Our Town History

Nestled in the rolling green hills of the Tuapeka countryside, Lawrence has a long history of welcoming people, beginning in 1861 when the gleam of gold in nearby Gabriel's Gully rapidly swelled the population to over 11,000.

The discovery of the colony's first payable gold by Tasmanian Gabriel Read, Indian Edward Peters and Scottish shepherd's wife Helen Munro, bankrolled the development of modern New Zealand. For a brief moment in history the population of Lawrence far exceeded that of Dunedin, as gold seekers rushed to the area from around the world.

1,000,000 ounces of the precious metal were transported by wagon and horse-drawn coach eventually making Dunedin New Zealand's preeminent colonial city. Eventually eclipsed by Auckland, the city's splendid heritage of Victorian and Edwardian buildings bears testament to this golden era.

Chinese miners joined the gold rush around 1867 settling in an specially surveyed camp on the edge of town, now recognized as the oldest and most important Chinese heritage site in New Zealand. Intensive archaeology has provided the framework for the region's restoration of the Chinese Camp set to begin in 2009.

The Camp is an important stop on the Chinese Heritage Trail which commences with the Dunedin Scholars Garden and concludes with the Cromwell and Arrowtown Chinese gold mining sites. Due to the transient nature of gold rushes, the miners soon packed their belongings and headed off to the next exciting prospect further inland. However gold-mining continued in Lawrence on limited scale into the 1930s. Located at the heart of the golden boom, Gabriel's Gully now provides a tranquil window on the past, and is a favorite destination of hikers, picnickers and history buffs.

The miners may be gone from Lawrence but a legacy of interesting architecture remains, much of which is now protected and under active conservation.