Gabriels Gully Historic Reserve

Today you can stand on the spot where history was made and imagine the moment when Gabriel Read saw the "gold shining like the stars in Orion on a dark frosty night”.

At first glance the valley may seem unexceptional but you can marvel at the landscape transformed by the vast scale of mining – the original gully floor was 50 m below today’s level. The miners literally moved mountains.

The physical remains of the mining systems required for extracting the gold include water races, stamper batteries, hydraulic sluicing faces, and mine shafts.

Interpretation panels provide insight into life on the early goldfields, and the changes to Gabriels Gully over the period of mining activity from 1861 until the 1930s.

You can visit the Gabriel Read Memorial and reflect on how the actions of one man changed the course of New Zealand’s history.