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

The Horseshoe Bend Diggings

Pre-European

The first sheep station in the area, Oven Hills Station, was named for the numerous
Maori ovens in the immediate vicinity. Ovens have also been found at the mouths of
several creeks nearby. The first European visitor to the district was accompanied by
Maori guides who apparently knew the area.

The early stories of miners travelling up the east side of the river to the Bend refer to
the route as the old Maori track. Clearly Maori parties had used the route often
enough to leave a trail that could be followed by the miners.

The most notable evidence of Maori presence in the area was discovered by Mr G
Rae. Mr Rae, a shepherd, took shelter in a cave overlooking Craig Flat and
discovered a carved wooden feather box. The box contained Huia and Kaka feathers,
both highly prized, and in the case of the Huia, only obtainable from the North Island.
It is now on display in the Otago Museum. The history of the feather box is unknown.

The early Europeans
Despite a major influx of settlers to Dunedin in the late 1840's, it was not until 1853
that the first European explored the Central Otago area and, incidentally, became the
first European to see Horseshoe Bend. The short phase of exploration centred on the
search for pasture for sheep runs and was quickly overtaken by the gold rushes of the
1860's.

Nathaniel Chalmers is the first recorded European to have explored Central Otago.
Historian Herries Beattie obtained a first-hand statement of that trip from Chalmers,
parts of which are reprinted here. Led by two Maori guides, Chalmers travelled from
Tuturau, near Mataura, to Wakatipu, Wanaka and Hawea. By the time the party
reached Hawea Chalmers was exhausted, and ended the exploration, returning to the
coast by the quickest route available.

The tale of this trip, from Herries Beattie's book "The Pioneers Explore Otago" leaves
little doubt about the difficulty of the travel and the problems of living off the land while
travelling over large areas.

"Then toiling along very tired but still getting ducks and eels (it was lucky I had brought
salt with me) we reached the Wanaka Lake. We left the lake and, making a small
korari raft, crossed the river and went on till we reached Hawea. Here I gave in (for I
had been suffering for many months from chronic diarrhoea) and felt too fagged to
proceed further. Reko [one of Chalmer's guides] said that two more days hard
walking would bring us to the Waitaki; but I had had enough, so we sat down to think
out the shortest way to get back. Flax was abundant, so we made a big korari raft,
and the ingenious way in which those two men [his guides] constructed the paddles
was a lesson to me. Gathering driftwood, they selected the straightest, and, lashing
them together, made very fair paddles. We got on the raft, or "mohiki", and paddled
down the river so rapidly that I could hardly credit our speed. When we came to the

© Jeff Robertson 5