Page 32 - rigneymaster

One Man’s Goldfield: the story of the Horseshoe Bend Diggings, William Rigney and Somebody’s Darling

The story of Somebody’s Darling

Introduction

The Horseshoe Bend diggings are now remembered only as the site of the Lonely
Graves, the graves of Somebody's Darling and William Rigney. Each year a number
of visitors travel to the graves, following the various publications telling their story.

The common story of Somebody's Darling is that, at the time of the 1865 flood William
Rigney was working on a tunnel through a rock spur to take waste water from a
sluicing claim to the Clutha. He is supposed to have discovered the body of a young
man on the bank of the river when checking to see if the river level had subsided
enough to allow work to start again on the tunnel. Rigney is then supposed to have
arranged for the inquest into the death of the unknown miner and the burial of the
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body, erected the now famous headstone and cared for it from then on.

William Rigney on the issue of who buried

“Somebody’s Darling”

The popular story of the grave departs from the truth at this point. William Rigney did
not find or bury Somebody's Darling. The first suggestion that Rigney found and
buried the body appeared in the Tuapeka Times in 1901. Rigney responded
immediately to correct this misunderstanding "The body which is buried there was
found on the beach on the west side of the river opposite the upper end of Horseshoe
Bend in the early days. I don't know the time but it was before I came to the locality in
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1865." [link to original record in Papers Past] The beach to which Rigney referred is
opposite the stone house at the Bend and is known locally as Rag Beach, a natural
collection point for debris coming down the river.

[Link to location of Rag Beach in Google maps]

Who was “Somebody’s Darling”

Death by drowning was by no means uncommon in the Goldfields. It must also be
remembered that deaths by drowning were not uncommon at this time, and nor were
unidentified or unclaimed bodies. Between February 1864 and March 1865 twenty-
eight people drowned in the goldfields district, including four whose bodies were
recovered but recorded as "person name unknown". 52 [link to extract of original
record]

Of those deaths, one stands out in terms of time and location. The Otago Witness
recorded that: "On Wednesday [25 January 1865], shortly before noon, a young man,
25 years of age, named Charles Elm, lost his life by drowning in the molyneux [Clutha]
at Mutton Town Creek. The unfortunate fellow was a resident at the Nevis and had

50 Stewart, R.T Original manuscript used for a radio presentation. Circa 1940
51 Rigney, W. Letter to the Tuapeka Times. Tuapeka Times. 19.1.1901
52 Return of Persons Drowned in New Zealand. Turnbull Library.

© Jeff Robertson 32