Today we explore the Nevis Valley
while I tell the amazing story
of Frances (Fanny) Graham.
The story starts in the 1860s
during the gold rush in central Otago.
Join me as we look at the remains
of numerous stone buildings from the gold mining days
and see the perseverance and ingenuity of early pioneers.
My name is Marcus Wyatt.
Join me as I share my passion for 4 wheel drives
and traveling to the remotest parts of New Zealand.
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And here we are,
on a brisk
autumn morning in the Nevis valley.
Next to the Nevis river.
Give you guys an idea of the...what it means to have camp life!
Gorgeous little campsite.
Beautiful!
Farmers up with his dogs.
Like I said, it's quite early in the morning.
Everybody is mainly, still asleep.
But yeah, this was our campsite for last night.
And here the boys
off to the river to see
to try their luck.
They reckon there's gold in them hills!
Not me! Joshua does!
So, lets see if we can maybe find some trace of gold!
Yeah, a little bit of an adventure.
Early European settlers farmed the valley
starting in the 1860’s,
and in October 1862
gold was discovered by prospectors.
Efforts to keep the gold find a secret failed
and so began the Nevis Valley gold rush.
The first Nevis Township
on the eastern bank of Commissioner's Creek
provided services for some 1500 miners.
In 1862 60 businesses lined its main street.
At the peak of the rush in 1863.
The population in the valley were estimated
at exceeding 23,000 people.
At the time,
more than twice the population of Dunedin.
Andrew Graham arrived from Ireland
in the mid-1860s to search for gold.
He sent for his wife Frances (Fanny) Graham
who sailed for Dunedin in late 1865.
Fanny and her three children travelled from Dunedin to Clyde
with the stage coach where she was met by Andrew.
Then together the family walked the rest of the way to the Nevis.
On their eventual arrival in the valley
Fanny discovered Andrew had made
the family a home - beneath a rock shelf.
Andrew built a corrugated iron front
with a door and a window.
Andrew departed the Nevis in 1876
leaving behind his pregnant wife and five children.
At that stage, the family was still living under the rock.
Just after he left a downpour loosened the rock roof
and the family had to leave
finding accommodation in two little stone huts at the Upper Nevis
at the southern end of the valley.
The family survived.
Fanny was handy with a sawing needle
and found work fixing the miner’s canvas hoses
and other odd sawing jobs.
Sam (12) and then later his brother Andy,
worked on mines and got enough money together to build a house.
Five years later, Andrew, the father come back from Australia.
But the two sons met him at the top of the Carrick Range
and gently told him that their mother had been through enough.
So the father turned his horse around -
or had it turned around for him -
and was never heard of again.
The Nevis has a rich Gold mining history
with many a story of fortunes made and lost,
and of relationships that cooled as markedly
as the winter's air in that valley.
The Nevis valley had a community until the mid 1950’s,
after the Nevis Hotel closed in 1952,
that signalled a great exodus from the valley.
The school closed shortly afterwards.
There was a hall and a library, too.
But that has all gone.
Today only the family at Ben Nevis Station occupies the area
so it still feels very isolated.
The Nevis Road is a scenic gravel road
winding through open rolling tussock land
following the Nevis River
for a good portion of the road.
A few river crossings add to the character of the road
plus it has some magic high altitude views.
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This brings us to the end of this episode.
Thank you for watching.