Bendigo, of Bygone Year.

The remains of an old gold mining settlement are found at Bendigo Historic Reserve, 15 minutes drive north of Cromwell, Central Otago, a place we made time to visit on one of the very few sunny mornings of our 3 week trip around old stomping grounds in New Zealand's South Island. Take State Highway 8 along the east side of Lake Dunstan, turn right at the signpost and drive past vineyards lining the slopes. Central Otago Pinot Noir is becoming recognised as the best Pinot Noir New Zealand the World has to offer!

Here we found the sunshine for a few hours! The stone ruins were anchors to gloriously expansive views across the plains striped with yellow-flowering acacia, dotted with golden tussock and patched with green fields, all backgrounded with the deep grey-blue of Lake Dunstan, and mountain ranges on the horizon - a brilliant blue in the distance and capped with late snow. Layer upon layer of colours! Spring is an excellent time to see Central Otago!

Bendigo, once referred to as Welshtown, was settled by miners from Wales who escaped depressing lives working for a pittance in what were at the time very dangerous coal mines, and travelled 'Steerage' class to new lives seeking alluvial gold in Central Otago's scarcely roaded mountains and valleys. When the easy pickings panned out, the quartz hills were mined by pick and shovel, and later by machinery, creating deep mines still there today.
Hard times and tough work for the men, but often even harder for the womenfolk in those early pioneering days on our goldfields of the late 1860's onwards.

And when the gold was gone their livelihood finished, and they would have to walk away from the home they had built and start a new life wherever they could find work. That resourcefulness and adaptability to whatever harsh fortune they faced forged a tough part of the Kiwi character somewhat missing in today's world of  'Nanny State welfarism' expected today.

Muse a while on their lives when you sit inside the remnants of their tiny stone-walled, canvas-roofed cottages.
These hardy people helped build our country.

N. B. Click on the pictures below to bring them  up in large slideshow format.

                        

Bendigo, of Bygone Year.

So choose your rock and sit by where

the window frames yon view so clear

and muse a while, on lives by here

in Bendigo of bygone year.

Clear your mind, let this place surround

and envelop you with ancient sound

of doughty miners that dig this ground.

We welcome you to look around.

Where crystal waters long 'ere flowed

over yellow treasure Nature sowed,

came we men with eyes that glowed.

We covet Earth's bounty, long bestowed.

Allow your mind through ages span,

when pick and shovel, sluice and pan

chased dreams of gold where waters ran.

Do you not admire this resourceful man?

Slaves to mine-owning aristocracy,

we escaped harsh life of poverty

and risked our lives on distant sea

in hope for better life in far country.

Forever forsaking our home island,

this house I built with my own hands

from rock, and mortar of river sand

to stake my claim in this virgin land.

Fern and tussock line our floor,

the trees I felled frame sash and door,

behind this curtain our wee boudoir.

By here, we could not wish for more.

Can you see that dark-haired girl so coy

with dancing steps and skipping toy?

Her flashing green eyes tease longing boy:

this life is hard, 'tis best enjoy.

Young women age before their time,

those flashing eyes soon lose their shine

hauling wood and water to bend young spine.

The child must fill that washing line.

Childhood is short, work needs be done,

a father desperately needs his son

to toil and dig where waters run.

Survival by here, needs gold be won!

We're glad you came to be with us

by here this hill so glorious

and experience this life laborious

so hard and short but ne'er tedious.

When speaking English at that time, Welsh would often preface the words 'here' or 'there' with 'by'.

N. B. The above poetry style is an exercise to rhyme each line in each verse similar, and remain credible without being forced, and at the same time attempt to convey good information about Bendigo and the hard lives of these early goldminers.

Bendigo, of Bygone Year.

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