Vinegar Hill (Shepherds Flat), St. Bathans, Central Otago District, Otago Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Vinegar Hill (Shepherds Flat)	Hill
St. Bathans	- not defined -
Central Otago District	District
Otago Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

The Vinegar Hill workings are about 3 kilometres south-west of St. Bathans, accessed from the St. Bathans Loop Road, by either the Vingear Hill Road, or Shepherds Flat Road, which join and form a loop. The road crosses the southern most part of the workings, which extend in a zone to the north-west. They are not accessible, as at the time of writing (2018) they are on private property. Accommodation at Lombardy Cottage is within walking distance. The restored cottage was built in 1864, by Thomas Hughes, one of the original discoverers of gold at Vinegar Hill. The sod remains of miner's huts can be seen near the cottage, at the sharp right hand bend on Shepherds Flat Road.

Old workings next to Shepherd and Sailor creeks lie a short distance south-west, also trending north-west.

Vinegar Hill is named after the Battle of Vinegar, Wexford Ireland, and alludes to disagreements, arguments, possibly drunken brawls between the Welsh miners at Cambrians, and Irish miners at St. Bathans in the district.

Alluvial gold is found in deep greenish gravel deposits, containing calcite crystals, marine fossils, and un-named phosphates. The gravels are found at depth, with the upper portion gold poor.

Gold was discovered here by John Morgan and Thomas Hughes in 1874 (far later than other sites nearby), and opened the Never Fail Mine, and formed the Vinegar Hill Hydraulic Sluicing Company. Between 1874 to 1899, they obtained 20 000 pounds worth of gold from the claim.

John Ewing was a major mining identity in the district in the late 19th Century, and at one time was considered the richest man in New Zealand. He had arrived in New Zealand from Scotland in 1863, aged 19, in time for the gold rushes. Four years later he was the largest employer on the Otago goldfields.

He joined the St Bathan's rush (then known as Dunstan Creek) in February 1864, and was a founding shareholder, and miner at the Surface Hill claim. He was also a founding shareholder, and for some time director/manager of the Scandanavian Water Race Company, St Bathans Channel Company, and purchased the rich Kildare Hill claim all at St. Bathans. He also had mining interests in seven other locations in the region, including Vinegar Hill, where in 1881 he spent 10 700 pounds establishing a large hydro sluicing operation, later extended to Shepherds Flat.

On the 21 November 1871, he shot the captured Ah Cheow, in retribution for stealing gold from his sluice boxes. Both Cheow and Ewing were imprisoned, Ewing for eighteen months. A public campaign saw him released after four months, and to prevent accusations of racism, Cheow was also released.

From 1900, exhaustion of gold at his claims, a lack of water, declining returns, land slips, Kildare Hill ceasing due to an insufficient fall to carry the accumulated tailings, and a protracted court case with the Scandanavian Company, saw Ewing go bankrupt in 1905. He tried to resurrect his mining career in Roxburgh in 1907, but the venture failed, and he died in 1922.

L and M Mining re-worked the tailings in the 1990's. Glass Earth was fined $9000 for bulldozing the tailings, and digging exploration pits without a permit in 2010, the New Zealand Historical Places Trust claiming damage to an archaeological site. Despite the court win, the company was subsequently given permission to continue work at the site.

The site, amongst several others in the region, is known for marine fossils -shells, frogs, fish, molluscs, waterfowl. These have been exposed by the 19th Century sluicing. Fossils are found at Vinegar Hill in clean white sand with small quartz pebbles; orange stained sand; clay beds above lignite seams; and beach lagoon silts of green clay.

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References