Clutha Valley Archaeological Project

Clutha Valley Archaeological Project

What

The project was occasioned by the construction of the Ckyde Dam on the Clutha River. The dam was one of three projected for the project but was the only one to have been built. Surveys over 1975-77 in the river valley by Higham and Mason and a second one by Newman revealed a wealth of archaeological sites in the area. The project was jointly commissioned by the Ministry of Works and the NZ Electricity Department and was initially programmed for five years but this expanded to ten. Neville Ritchie was engaged by NZHPT to lead the project and seconded to MWD Cromwell.

The project looked at some Maori sites but the greater part of the evidence was historic from the early mining period. As a project concentrating on historical archaeolgy it was a pioneering one in New Zealand. The project started in a filed where there had only been amateurs working previously, many just collectors, so it had to develop methods and resources appropriate to the area and the materials found virtually from scratch. Many of the sites proved to be the remnants of the occupation of the area by Chinese miners. The project received international attention for its achievements particularity in the field of studies of the overseas Chinese.

As the only archaeologist in the area Ritchie had other calls on his attention and a good number of small investigations were undertaken "-off project".

The project also looked back at the previous power project in the area, Roxburgh, and surveyed the remaining sites along its lake that had not been flooded.

One outgrowth of the project was the ongoing attention to goldfields heritage. Many sites are now preserved and visitor attractions exist at many. The Department of Conservation is one of the leading location managers in this regard.

Director

Neville Ritchie - who was resident for the whole project