usually have the cash to develop the full potential of their claim. Often they banded together in groups of
4 - 20 men to pool their resources or formed a company to raise finance. Shares in the Gold Mining Companies were traded on
the streets of Thames from 1868 onwards.
A Sluice Box
Click to enlarge the image.
The heavier gold is caught in slats, raffles or a blanket as the gravel passes through the sluice box in a steady stream of water.
Photo from Alexander Turnball Library, Wellington.
Quartz showing a vien of gold.
Click to enlarge the image.
A Sluice Gun
(called a Monitor in California)
Click to enlarge the image.
A powerful jet of water is used to wash away the hillsides and river banks, hopefully releasing the gold-bearing soils.
Gold can then be extracted from the loose soils using a pan, cradle or sluice box.
A Tramway
Click to enlarge the image.
Quartz laden with gold is extremely heavy so a tramway was contructed to get it out of the mine. Then the rails could be extended to take the
quartz all the way to the battery for crushing. A good example of this is the
Una Tramway at Thames, New Zealand.
Click to enlarge the image.
Gold was exchanged with merchants in town. It could be exchanged at the General Store, often for supplies of food, mining tools and in
the case of quartz miners, for blasting powder. The Bank of New Zealand and others on the New Zealand
Goldfields purchased gold from the miners who could keep a credit on record at the Bank, or take the cash if they needed it
for running expenses.
Gold dust and nuggets were melted down and purified by the banks into gold bars which were taken under high security to the nearest
port for shipping to the London gold markets.
A Stamper Battery
Click to enlarge the image.
The quartz had to be crushed or pulverized to release the gold as dust. The batteries could have any number of stampers, in this case five.
This was a small more mobile stamper which could be taken to the mine entrance. Operating the stampers needed a supply of running water so
they were built beside a stream or alternatively, water was brought in using a
water race. In this case, it proved cheaper to bring the water to the battery than to locate the battery near a stream but far from the quartz mine.
This webpage was composed and compiled by Kae Lewis in memory of her great great grandparents Edward
Hooper and his wife Elizabeth Ann nee Bates. Like everyone whose name appears on this website, they also answered the call of the gold.
Edward Hooper arrived in Otago New Zealand in 1861 as an unmarried 20 year old miner in time for the opening of the goldfield at Gabriel's Gully.
Later he returned to Australia where he married Elizabeth Ann Bates in South Australia in 1863. While Edward worked in the
copper mines at Burra Burra, South Australia, Elizabeth gave birth to a son in 1864 and a daughter in 1866. Then gold was proclaimed in Thames
New Zealand in August 1867. With two toddlers and another on the way, Edward and Elizabeth boarded a ship to
New Zealand, landing on the shore at Tapu in the middle of winter, just in time for Elizabeth to give birth to another son in October 1868.
Edward set to work immediately, taking out a Miner's Right at Tapu in July 1868 and another in August 1869. In
April 1869, he bought a share in a mine named Count of Mont Cristo at Tapu with four other men. Elizabeth gave birth
to another son, Herbert George Hooper (the great grandfather of Kae Lewis) at Tapu in August 1869. They now had four children under the age of
5, and against all odds on the goldfields in these days, kept everyone alive and thriving. By 1873, when their 5th child was born, the Hooper family had
moved to Gisborne where Edward worked at the Makauri sawmill owned by William King. They lived in Gisborne for the rest of their lives and had 8 children
altogether. Elizabeth died in Gisborne in 1894, Edward in 1899.
