Cardrona, Queenstown-Lakes District, Otago Region, New Zealandi

Regional Level Types
Cardrona	- not defined -
Queenstown-Lakes District	District
Otago Region	Region
New Zealand	Country

Cardrona is half-way between Queenstown and Wanaka, and is visited these days in winter mainly for its two ski fields. It also has an extensive alluvial gold mining history in the late 19th Century. Little remains to be seen other than sluicing faces along the eastern bank of the Cardrona River, Branch Burn, and Coes Gully. The Cardrona Company, and Walter Little water races are above the town, as now shallow trenches cutting across the hill side. The 1868 Cardrona Hotel is largely all that remains of the gold rush town here.

Who discovered gold here was not uncovered, but gold was found in the valley in November 1862, and by 1863 300 miners were on the gold field. Initially miners ground sluiced shallow areas along the river, and side creeks. Some claims were very rich, the best said to be the Gin and Raspberry claim. These were located just south of the present hotel, and river flats opposite the town from Pringles to Boundary creeks.

However the news of the West Coast gold finds, led many to leave. Chinese miners took their place, initially up to 600, although a year later there were 200. They re-worked the old claims with much success. In the late 1860's, gold was discovered 2 kilometres further down the valley, the two largest claims here were the Empire, and Banner of War. By the 1870's, the deep leads were being accessed by tunnelling, by syndicates of working miners. The major 1878 floods, led to many of the underground workings to collapse, and most of the claims never re-opened.

The late 1890's saw the dredging boom reach the Cardrona valley. Alfred La Franchi owned and worked a dredge pond at the foot of Tuohys Gully from 1902 until the company was liquidated in 1903. New owners worked the lease intermittently until 1916, when the dredge sank. In 1900, the Tacon's Cardrona, White Star, Lone Star, Willoughby's, Lady Cardrona, Robertson's, Rolling Stone, and Oceanic Steam companies were all building dredges to operate in the Cardrona Valley. Only some got to the stage of completion, most lasted only a year or two, while the Rolling Stone dredge soon sank in its own pond shortly after opening operations.

Some activity occurred in the 1930's, with unemployed men attracted to the area under a government subsidy scheme. Local landowners worked the river flats to a depth of 9 metres in the 1980's.

Due to the lack of surface evidence, the use of the area for agriculture, and in one instance the construction of houses, several of the co-ordinates for locations near Cardrona are approximate.

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