Balclutha new zealand

Balclutha is a town in the Otago region in the South Island of New Zealand. It is the capital of the Clutha District. With approximately 4000 inhabitants, it lies on the Clutha River and belongs to a wealthy sheep grazing area on State Highway 1, 80km southwest of Dunedin.

The place name commemorates the Scottish roots of the immigrants: Balclutha (Anglicized form of Gaeilge Baile Chluaidh) = city on the Clyde. Today, it has the nickname The Big River Town. James McNeil in 1852 the first settler of the town. He operated a ferry across the Clutha. His son, John McNeil, later became the mayor when the city was firmly in the hands of the gold seekers.

In 1868 he built a bridge over the Clutha, which lasted only until 1878, when a flood destroyed it. The present bridge was completed in 1935. In recent years it has begun to use the river with dams and hydropower plants.

In the deposits of the Clutha River, its tributaries have at the beginning of the 20th Century found gold. Even today, mountains of rubble are reminiscent of those times. The search continues to the present day for the precious metal.