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History of Alexandra

The town was founded during the Central Otago goldrush in the 1860s, and was named after Alexandra of Denmark by John Aitken Connell who surveyed the town. In a two month period in 1862, two gold miners called Horatio Hartley and Christopher Reilly collected 34 kilograms of gold from the Cromwell Gorge, Hartley and Reilly travelled together to New Zealand after meeting in the Californian gold rush. They initially worked in secret to obtain as much gold as they could along the Cromwell gorge. In order to obtain the government’s reward on offer for gold discoveries, they made the site public.

This made the Clutha river and its tributaries famous for their gold. In a short time, 2000 miners had descended on Alexandra. Conditions were uninviting initially with a lack of food, equipment and wood. Many of the early miners were Chinese of Cantonese origin with some suggesting Chinese made as many as 50% of the mining population. During the goldrush days, a gold dredge named the Lady Molyneuxcaptured 1234 ounces of gold in just one week. Goldmining the Clutha was a dangerous occupation. In 1863, there were 37 men who drowned in the Clutha river or its tributaries. Of these, 12 could not be named. In the 1870’s, Chinese miners moved in to re-work claims that others had sold on. By 1889, most of the easy to access gold had been mined and leases were sold for virtually nothing. At this stage, stone fruit orchards gradually took over the local economy.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra,_New_Zealand

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More History of Alexandra

When the river had run out of gold, the river banks were dredged. This was termed ‘paddock dredging’. This continued day and night between 1896 to 1924 and again between 1951 to 1963. The noise was ever present and loud and it also produced significant quantities of dust which plagued Alexandra. If the dredging hit hard rock, it interrupted the power supply to Alexandra and the lights of the entire town dimmed. The tailings from all the dredging now cover 170 hectares in a historic reserve known as the Earnscleugh Dredge Tailings.

In 1878, the Clutha river flooded many towns including Clyde and Alexandra. The Manuherikia valley “resembled an inland sea”. As a result of this event, the Alexandra suspension bridge was constructed between 1879 and 1882 after the bridge at Clyde failed in the 1878 flood. The Otago Central Railway line from Dunedin into Central Otago reached Alexandra in December 1906.

Originally referred to as “Alexandra South” to distinguish it from a North Island town with the same name, the word “South” was dropped in 1867 after the North Island town was renamed to Pirongia. It was known to miners of the day by several names: the “Lower Township”, the “Junction Township”, and “Manuherikia”. (The “Upper Township” was Dunstan, now Clyde.)

Many orchards were destroyed in the 1980s as a result of construction, 10 km upriver, of the Clyde High Dam, which is the country’s third largest hydroelectric power station. The railway line was closed after the completion of the Clyde Dam in 1990 and the lines were removed in 1990. In 2000, the Otago Central Rail Trail was opened allowing mountain bikers and walkers to traverse the rail corridor from Clyde through Alexandra and on to Middlemarch.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra,_New_Zealand

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Viticulture in Alexandra

Grape production is another major industry in the Central Otago Wine Region. The first plantings of grapes were in 1864. Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are some of the varieties that are grown in the vicinity. Alexandra has a number of vineyards that potentially are the world’s most southern. There are more than 25 vineyards in the vicinity of Alexandra. These include Three Miners Vineyard, Grasshopper Rock, Como Villa Estate, Rock’n’Pillar, Thyme Hill Vineyard, Leaning Rock Vineyard, Judge Rock, Immigrants Vineyard, Dunstan Road Wines, Alexandra Wine Company, Drumsara Wines, McArthur Ridge Vineyard and Perseverance Estate. A cycling trail called Pedal for Pinot gives visitors the opportunity to cycle around the cellar doors and sample a variety of local wines.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra,_New_Zealand 

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Climate in Alexandra

Alexandra experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk), that if just 0.6 millimetres wetter, would qualify for an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb). The district is one of the farthest from a coastline in New Zealand and experiences cold winters and even some light snowfall and warm summers relative to the rest of the country. Temperatures regularly drop below zero in winter and will rise above thirty degrees Celsius in the summer months. Alexandra, along with other areas of Central Otago, experiences a near continental climate with a high annual temperature range compared to the rest of New Zealand. The hottest temperature of the year averages 35 degrees Celsius, while the coldest averages -8 °C. In spite of its southerly latitude, it is known to be one of the warmest areas in New Zealand during summer. The hottest and coldest temperatures recorded in Alexandra (between 1971 and 2019) are 38.7 °C (102 °F) (recorded on 30 January 2018) and −11.2 °C (12 °F) respectively.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra,_New_Zealand