Defining a date and place in the Otago gold rush: The problematic journal of George Magnus Hassing and Bendigo

Abstract

In August 1862, the history of Otago, New Zealand, changed forever, when eighty-seven pounds of gold thumped down onto the desk of the Dunedin Gold Receiver's office. The Californian veteran prospectors named Horatio Hartley and Christopher Reilly who brought in the gold were reticent about revealing where they had worked, as they hoped to persuade the Otago Provincial Council to pay them a reward for their find. They had endured months of privation while they secretly worked their claim and the sheer size of their hoard attracted fevered curiosity and speculation. Their news about the Dunstan goldfield and the 2000 pounds they were awarded (conditional on gold receipts in excess of 16,000 pounds being recorded in the following six months, a target which was met in three) created banner headlines and sparked the Central Otago gold rush.