Small parties of Maori passed through, en-route to the mountains in the west, in search of precious pounamu (Jade), with negligible impact on the landscape. Then, within the space of a mere two years the land was overrun by white men from far-away places. The native matagauri burned and cloven hooves churned the soil as sheep, driven by hardy shepherds, advanced over the plains. Then followed a great flood of men from Australia, Europe, America and China, all hungry for a shiny yellow metal, gleaming as dust in beds of fast flowing glacial rivers like the Shotover and Kawarau. They tramped over the mountains and through icy streams in hundreds, then thousands and the clang and ring of steel replaced the sounds of wind and rain. News of gold travelled fast. Soon they were altering the landscape - digging and sluicing, diverting river courses, building houses and towns. Within a year of gold's discovery, Queenstown grew from a remote sheep station to a bustling town, Arrowtown from a camp by a river to a busy frontier centre.
Today some of the old workings have been preserved as museums. Arrowtown's main street has been restored to make the most of it's old world charm. But out there, in the hills, the evidence of the past is everywhere. Look further then the signposted lookouts and bus stops and you'll find decaying huts, "moonscapes" and strangely eroded gorges dotted here and there with piles of stones.
I had a day to myself and planned to explore some well the known diggings. On the way I took a detour from my planned route and headed up to the up to the Crown Terrace, a massive shelf of alluvial till some 200 hundred meters above the Wakatipu plain. I followed a road which led along the edge of the terrace toward Arrowtown. Along the way I passed ruined houses. I came upon Tobin's Track, an old road from the days when travel by foot was the way of life. The road ended at a farm gate, but there with Arrowtown far below I discovered an otherworldly scene, a clay gorge with a view across the district to distant mountains. Here were the typical washed out canyons and piles of rocks - clearly tailings from gold sluicing.
This was a place stirred my imagination. A mere hundred and fifty years ago the silent rock sentinels that now remain were busy with men, toiling hard, harboring dreams of a better life.
Finding these incredible locations is always thrilling. Capturing the beauty, the otherworldliness and a sense of the history is the challenge. Before pulling out the camera, I walked around the site. There were three troughs that had been washed out of the hill. Eerie columns of rocky clay, large and small, were dotted around and the valley floors held heaped piles of rocks. There were caves in some of the valley walls. A lone sheep appeared suddenly from one of these holes.
With an amazing location like this, things catch your eye and your imagination. It's important to understand what they are, because then you can work at how to compose an image that does the same for the viewer. Instead of just shooting away it's better scout the area and look at it from different angles, discovering all its features and finding compositions that will engage your audience.
This location was difficult. The most outstanding elements were tall columns of clay surrounded by deeply incised canyon walls. The drama in the scene was that Arrowtown was for below and the snowcapped Crown Range formed the background. It was now a matter of bringing these elements together in a compelling way and perhaps adding some interest and the suggestion of story in the shape of a human form.
Remarkable Imagery has tours which take to many of these hidden historic treasures. Spend the day with us and explore the history of the Wakatipu's frontier past.