Arrowtown Chinese Settlement

The Arrowtown Chinese Settlement is one of the most affecting historic sites in the Queenstown area. It sits on the banks of Bush Creek, a tributary of the Arrow River, at the top end of Buckingham Street, Arrowtown's main street. Here, during the Otago gold rush, Chinese miners built a small village of huts, some of them set into the schist cliffs for shelter. Several have been restored and the site is looked after by the Department of Conservation.

The background explains why it matters. By 1865 the first gold rush had faded and many European miners had left for the West Coast, so the Otago Provincial Council invited Chinese miners from the Victorian goldfields in Australia to come and work the area. Over the following decades their numbers grew into the thousands across Otago. By 1885 the Arrowtown settlement had ten huts, at least two stores and a town hall, and by 1888 about 60 people lived here. It was the hub for Chinese mining along the Arrow River, at Cardrona and at Macetown. Life was hard: the miners faced discrimination, few earned enough to return home, and women were almost absent from the community.

What you see today is the result of a major archaeological excavation in 1983. All the known hut sites have been stabilised and five huts have been reconstructed to show how people lived. The most important building is Ah Lum's store, a Category 1 listed building with Heritage New Zealand. It was built around 1883 by a gardener, Wong Hop Lee, and from 1909 Ah Lum ran it as a store and bank until his death in 1925. It is one of the few original buildings still standing. Four corner posts mark the site of Su Sing's store, which was not found during the excavation.

The walk is short and graded easiest, taking under an hour at a gentle pace. The main path follows an old dray track through the centre of the settlement and is suitable for wheelchairs and buggies, though the side tracks are steeper and rougher. Interpretation panels in English and Chinese tell the settlement's story along the way, and willows, poplars and hawthorns grow on the flats.

Entry is free. Pair it with the Lakes District Museum on Buckingham Street, which covers the Chinese miners in its displays, and finish with a picnic where Bush Creek meets the Arrow River, downhill along Buckingham Street.