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Mine Hosts at St Bathans
Mine Hosts at St Bathans
Central to the Thurlow families' history is St Bathans which takes its name from an old family place name of a New Zealand surveyor, John Turnbull Thomson. The township nestles in a small gully at the foot of Mount St Bathans in Maniototo County, Central Otago where gold was first discovered at nearby Welshmans Gully (later Cambrians or Cambrian) in 1862. Until 1866, St Bathans was known as Dunstan Creek.
The Vulcan hotel, St Bathans 2001
(my photo)
The map above is courtesy of Heather Wilson. The map at right, courtesy David Hanger, shows rivers and trails; in some instances the best guess based on many sources, including copies of Dunedin Museum and Arrowtown Heritage Museum maps complemented by trail descriptions printed in several books.
An expedition mounted by the Otago Provincial government the following year was the start of a rush to the area which was further intensified in 1864 by the good fortune of a group of Irishmen from Kildare. By July of that year, St Bathans had grown to 20 stores, four hotels and a bank, together with a population of 1000 people.
Later in the 1860s, the population swelled to 2000 with 13 hotels including the Ballarat, Vulcan (opened by Samuel Hanger in 1869)1, Montezuma and Commercial. The Vulcan was the only one to survive and when fire destroyed the third building bearing the name Vulcan hotel on the original site, the licence and name were transferred a few doors away to the former Ballarat (built in 1882) which was renamed the Vulcan. This Vulcan, built of sun-dried brick, is still serving the public today.
The Cambrians Directory of 1891, in an advertisement under the names of William and John Thurlow as joint proprietors, promoted patronage of the Vulcan hotel in these terms:
"This new and commodious Hotel has been well furnished throughout, and is now one of the most comfortable houses on the goldfields. Large Sample Room. Best Brands of Wines Spirits and Beers. New Stable with Loose Boxes. Under the Charge of an Experienced Groom."
Outside the Vulcan Hotel, May 1896. Courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of NZ, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa.
Over time the Vulcan Hotel has served the local community in various incarnations. There is a suggestion that it began trading under canvas in 1864. Since those early days, the "watering hole" has sustained damage resulting from fires in 1889 and 1931, two further unconfirmed fires in 1914 and the 1920s, and a disastrous storm in 1895. But despite these setbacks, it has always defied the odds re-establishing itself bigger and better after being built, updated, rebuilt and finally relocated. The Vulcan can boast a very chequered history.
In the 1880s John Ewing, a miner, used hydraulic elevators at his Kildare mining claim and the intensive hydraulic sluicing and elevating resulted in the formation of a very large lake which today is about 1km long. By 1902 the Kildare Mine was abandoned and it slowly filled with water. This expanse of water is now known as Blue Lake. Nearby in the higher workings is a seam of coal known as the Burning Pit. Locals say that it began as a fire many years ago and it has been burning continuously ever since, following a seam of coal that dips at an angle of 45 degrees under the township. At times, it simply smoulders, at others, it breaks into flame and the ground adjoining this area becomes very hot.
Today, St Bathans is a mere hamlet - described as a historic town within the Otago Goldfields Park - with its few remaining buildings attracting the interest of historians and tourists alike. The centre of attraction is the crater of startling Blue Lake, which serves as a reminder of the gold rush days when thousands, lured by gold, flocked here seeking their fortune. It might best be summed up in Tod Symons' reminiscent poem titled, appropriately, St Bathans.
Above: The Vulcan hotel, St Bathans 1988
(my photo)
The Vulcan billiard rooms and stables building is all that remains of the original Vulcan hotel which was sited immediately opposite. (my photo)
This stone cottage, restored by the Department of Conservation in 1990, was originally occupied by Mary and Sam Hanger, owners of the Vulcan hotel
(c1869-1888)
Source references are available - please send an email.
A Poem Titled
St Bathans
In the hush of a Winter's evening
In the day's fast fading light,
I stood by St Bathans' township,
And waited the coming night.
And I saw it again in the glory
It knew in the long ago,
In the harsh, raw setting of Central's hills
With their tops white-skiffed with snow.
I heard the ring of shovel and pick,
The clatter of falling stone,
The roar of nozzles, the shouts of men
As I stood by that road alone.
Then darkness fell, the clamour died,
The workings faded from sight,
And only the sound of tramping feet
Broke the peace of a curfewed night.
Then the hills that were dark were dotted
With a thousand winking lights,
From house and cabin and canvas tent
On flat and gully and heights.
Ghost lights of the days of the gold rush
From the homes of its mining men,
Then the lights went out, and the past had gone
Back into the past again.
So I crossed the road to the "Vulcan",
Of many the very last
Of the old time pubs of its golden days,
And a link with St Bathans' past.
And the warmth, the lights and the laughter
Brought back the present again,
But we drank to the days of long ago,
And the old St Bathans' men.
1 There is a suggestion that a Vulcan hotel in some form (tent or shanty) was operating prior to the construction of the 1869 structure at St Bathans, formerly known as Dunstan Creek.
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