Arrowtown Chinese Settlement    

Gold was first discovered in the Arrow Gorge in 1862. In 1865 the Otago Provincial Council invited Chinese miners from the Victorian goldfields. This invitation followed the departure of thousands of European miners for new goldfields in Westland. The first Chinese miners arrived here in 1866 and the 1880's though it fluctuated constantly. In 1870, a row of 20 huts was recorded in the Arrowtown Chinese settlement. At one time, there were about 50 men associated with a Chinese company working the Arrow Flats. Of course, prejudice towards the Chinese existed here as it did everywhere to some degree throughout the goldfields, coupled with the availability of vacant crown land probably guided the Chinese to settle outside of Arrowtown.

Allthough no recorded specific instances of violence against the Chinese in the Arrowtown area exist, the local district witnessed some the most intense debate for the removal of the Chinese to originate from anywhere within New Zealand. For instance, in 1870, T L Shepard suggested a 50 pound poll tax and heavy duty of rice be imposed to stem the flow of Chinese (OW 12/11/1870: 15). C E Haughton (a member of the House of Representatives for the Wakatipu district) lobbied the government to take action (Hall & Scholefield 1937: 262). While these particular requests were not answered immediately, it was probably through efforts such as this that the initial poll tax was created ten years later (f or a more detailed exploration of poll tax issues, please refer to Chapter 4). The New Zealand government has recently made a public apology to the Chinese community for these acts, and as part of that apology placed a large sum of money into the hands of Chinese community groups and leaders, a large part of which has gone to support the creation and appreciation of Chinese cultural traditions and history in New Zealand. This funding allowed for further restoration of the site in 2003.

The Arrowtwon Chinese Settlement is one of about ten Chinese camps of settlements that developed adjacent to Otago goldfields towns. It is part of the Otago Goldfields Park, which has 21 sites throughout the region; each site demonstrates an aspect of goldfields history. With the recent submersion of the Cromwell Chinese Camp (1987) under Lake Dunstan, the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement is now the only all Chinese site in Otago which has not been substantially obscured by urban development. The settlement was excavated in the early 1980’s and partially restored.

This site was selected mainly because many of the features have been restored and it exists as one of the central tourist attractions anywhere in the Otago Goldfields Park system. The aforementioned site of Cromwell, which was inundated by Lake Cromwell for the purposes of an hydroelectric station, was attracting more than 10,000 person per year by the time it was drowned in 1987. In 2003, the New Zealand government refurbished each restoration, restored new buildings and installed an information kiosk on site to aid in visitors better understanding and appreciating the park. It is hoped that the interpretive website created as part of this thesis will be able to serve in some small way the dedication of the New Zealand government through the Department of Conservation by allowing future visitors to develop a greater appreciation before arriving and to relive the interesting time spent at the site on the internet from across the world. During the first site investigation, I met tourists from Canada, US, China, Japan, India, and Germany in the span of 1-2 hours at the site. Obviously, the heritage of Otago is an attractive topic to people from many cultures and countries, and I believe its maintenance is of utmost importance.

Arrowtown Links

Sample GIS Photos