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New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero – Report for a Historic Place Earnscleugh Tailings, Earnscleugh (List No. 9267, Category 1) Earnscleugh flat paddock dredge tailings – with the Clutha River /Mata-Au on the right (Kevin Jones, Department of Conservation) Marion Sutton, Heather Bauchop and Sarah Gallagher Last amended 6 April 2021 Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 1. IDENTIFICATION 5 1.1. Name of Place 5 1.2. Location Information 5 1.3. Legal Description 5 1.4. Extent of List Entry 5 1.5. Eligibility 6 1.6. Heritage Recognition 6 2. SUPPORTING INFORMATION 8 2.1. Historical Information 8 2.2. Physical Information 18 2.3. Chattels 24 2.4. Sources 24 3. SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT 26 3.1. Section 66 (1) Assessment 26 3.2. Section 66 (3) Assessment 28 4. APPENDICES 31 4.1. Appendix 1: Visual Identification Aids 31 4.2. Appendix 2: Visual Aids to Historical Information 40 4.3. Appendix 3: Visual Aids to Physical Information 40 4.4. Appendix 4: Significance Assessment Information 45 Disclaimer Please note that entry on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero identifies only the heritage values of the property concerned, and should not be construed as advice on the state of the property, or as a comment of its soundness or safety, including in regard to earthquake risk, safety in the event of fire, or insanitary conditions. Archaeological sites are protected by the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, regardless of whether they are entered on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero or not. Archaeological sites include ‘places associated with pre-1900 human activity, where there may be evidence relating to the history of New Zealand’. This List entry report should not be read as a statement on whether or not the archaeological provisions of the Act apply to the property (s) concerned. Please contact your local Heritage New Zealand office for archaeological advice. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9267. 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Purpose of this report The purpose of this report is to provide evidence to support the inclusion of Earnscleugh Tailings in the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero as a Category 1 historic place. Summary The Mata-au / Clutha River was a significant ara tawhito for seasonal activities of Māori communities. Consequently traditional, cultural, historical and spiritual sites for Māori are embedded in the landscape through the numerous nohoanga, mahinga kai, pā kāinga and tauraka waka along the length of the awa.1 At Earnscleugh, on the banks of the Mata-au / Clutha River near Alexandra in Otago, mounds of stones and gravel that block out the sky create a desolate landscape that shows the massive scale of gold dredging undertaken during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Earnscleugh Tailings have outstanding historic, technological and archaeological significance, representing the evolution of mining (and specifically dredging) and its associated technologies from the early 1860s through to the 1960s. In 1862, Miners Horatio Hartley and Christopher Reilly walked away from a beach on the Clutha River / Mata-au with their fortunes made – lodging 1000 ounces of gold with the astonished gold receiver. As thousands of miners followed in their wake and goldfields became worked out, miners looked for new ways to extract gold. Dredging was one of these new technologies. While spoon and bucket dredges worked the Clutha River / Mata-au in the 1860s, it was not until the 1880s when Charles Sew Hoy developed the steam-powered bucket dredge that dredging boomed in New Zealand. Over two hundred dredges mined Otago’s river and old river channels, recovering tens of thousands of ounces of gold, and transforming the landscape. From 1894, the new tailings elevator, installed on the rear of the dredge allowing tailings to be deposited well clear of the dredge, enabled the dredge to float and work its way through dry land carrying its pond with it. The tailings elevator made ‘dry-land’ dredging possible, facilitating dredging on the low terraces next to the Clutha River / Mata-au, like those at Earnscleugh Flat. 1 Kāi Tahu ki Otago, Natural Resource Management Plan 2005, p. 133 https://aukaha.co.nz/wp- content/uploads/2019/08/kai-tahu-ki-otago-natural-resource-mgmt-plan-05.pdf accessed 7 Apr 2020. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9267. 3 Dredges operated on Earnscleugh Flat from the 1890s through to 1963. The scale of the dredging was enormous – these are huge machines, churning through the river gravels, transformed the Flat into an eerie landscape of tailings, a huge snail trail of gravels marking the path of the dredges. Several dredges operated successfully between the Fraser River and Sandy Point: the Earnscleugh No. 1 (1896- 1909), the Earnscleugh No. 2 (1899-1916), the Earnscleugh No. 3 (1903-1923), the Earnscleugh No. 5 (1908-1922) and the Glasgow (1901-1913) operated at Sandy Point. There was a modest revival in the dredging industry as the price of gold rose during the 1930s. The Clutha Dredging Company’s giant dredge, the Alexandra, worked into the 1960s. It was the last dredge operating in Otago. Earnscleugh tailings epitomise the effect of dredging on the landscape. The dredges left behind them a landscape reflecting the different dredging technologies. The value of this landscape was recognised in 1990 when part of the dredge tailings were included in a historic reserve. In 2015, the tailings are alongside the Alexandra riverside walk, provide visitors with insight into the historic operations of these significant dredges. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9267. 4 1. IDENTIFICATION2 1.1. Name of Place Name Earnscleugh Tailings Other Names Earnscleugh Dredge Tailings Historic Reserve 1.2. Location Information Address Marshall Road EARNSCLEUGH Otago Additional Location Information Access is from Marshall Road, 3 kilometres from Alexandra off Earnscleugh Road. Walking access is available down the true right of the Fraser River and crossing the foot bridge on The River Track. Local Authority Central Otago District Council 1.3. Legal Description Pt Sec 206 Blk X Leaning Rock Survey District (NZ Gazette, 1990, p. 2619); Sec 1 SO 22853 (NZ Gazette, 1990 p. 2530); Lot 2 DP 26987 (NZ Gazette 2005 p. 2650, RT OT18D/1004); Sec 179 Blk X Leaning Rock Survey District (RT 18D/1005, land transfer authorised NZ Gazette 1999 p. 2609), Otago Land District. 1.4. Extent of List Entry Extent includes the land described as Pt Sec 206 Blk X Leaning Rock Survey District (NZ Gazette, 1990, p. 2619); Sec 1 SO 22853 (NZ Gazette, 1990 p. 2530); Lot 2 DP 26987 (NZ Gazette 2005 p. 2650, RT OT18D/1004); Sec 179 Blk X Leaning Rock Survey District (RT 2 This section is supplemented by visual aids in Appendix 1 of the report. Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9267. 5 18D/1005, land transfer authorised NZ Gazette 1999 p. 2609), Otago Land District and the archaeological sites and abandoned mining equipment associated with Earnscleugh Tailings thereon. The extent of List entry excludes the Operating Easement Sec 2 SO 342094, Legal River, Otago Land District. (Refer to map in Appendix 1 of the List entry report for further information). 1.5. Eligibility There is sufficient information included in this report to identify this place. This place is physically eligible for consideration as a historic place. It consists of land which lies within the territorial limits of New Zealand. 1.6. Heritage Recognition Local Authority and Regional Authority Plan Scheduling Scheduled in the Central Otago District Plan, Operative (last updated 10 July 2009), Schedule 19.4, Item 173. The removal or demolition of a building or structure identified in Part A of Schedule 19.4 as an item having a NZ Historic Places Trust classification of Category I is a non-complying activity. Reserve This place is part of a historic reserve. NZ Gazette, 1990, p. 2619; NZ Gazette 2005 p. 2650; NZ Gazette, 1990 p. 2530. New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme This place or sites within this place have been recorded by the New Zealand Archaeological Association. The references are: NZAA ID Imperial ID Site Type G42/167 S143/9 Tailings G42/29 S143/17 Dredge deckhead G42/166 S143/8 Dredge tailings G42/169 S143/11 Sluice tailings G42/170 S143/12 Dredge G42/163 S143/5 Walls/Tailings G42/164 S143/6 Sluice tailings G42/165 S143/7 Dredge tailings G42/221 S143/19 Middens G42/30 S143/18 Tailings G42/171 S143/13 Dredge Tailings Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9267. 6 Figure 1: NZAA recorded archaeological sites at, and around the Earnscleugh Dredge Tailings Historic Reserve (Source: ArchSite database) Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – List Entry Report for a Historic Place, List No. 9267. 7 2. SUPPORTING INFORMATION 2.1. Historical Information Early History The Mata-au is a significant waterway in the southern Te Wai Pounamu landscape.3 Commencing from the interior lakes; Hāwea, Wanaka and Whakatipu wai māori - the Mata- au meanders its way in a south-easterly direction over 338 kilometres to the coast. Weaving its way from mountains to the sea, the river has been used as an ara tawhito by successive iwi from the earliest, Hāwea and Rapuwai; then Waitaha and Kāti Māmoe before Kāi Tahu became the dominant iwi in the late 18th century.4 Battle sites are situated along the Mata- au as were consequential urupā.