The 1882 transit of Venus, attracted widespread interest as it has in 2012. Two official observatories were designated in Otago: at Dunedin (with observers R. Gillies, A. Beverley and Henry Skey), and at Clyde (Dr James Hector, Director of the Colonial Museum in Wellington). We are fortunate that the Hocken Collections include a letter written […]

20 May 2011 marks 150 years since Gabriel Read discovered the payable gold that led to the Otago gold rush in an area now known as Gabriel’s Gully near the Otago town of Lawrence. This momentous discovery and the gold rush that followed rapidly transformed the face of Victorian Dunedin. This exhibition, which explores the […]

The spirit of the Otago Gold Rush is colourfully captured in Allan Houston’s manuscripts. Not much is known about Houston, but he arrived from Scotland on the Hamilla Mitchell in September 1864 and was for a short time a self-described miners’ representative, practical digger, and storekeeper at Gabriel’s Gully. His manuscript, compiled in 1865, includes […]