Cromwell (New Zealand)
| Cromwell | ||
| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 45 ° 2 ′ S , 169 ° 12 ′ E | |
| Region ISO | NZ-OTA | |
| Country |
 New Zealand
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| region | Otago | |
| District | Central Otago District | |
| Ward | Cromwell Ward | |
| Residents | 4th 143 (2013) | |
| height | 200 m | |
| Post Code | 9310 | |
| Telephone code | +64 (0) 3 | |
| UN / LOCODE | NZ CRO | |
| website | www.cromwell.org.nz | |
| Photography of the place | ||
 Cromwell , from a vantage point on the State Highway 8 seen from |
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Cromwell is a place in the Central Otago District of the Otago Regionon the South Island of New Zealand .
Origin of name
Cromwell was named in honor of the British statesman Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).
geography
Cromwell is located 27 km northwest of Alexandra and 42 km east of Queenstown on Lake Dunstan and the dammed part of the Kawarau River . At the southwest tip of the village, the Kawarau River flows into the dammed part of the Clutha River . When the Clyde Dam was completed in 1992 and the Clutha River water level rose, part of the original site sank in the floods. The village is nestled between the further north-west lying Pisa Range and the east on the other side of Lake Dunstan located Dunstan Mountains .
history
Long before the first Europeans set foot in the country, the Clutha River was used as a transport route by the Māori . They hunted the moa and mined greenstone ( jade ) on the west coast. On their way east to their settlements, they used the area around Cromwell as camp .
Among the Europeans who invaded the valley of the Clutha River as a squatter and took possession of land from 1857 , the place of today's Cromwell was originally known as The Junction because it was at the confluence of two rivers. It was the chief surveyor and engineer the province of Otago , John Turnbull Thomson (1821-1884), the The Junction was a new name, as well as many other places in Otago. He made linguistic borrowings from the English Civil War (1642–1649) and so the founder of the English Republic , Oliver Cromwell , was immortalized in the name of this place.
In the course of the gold rush in Otago (1861-1863) came the two Canadians Hartley and Reilly and came across gold in the Clutha River in July 1862 . Already at the end of August, around 2,000 gold prospectors fevered for the coveted metal . But quartz was also found and mined. Thomas Logan (1836–1897) is often mentioned here , who was looking for quartz with his company Cromwell Quartz Mining Company and in a short time found 238 ounces of gold, got rich, which further stimulated the addiction to gold. As the gold rush passed, residents focused on working the fertile land. From 1870, horticulture was developed, which essentially consisted of the cultivation of wine and fruit . In 1878 about 400 remaining inhabitants were counted.
From 1917 to 1921 the railway line, the Otago Central Railway , was completed, which now connected Cromwell directly with Dunedin , the capital of Otago and, among other things, enabled faster access to the sea route via the port of Port Chalmers .
When unemployment rose threateningly in New Zealand with the start of the Great Depression in 1929 , the government sent unemployed men with a pick, shovel, pan and tent to the former gold fields to find a job for them. The pay was more than bad and the work hopelessly hard, so that the people of Cromwell helped the people through some of the bad times with shelter and food.
In 1948, investigations into building a dam to dam the Clutha River began. With the construction of the Clyde Dam in 1977, the rail link between Clyde and Cromwell had to be closed and parts of the city had to be relocated to higher areas. Parts of the historic city were flooded and the city was modernized with considerable new buildings. With a three-year delay due to stabilization work on the dam, Lake Dunstan was flooded for over 18 months in 1992 and had thus decisively changed the appearance and character of the landscape.
economy
Cromwell and the surrounding area make their living from agriculture , the culture of viticulture and, above all, fruit growing , which led the city's advertising experts to promote the city as the “fruit bowl of the south”. In addition to the service business , the tourism sector is becoming an increasingly important branch of the economy for the region. The economic success and growth of the region are also reflected in the population growth , which was 34.4% between 2001 with 2667 inhabitants and 2006 with 3585 inhabitants.
In recent years, the place has successfully dismantled its image as the city of the dam and turned to tourism. The Clyde Dam, built to generate electricity , remains the third largest dam in New Zealand with a capacity of 400 megawatts, but still determines the city.
Infrastructure
Two New Zealand State Highways connect the city with the neighboring cities and regions of New Zealand State Highway 6 , the north of Wanaka Coming Cromwell with Queenstown connects the west and the New Zealand State Highway 8 , that of the southeast of Alexandra Coming Cromwell with the northern regions.
nature and landscape
As almost everywhere in Otago , the tussock grass determines the landscape. In the lower regions of the mountain slopes the myrtle family Manuka ( Leptospermum scoparium ) and Kanuka ( Leptospermum ericoides ) can be found, as well as the thorny Matagouri ( Discaria toumatou ), also called Wild Irishman . Numerous wildflowers bloom in the river valleys during spring and the sometimes dry and very warm summer . The purple thyme and the blue-colored common adder's head ( Echium vulgare ) add splashes of color to the landscape that are widely recognizable.
In the animal world, the endemic beetle species Prodontria lewisi (" Cromwell Chafer "), which only occurs in the area around Cromwell, amazes experts and was the subject of an investigation by the Ministry of Nature Conservation between 1986 and 1997.
Attractions
- Bannockburn Bridge - a structure built from the remains of the pillars of the original suspension bridge
- Bannockburn - remains of a historic gold rush town
- Bannockburn Hotel - an old pub
- The Bannockburn Sluicings' - a hiking trail through the gold-mining landscape
- Bendigo Goldfields - historic goldfields with remains of the old gold rushes , Bendigo , Logantown and Welshtown with old stone houses
- Carrick Goldfields - Ruins of the old gold rush town of Carricktown
- Quartzville - an old mining area 4 km away
- Young Australian - a large overshot waterwheel 7 km away
- Cromwell Gorge - the de Clutha River s gorge from Cromwell to Alexandra
- Goldfields Mining Center - a tourist center focused on gold mining
- Old Cromwell Town - old part of town with some restored old buildings
See also
literature
- Brian Newton Davis : Cromwell . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 ( online [accessed December 14, 2015]).
- Robert Gilkison : Early Days in Central Otago . 4th edition. Whitculls Publishers , Christchurch 1978, ISBN 0-7233-0551-X (English, first edition 1930).
- Cromwell & Districts Promotion Group (Eds.): Cromwell and Districts - A Historical Guide . Cromwell 1993 (English).
- Cromwell & Districts Promotion Group (Ed.): The Cromwell Gorge - An Historical Guide . Cromwell 1994 (English).
- Cromwell . In: New Zealand Encyclopedia . 5th edition. David Bateman , Auckland 2000, ISBN 0-908610-21-1 (English).
- Noel Kennedy, Ron Murray : Early Pioneers in the Cromwell Area, 1863-1880 . 2nd Edition. Cromwell & District Historical Society , Cromwell 2004, ISBN 0-473-06149-X (English).
Web links
- Cromwell and Districts Museum - Cromwell Information Center
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2013 Census QuickStats about a place: Cromwell . Statistics New Zealand , accessed July 17, 2016 .
- ^ Cromwell Community Profile . Statistics New Zealand , May 30, 2003, archived from the original on September 6, 2004 ; accessed on April 1, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Cromwell chafer beetle ( Memento of 15 October 2007 at the Internet Archive ) - Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
- ↑ Sam M. Ferreira, Bruce McKinlay: Conservation monitoring of the Cromwell chafer beetle (Prodontria lewisii) between 1986 and 1997 . Department of Conservation, 1999. ISBN 0-478-21849-4