04 Oct Ophir Old
Ophir is a village which ranks alongside St Bathans and Clyde as one of the country’s most authentic and significant settlements from early gold mining days (1860s – 1900s).
The town sprang into life almost overnight when gold was found on Charles Black’s farm in April 1863. In a matter of months, thousands of prospectors occupied the area, which was then called Blacks Diggings. It was shortened to just Blacks, and then renamed in 1875 to Ophir, after one of King Solomons mines.
An estimated 34kg of gold was discovered in Ophir, worth around NZ$2,766,036 in 2021 terms. while that might sound like a small lotto win now, that sort of money in the 1860s could do a lot more.
In it’s heyday, Ophir was the commercial and social centre for the district, with a store, a school, police station and courthouse, brothel, at least 2 pubs and a cottage hospital. But when gold was found on the West Coast, many European miners left, to be replaced by Chinese miners, who preferred to save money and send it home than spend on the town’s other businesses. While there is no documented evidence from the time, many Chinese weren’t made that welcome in the few businesses owned by Europeans, which was certainly the case in Alexandra (Dunstan) and Arrowtown.
The final blow came to the town in 1906 when the Central Otago railway bypassed the town in favour of Omakau (Manuherikea), the river proving too costly to build a bridge for. Ophir sank into near obscurity, which contributed to its preservation, with only a few full time residents and the rest of the buildings being bought as cribs by Bluff fishing families.
Gary Stewart
Posted at 09:58h, 06 DecemberOphir Awesome!