Otautau Early Days:

The Land, Buildings, Surveys & Township -

There have been claims made in some publications, that Otautau was founded and grew during the 1860's, in response to the Central Otago Gold Rush. During the last four years of in-depth research, I have found nothing at all to substantiate these claims, which appear to have originated in a book on the Western Southland area, been repeated in a book which touches on early Otautau history, then copied again and cited in a paper on Otautau in more modern times. However, there are no original citations or sources for this information, and no early sources were found anywhere, that verified it.

While ‘The Otautau’ as it was known, definitely had its first building by 1862 – namely the Otautau Accommodation House (built on the 10acre block where the Flour Mill and later Crown Hotel were situated), it was not until 1872 that the township was surveyed. Interestingly, the original survey map shows only the Otautau Accommodation House, its stables, some adjacent sheds, a nearly sheep pen, orchards and fences within the confines of the original town boundary (south of the bridge on Main Street), no other buildings. I have hand-drawn off the film from the original survey drawings, here:

Pencil drawing created by Suzie Best - Researcher/Historian,
showing buildings in Otautau Township off film of 1872 surveyors map, held at Archives NZ.
(This drawing is an original artwork and is copyright to the owner. Used here by permission)

The early Otautau Accommodation House shown in the drawing above, appears to have been the only permanent building in the township for over 10 years. The first sections within the township that were sold, were in late 1872, not long after the sections were surveyed. The first general store was only built in 1876, so the idea that the town was formed and grew in the 1860's, doesn't seem likely.

Although the area was mostly called The Otautau, another name the now township area went by in the early days, was ‘Otautau Flat’, which encompassed most of the land from Fairfax to Scotts Gap.

 

MAPS: 1 - The larger black & white map above is a combination of the Original Township and the later added portion from the Aparima Hundred, or North Otautau. This map is said to have been left at the old County Council Office when emptied and gifted to the Otautau Museum; Collection Item #2009.03 (thought to have been compiled sometime around 1950's)

MAPS: 2 - The smaller and sepia toned original township map shows some streets surveyed were never built, while yet others changed names. Plan of Otautau Township - surveyed by E. Tanner, March 1872 ; drawn by W.J. Percival, 1874. Archived by the National Library of New Zealand. https://natlib.govt.nz/
"Sourced from LINZ. Crown Copyright reserved."

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NOTE: Most information contained in the above post is gleaned from research done for "Tale of A Town" an early history book of the town that I am currently researching and writing (see: facebook.com/TaleOfATown), also Southland Archives from various sources & Archives NZ. Maps as listed above, from NLNZ and my own archive files.

Above article researched and written by Suzie Best - Researcher/Historian, ph: 027-211-4675 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The content within this blog is Copyright to the author, unless stipulated otherwise in the text (contact on: riverstream@xtra.co.nz)