Pictorial Parade No. 183 - A Hundred Years From Gold

Short Film (Full Length) – 1966

The Central Otago gold mining town of Cromwell celebrates its centenary in this 1960s National Film Unit documentary. For a fortnight the townsfolk go about their ordinary business, but in colonial-era costume. They also reenact the frontier-style life of gold rush New Zealand. Just 20 years before the film was shot, Cromwell banks were still receiving deposits of gold dust from customers. The Cromwell put on film in 1966 is also now just a memory. While the old main street still exists, much of the town was flooded with the completion of the Clyde dam in 1993.

Gold was found here in the 1860s and for half a century the sound of winches and stampers echoed through stony outcrops where now only the wind stirs the tussock and manuka.
– Narrator