Otago Gold Rush
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The Otago Gold Rush was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – many of them veterans of other hunts for the precious metal in California and Victoria, Australia. The number of miners reached its maximum of 18,000 in February 1864.
Old gold workings, St Bathans, Otago
Gabriel's Gully during the height of the gold rush in 1862.
Gold office of the Bank of New South Wales, St. Bathans, Central Otago
Old mill at Golden Point Mine Historic Area, near Macraes Flat.
Gold rush
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A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Greece, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, the United States, and Canada while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
The fastest clipper ships cut the travel time from New York to San Francisco from seven months to four months in the 1849 California Gold Rush.
A man leans over a wooden sluice. Rocks line the outside of the wood boards that create the sluice.
Swedish gold panners by the Blackfoot River, Montana in the 1860s
Gold prospecting at the Ivalo River in 1898