St Bathans, formerly named Dunstan Creek, is a former gold and coal mining town in Central Otago, New Zealand. The settlement was a centre of the Otago gold rush, complete with 13 pubs, but mining has since long ceased. It is now largely a holiday retreat due to the preservation of many of its beautiful historic buildings.
The town was named for the Scottish Borders village of Abbey St Bathans by early surveyor John Turnbull Thomson; the Scottish village was the birthplace of Thomson's maternal grandfather.
St Bathans is located 40 kilometres northwest of Ranfurly and 60 kilometres northeast of Alexandra, near the Dunstan Creek, beneath the St Bathans Range and Dunstan mountains.
The area is also rich in fossils with an age range of 19–16 million years ago. The layer in which the fossils are found derives from littoral zone sediments deposited in a large shallow freshwater lake bordered by an extensive floodplains.
The fossil layer has been exposed at places along the Manuherikia River close to the town, and is the remnant of the prehistoric Lake Manuherikia which once spanned 5,600 square kilometers and existed when the climate in the area was semi-tropical.
The most notable discovery to date was the fossilised bone of a crocodile.
The Bone Hunters, North + South Magazine
History
The Blue Lake
A popular summer swimming spot (and winter ice swimming location), the Blue Lake was a result of the gold mining in the area in the mid to late 1800s.
In 1873 John Ewing formed the St Bathans Channel Company, to mine the Kildare Hill Gold Claim in St Bathans. His company constructed a tailings channel and introduced hydraulic elevating to work the claim.
As this work progressed, the Kildare Hill Claim became the site of the deepest hydraulic elevating operation in the world, that would turn a 120-metre hill into a 68-metre hole. Work stopped in 1902 when there was insufficient fall in the tailings channel to carry away the tailings.
By 1905 John Ewing was bankrupt as a result of poor investments in other locations. The Kildare Hill Claim was then taken up by the Scandinavian Water Race Company in that year.
This company restarted operations and worked the claim until 1932, when it was finally abandoned due to the fear of undermining the town of St Bathans.
The Blue Lake is filled naturally from the drainage from the surrounding hills and if you aren’t up for a swim, there is a 2km track that takes you around the outside of it with history plaques along the way.
The tiny town of Cambrian
Just 7km down the road lies another historic town named Cambrian (Welsh for Wales), as the town was originally named ‘Welshmans Gully’.
It is a remnant of a settlement that grew around gold mining activities in the 1860s. The settlement was established near Welshman's Gully and Vinegar Hill, at the foot of the Dunstan Range, following the discovery of gold in the area.
Today it is most famously known for the late Bob L de Berry’s, Cambrian Common Forest. A 12ha forest to wander and appreciate the seasonal displays of colour made by thousands of hand planted bulbs and trees developed over the past 45 years.
The snowdrops start in late July followed by daffodils, bluebells, tulips and purple colchicines that appear in both autumn and spring.
Photo credit to Young Adventuress
Like to know more about the history of Cambrian and its surrounds?
The book Coal Dust to Gold Dust by local, Tricia Batkin can be purchased here.